A Florida land claim. On a petition from Pedro Miranda, stating
services performed by him for Spain, Governor White, the Governor
of East Florida, on 26 November, 1810, made a grant to him of eight
leagues square, or three hundred and sixty-eight thousand six
hundred and forty acres of land on the waters of Hillsborough and
Tampa Bays, in the Eastern District of Florida. No survey was made
under this grant while Florida remained a province of Spain; nor
was any attempt made to occupy or survey the land, until after the
cession of Florida to the United States. In 1821, it was alleged
that a survey was made by a surveyor of East Florida.
Held
that the grant was void, no land having been severed from the
public domain previous to 24 January, 1818, and because the calls
of the grant are too indefinite for locality to be given to
them.
Cited,
Percheman's
Case, 7 Pet. 51;
Kingsley's
Case, 12 Pet. 476;
Arredondo's
Case, 6 Pet. 741;
Forbes' Case, 15 Pet.
182;
Buyck's Case,
15 Pet. 215;
O'Harra's
Case, 15 Pet. 275;
Delespine's
Case, 15 Pet. 319.
The settled doctrine of the Supreme Court in respect to Florida
grants is that grants embracing a wide extent of country, or with a
large area of natural or artificial boundaries, and which granted
lands were not surveyed before 24 January, 1918, and which are
without such designation as will give a place of beginning for a
survey, are not lands withdrawn from the mass of vacant lands ceded
to the United States in Florida, and are void, as well on that
account as for being so uncertain that locality cannot be given to
them.
Pedro Miranda and others, on 9 May 1829, presented a petition to
the Superior Court of East Florida, asking for the confirmation of
a grant from the Spanish government of Florida, for eight leagues
square, equal to 368,640 acres of land, situate on the waters of
Hillsborough and Tampa Bays, in the Eastern District of the
Territory of Florida. The petition of Pedro Miranda and the grant
are as follows:
"
Translation"
"His Excellency the governor:"
"Don Pedro Miranda, second pilot of the launch of the bar of
this port, with the most profound respect, represents to your
Excellency that he has the honor to serve his Catholic Majesty
(whom
Page 41 U. S. 154
may God preserve!) from the year 1798, when he was employed as
rower of the said launch, in which capacity he remained until he
was promoted to his present post, on account of his known merits
and experience. Moreover, your Excellency well knows the veracity
of his good conduct, fidelity and devotion to the service of his
majesty, of which he has given proofs in various expeditions,
which, by order of his government, your petitioner undertook along
the watercourses of this province, when it was overrun by rebels,
and as for so distinguished services, and others rendered to the
satisfaction of your Excellency, your petitioner has not received
any compensation whatever, and as he finds himself in a penurious
condition, and without any other expectations but from the
protection of your Excellency; therefore he supplicates your
Excellency to be pleased, in remuneration of all which he has
represented, and in consideration of his present destitute
situation, to grant to him in absolute property, a square of eight
leagues in the royal lands which are found on the waters of
Hillsborough and Tampa Bays, in this province, in virtue of royal
orders on the subject of granting lands gratuitously to Spanish
subjects, which favor your petitioner hopes to receive from the
justice of your Excellency."
"St. Augustine of Florida, 19 November 1810."
"
DECREE"
"St. Augustine of Florida, 26 November 1810"
"The merits and services alleged by this party being well known
to this government, I grant to him, in the terms which he solicits,
the said quantity of land in the places which he indicates, without
prejudice to a third party, and as a proof of this grant to be
shown at all times, let a certified copy of this proceeding be
issued to him from the secretary's office for his security."
"WHITE"
The petition to the court stated that said tract or parcel of
land had been divided and laid off into townships of 23,040 acres
each; that the said division of the said land into townships as
aforesaid was made by one Charles Vignolles in the year 1821, the
said Charles Vignolles then being a surveyor of East Florida.
After hearing testimony and arguments of counsel, the Superior
Court of East Florida gave a
pro forma decree in favor
of
Page 41 U. S. 155
the petitioners for 46,080 acres, and the United States and the
claimants prosecuted this appeal.
WAYNE, JUSTICE, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The defendants in error claim title to a tract of land under a
grant made by Governor White on 26 November 1810, to Don Pedro
Miranda, containing eight leagues square, or 368,640 acres on the
waters of Hillsborough and Tampa Bays in the Eastern District of
the Territory of Florida.
