1. Previous to the Act of Congress of June 14, 1860, the
District Courts of the United States for California had no
jurisdiction to supervise and correct the action of the
Surveyor-General of California in surveying claims under Mexican
grants confirmed by the decree of the Board of Commissioners
created by the Act of March 3, 1851. They possessed no control over
the execution of the decrees of the board.
2. Where Mexican grants were by metes and bounds, or where
proceedings before Mexican authorities, such as took place upon a
juridical delivery of possession, had established the boundaries,
or where, from any other source pending the proceedings for a
confirmation, the boundaries were indicated, it was proper for the
board to declare them in its decree.
3. Where a survey, made by the Surveyor-General of California,
of a confirmed claim under a Mexican grant, previous to the Act of
June 14, 1869, does not conform the decree of the Board of
Commissioners, the remedy must be sought from the Commissioner of
the General Land Office before the patent issues, and not in the
district court.
By Acts of Congress, of March 3, 1851, [
Footnote 1] and of August 31, 1852, [
Footnote 2] the District Courts of the United
States for California, were authorized, on appeal from the Board of
Land Commissioners -- which body was empowered to settle any claim
to land in California that any person might set up by virtue of any
right or title derived from the Spanish or Mexican government --
"to decide upon the
validity of the said claim." One of
the statutes [
Footnote 3]
proceeded to enact for
"all claims finally confirmed by the said commissioners, a
patent shall issue to the claimant upon his presenting to the land
office an authentic certificate of such confirmation, and a plat or
survey of the said land duly approved by the
Surveyor
General of California,
whose duty,"
the act goes on to say, "it shall be to cause all private claims
which shall be finally confirmed, to be accurately
surveyed and to furnish plats of the same." By a third act
-- the Act of June 14, 1860 [
Footnote 4] -- new powers were given to the District
Courts of California, and they now received authority to order
into court "any survey" of private claims, and to decide
on it.
Page 68 U. S. 105
But this act did not in any express terms, perhaps in no terms
at all, extend to surveys made
prior to its passage,
except they happened to be
"surveys previously made and approved by the Surveyor General,
which had been at the passage of the act returned into the district
court, or in relation to which proceedings were then pending for
the purpose of contesting or reforming the same,"
a class of surveys within which the present one did not
come.
In 1852, Sepulveda and others presented their claim to the board
of commissioners for confirmation of a grant which had been made to
them under the Mexican government. In 1853, the board adjudged the
claim to be valid, and entered a decree for its confirmation. The
case having been removed by appeal to the district court, the
attorney-general gave notice that the appeal would not be
prosecuted; and upon motion of the district attorney, in pursuance
of such notice, the court ordered that the appeal be dismissed, and
that the claimants have leave to proceed upon the decree of the
commissioners as upon a final decree. The land, the claim to which
was thus confirmed, was now
surveyed by direction of the
Surveyor General of the United States for California (as one of the
statutes already mentioned directs that in such case it may be),
and in 1859 the survey was approved by him. In 1860, the district
court, upon the suggestion of the district attorney that the survey
did not conform to the final decree, ordered the Surveyor General
to return into court (as the statute of 1860 plainly gave the court
authority to do by a
certain class of surveys) a plat of
this survey.
The court, on hearing, held that there
was error in part of the survey, and decreed that certain
corrections should be made by a new survey. From this decree
the case was now brought here by appeal, the principal question
raised by the appeal being, of course, the right of the district
court, under the Act of June 14, 1860, to order the correction of a
survey made
prior to the passage of the act.
Page 68 U. S. 106
MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the Court:
The jurisdiction of the district court to supervise and correct
the action of the surveyor general in this case is not derived from
the Act of June 14, 1860. That act applies to surveys subsequently
made, with certain exceptions, within which the present case does
not fall. The exceptions embrace only those surveys previously made
and approved by the surveyor general, which had been, at the
passage of the act, returned into the district courts, or in
relation to which proceedings were then pending for the purpose of
contesting or reforming the same. The jurisdiction is asserted
independent of the act of 1860, upon the authority of the decision
of this Court in the case of
United States v. Fossatt.
