A paper offered as a grant from the Spanish authorities for some
land in Louisiana decided to be incomplete, and nothing more than
the preamble to Spanish grants.
Moreover, there is no evidence that the claimants are the heirs
of the grantee, nor that anyone claiming under him ever took
possession or exercised any act of ownership from 1777 to 1846.
The claimants presented in the district court a paper of which
the following is a translation:
"Don Bernardo de Galvez, Colonel &c. Having seen the
Page 53 U. S. 436
foregoing proceedings performed by the commandant of Attacapas,
Don Alexander Declobet, respecting the possession which he had
given to Peter LeBlanc of ten arpens of front on the great prairie,
with the depth of forty-two, bounded on one side by the lands of
Louis Roque and on the other by vacant lands, and recognizing these
proceedings as regular, and that the concession of these lands can
be made without injury to others, not having been claimed, but the
proceedings acquiesced in on the part of those assisting in them;
approving as we do approve, and using &c. New Orleans, 5th of
January, 1777. Don Bernardo de Galvez, by order of his Lordship,
Don Joseph Foucher."
"
Register's Office, New Orleans, La."
"I, Louis St. Martin Register of the Land Office at New Orleans,
Louisiana, do hereby certify the foregoing document to be a true
copy, taken from one of the records of my office, entitled 'Libro 1
of French and Spanish Concessions.'"
"In faith whereof I hereunto subscribe my name, this 18th day of
May, 1849."
"[Signed] L. ST. MARTIN,
Register"
Upon this document the district court confirmed the claim, and
the United States appealed.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
This claim appears to be a groundless one. The paper produced is
a copy, certified by the Register of the Land Office at New Orleans
to have been taken from one of the records of his office entitled
"Libro 1 of French and Spanish Concessions." The paper as certified
is nothing more than the preamble usually inserted in Spanish
grants where a perfect and absolute title is intended to be given,
as contradistinguished from the order of survey or first
concession. And at the end of this preamble is an "&c.,"
without any words of concession or grant, and this &c. is
followed by the date, New Orleans, 5 January, 1777, and the names
of Don Bernardo de Galvez, by order of his Lordship, Don Joseph
Foucher.
It is not suggested that there has been any mutilation of the
record, and the paper certified manifestly contains all of the
instrument that was ever written in the record book, and upon the
face of it, from the manner in which it terminates with an
"&c." at the place where the granting clause usually begins,
and from
Page 53 U. S. 437
the unusual manner, also, in which the names of Galvez and
Foucher are arranged in the certified copy it looks much more like
a formula written in a record book for the direction of clerks in
making out for signature an absolute and perfect grant than like a
paper intended to convey the title to land. And, moreover, there is
no evidence that the petitioners are the heirs of Pierre LeBlanc
named in the paper which is claimed to have been a grant to him, no
evidence that he or those claiming under him ever took possession
or exercised any act of ownership over it, and no evidence that any
right or title was ever claimed to it by Pierre LeBlanc or anyone
claiming under him from the year 1777, when the paper bears date,
down to June 16, 1846, when this petition was filed, being a period
of sixty-nine years.
The decree of the district court must be
Reversed and a mandate issued directing the petition to be
dismissed.
Order
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record
from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern
District of Louisiana, and was argued by counsel. On consideration
whereof, it is now here ordered, adjudged and decreed by this Court
that the decree of the said district court in this cause be and the
same is hereby reversed and annulled, and that this cause be and
the same is hereby remanded to the said district court with
directions to dismiss the petition of the claimants.