Miranda's petition for the grant and the grant are in pages
153-154. After a recital of services, he asks as a remuneration and
in consideration of his destitute condition that there may be
granted to him in absolute property a square of eight leagues in
the royal lands which are found on the waters of Hillsborough and
Tampa Bays in virtue of royal orders on the subject of granting
lands gratuitously to Spanish subjects. The governor, in reply,
acknowledges his services and grants to him "in the terms as he
solicits, the quantity of land in the places which he indicates,
without prejudice to a third party," and directs "a certified copy
of the proceeding to be issued to him from the secretary's
Page 41 U. S. 156
office for his security." It does not appear that such certified
copy was given to him, but Aguilar, who was secretary when the
grant was made, deposes that he remembers that the grant was made
to Miranda for his deserts and services on the shores of
Hillsborough and Tampa Bays; "that it was a grant of eight leagues
square or thereabouts," and he further says the handwriting to the
grant is the legitimate signature of Governor White. The district
attorney admits that he has seen in the office of the archives of
Florida a document of which that introduced by the complainants is
a copy.
No survey, however, of the land was made whilst Florida was a
province of Spain. Nor was any attempt made by the grantee or by
any agent or person claiming under him, to occupy any land under
this grant, or to make a survey of it, until after the Floridas had
been ceded to the United States. The complainants allege that one
was made in 1821 by Charles Vignolles, a surveyor of East Florida,
and this survey is the first assertion of right in the premises by
the grantee. After this survey was made, the grantee conveyed
portions of the land between the years 1822 and 1828 to the
claimants associated with him in this suit. They allege that a
claim for the whole of the lands was submitted to the examination
of the commissioners appointed under the Act of Congress 3 March
1823, 3 Stat. 754, entitled an act for ascertaining claims and
titles to lands in the Territory of Florida. The survey made by
Vignolles, however, is not in the record, nor does it seem to have
been in evidence, on the trial of the cause in the court below.
By agreement between the solicitors and counsel of the parties,
a
pro forma decree was given for 64,080 acres of land, in
favor of the complainants, situated on the waters of the Bays of
Hillsborough and Tampa, and from this decree, the cause has been
brought to this Court by appeal by the United States.
We do not think it necessary to discuss, in detail, the points
urged in argument for and against the confirmation of this
grant.
Two considerations are decisive of its invalidity.
The grant is void, no land having been severed from the public
domain, previous to 24 January, 1818, and because the calls of the
grant are too indefinite for locality to be given to them.
Page 41 U. S. 157
The petitioner asks for "a square of eight leagues, in the royal
lands which are found on the waters of Hillsborough and Tampa
Bays." The grant is, "I grant to him, in the terms which he
solicits, the said quantity of land, in the places which he
indicates."
Tampa, or Espiritu Santa, as it was known or called before
Florida was ceded to the United States, is the largest on the Gulf
of Mexico. It is at least forty miles long, and in one or more
places, from thirty forty miles broad. Hillsborough River empties
into it from the north. To the southeast of Hillsborough River are
the Indian and Alafia Rivers. Lower down the bay, on the same side,
is Manali River, from sixteen to twenty miles wide at its mouth,
and Oyster River is twenty miles below the Manali. The eastern part
of this bay was by the British called Hillsborough, and the little
bay attached to the north side, Tampa. The Little Tampa is an
elliptical basin, about ten miles in diameter. There are many
islands in the bay, especially on the western part and at its
mouth, and Tampa extends to Sarragossa Bay. Williams' Territory of
Florida, page 24.
Where, in this extensive area, shall this grant be located?
Shall it be on either of the rivers emptying into the bay? On the
eastern or western side of the bay? At its head, or at its mouth?
Shall it be a contiguous body of land on Hillsborough bay, or on
Little Tampa, or shall it be divided in equal parts on both? If the
grantee claims a right to survey on Hillsborough and Little Tampa,
as the places indicated in his petition, then it cannot be taken in
a single body "of a square of eight leagues," for the former being
on the east part of the bay and the latter on the north side,
neither the dimension nor form of the grant could be surveyed
touching on both. And this whether it is to be taken in a square of
four equal sides, or in a rectangular parallelogram with a part of
one-third on the bay, which last is the mode prescribed by the
Spanish authorities for surveys on navigable waters.