[
Footnote 5] In that case the
decree had been
Page 68 U. S. 107
rendered by the district court, and it was held that the
jurisdiction of the court extended not merely to the determination
of questions relating to the genuineness and authenticity of the
grant presented, and its efficacy in transferring the title, but
also to questions relating to its location and boundaries; and that
for the settlement of these latter questions, the power of the
court over the case did not terminate until the issue of the patent
conformably to its decree.
Previous to the act of 1860, the jurisdiction of the board and
of the district court, on appeal, was derived entirely from the Act
of March 3, 1851, and the Act of August 31, 1852, and when the
claims presented were adjudged valid and confirmed, the duty
devolved upon the surveyor general to cause them to be surveyed.
"For all claims finally confirmed," says the statute,
"by the said commissioners, or by the said district or supreme
court, a patent shall issue to the claimant upon his presenting to
the General Land Office an authentic certificate of such
confirmation, and a plat or survey of the said land, duly certified
and approved by the Surveyor General of California,
whose duty
it shall be to cause all private claims which shall be finally
confirmed to be accurately surveyed, and to furnish plats of the
same."
The action of the surveyor in this respect was not in terms made
subject to the control of the board or court; it was only made
returnable to the Commissioner of the General Land Office at
Washington, who was invested, by the previous legislation of
Congress, with a general supervision over the acts of all
subordinate officers charged with making surveys. Whatever
jurisdiction the district court may have possessed to enforce the
execution by the surveyor general of its own decrees, it possessed
no control over the execution of the decrees of the board.
It is true that for the determination of the validity of the
claims presented some consideration must have been had of their
extent, location, and boundaries. The petitions of the claimants
must necessarily have designated, with more or less precision, such
extent and location. And where the
Page 68 U. S. 108
grants were by metes and bounds, or where proceedings before
Mexican authorities, such as took place upon a juridical delivery
of possession, had established the boundaries, or where from any
other source pending the proceedings for a confirmation the
boundaries were indicated, it was proper for the board to declare
them in its decrees. And such was the course adopted in numerous
instances. But in the majority of cases the grants of the Mexican
governors were for a certain specified quantity of land lying
within exterior boundaries embracing a much larger tract, and in
relation to which no proceedings were ever taken by the former
government for its measurement and segregation. In such cases, a
confirmation of the claim was only a judicial determination of the
right of the claimant to have a specific quantity set apart to him
out of a general tract. And the duty of the board was discharged by
a confirmation of the claim in the general terms of the grant,
leaving the specific quantity designated to be surveyed and laid
off by the proper officers of the government, to whom the subject
of surveys was entrusted. With the surveys following the decrees of
the board the district court had nothing to do.
The surveys of confirmed Mexican grants, particularly when they
are for quantities lying within exterior boundaries embracing
larger tracts, involve the consideration of various matters, not
properly the subject of judicial inquiry. In numerous instances,
the location of the quantity confirmed, whether it shall be on one
or the other side of the general tract, may depend upon the past or
intended action of the government with reference to the surplus.
Portions of the general tract may be required, and therefore be
properly reserved from the location for public purposes. The act of
1860 creates a new jurisdiction in the court, which cannot be
assumed independent of the act, and under it should be exercised
only in cases coming clearly within its language.
The decree of the district court revising the action of the
surveyor general and correcting his survey must therefore be
reversed, and the court directed to dismiss the proceedings
Page 68 U. S. 109
for want of jurisdiction. If the survey does not conform to the
decree of the board, the remedy must be sought from the
Commissioner of the General Land Office before the patent issues,
and not in the district court.
Decree accordingly,
[
Footnote 1]
§ viii &c., 9 Stat. at Large 631.
[
Footnote 2]
§ xii, 10
id. 99.
[
Footnote 3]
Stat. of March 3, 1851, § xiii.
[
Footnote 4]
12 Stat. at Large 33 § 2.
[
Footnote 5]
62 U. S. 21 How.
445.