Shall it be left to the grantee to choose, or shall the court
arbitrarily fix upon a point for the beginning of a survey? If
there was a starting point, the claimants might, putting aside the
other questions in the case against the confirmation of the grant,
be entitled to a survey. But there is none. No survey was made
under the grant, whilst Florida belonged to Spain. Indeed,
Page 41 U. S. 158
it appears from the record, that neither the governor making the
grant, nor any other governor of Florida after him, ever gave an
order for a survey of this grant. The grantee, though all the time
in Florida, from the time when the grant was given, until the
treaty with Spain was made, a period of nine years, did not apply,
or if he did, did not receive from the authorities of Spain an
order for a survey. The case shows that in other grants of land
made to him subsequently to the date of that now under
consideration (and there are nine or ten of them in the record;
pages 81 to 93, inclusive), Miranda uniformly had them consummated
by a royal title. And it is also worthy of remark, that in his
petition to Governor Coppinger, on 16 September 1817, after
reciting his services from 1794 to 1812, in the defense of the
province, and that he had had in his charge divers extraordinary
commissions, he states, "for which he had never had any
compensation whatever." What, then, had become of his grant for a
square of eight leagues in the royal lands which are found on the
waters of Hillsborough and Tampa Bays?
The locality, then, of the premises, was not acknowledged by the
authorities of Spain. No effort was made to give identity to the
grant, before the treaty was ratified.
Is such a grant protected by the treaty? We think not! The
eighth article of the treaty is:
"All the grants of land made before 24 January 1818, by his
Catholic Majesty, or by his lawful authorities in the said
territories, ceded by his majesty to the United States, shall be
ratified and confirmed to the persons in possession of the lands,
to the same extent that the same grants would be valid, if the
territories had remained under the dominion of his Catholic
Majesty. But the owners in possession of such lands who, by reason
of the recent circumstances of the Spanish nation, and the
revolutions in Europe, have been prevented from fulfilling all the
conditions of their grants, shall complete them within the times
limited in the same, respectively, from the date of this treaty, in
default of which the said grants shall be null and void. All grants
made since 24 January 1818, when the first proposal, on the part of
his Catholic Majesty, for the cession of the Floridas, was made,
are hereby declared and agreed to be null and void."
The words in the foregoing
Page 41 U. S. 159
extract "shall be ratified and confirmed to the persons in
possession of the land," have been decided by this Court, in
Percheman's
Case, 7 Pet. 51, to mean, "the grants shall remain
ratified and confirmed to the persons in possession of them, to the
same extent, &c.," or, as this Court said in
Kingsley's
Case, 12 Pet. 476, "stand ratified and confirmed,
to the same extent that the same grants would be valid, if Florida
had remained under the dominion of Spain." And the words "in
possession of them," have by this Court, in
Arredondo's
Case, 6 Pet. 741, and in all other cases upon
Florida grants after it been determined not to imply occupation or
residence only, but a legal seizin. The Court said in that
case,
"by grants of land, we do not mean the mere grant itself, but
the right, title, legal possession, and estate, property and
ownership, legally resulting upon a grant of land to the
owner."
But in the case before us, from the want of survey, or some
point for the beginning of one, there can neither be a seizin in
fact nor in law; for identity of premises is as essential for a
seizin in law, as it is necessarily implied in a seizin in fact.
The grantee, then, can only claim validity for this grant to the
same extent that it would have been valid, if the territories had
remained under the dominion of his Catholic Majesty. And this
brings up the questions, how far this grant was valid, when the
Floridas were ceded to the United States, or whether, in the
situation in which this grantee stood, when the treaty was made, he
had more than a permission to ask for the means of having the lands
identified, that he might have a right of possession.
The grant was made in 1810. No order of survey was made; nothing
was done to withdraw the land from the general mass of property, or
to show what it was, which was to be withdrawn. It therefore
remained in the King of Spain, with the power to consummate that
which had been done on Miranda's petition, into a complete title;
according as it might be his pleasure to do or not to do so. And
when he ceded the Floridas to the United States, the latter were
placed in respect to this grantee, exactly in the situation in
which his Catholic Majesty had stood. This being so, the eighth
article of the treaty, on the most liberal interpretation of the
intentions which actuated the high contracting parties, imposes
upon the United States no obligation to make a title to lands of
which the grantee had neither an actual seizin,
Page 41 U. S. 160
nor a seizin in law. Identity is essential for the latter, and
has uniformly been, in the contemplation of this Court, when it has
confirmed Florida grants, inchoate or complete. This Court said, in
Forbes'
Case, 15 Pet. 182,
"the courts of justice can only adjudge what has been granted,
and declare that the lands granted by the lawful authorities of
Spain, are separated from the public domain."
The grant now sought to be confirmed, was not so separated by
survey, nor by any such distinctive call as will admit of a survey.
In
Forbes' Case, just mentioned, the grant was for land
"in the district or bank of the River Nassau;" and the Court said,
after noticing the uncertainty of the description for the location
of the land,
"No survey of the land granted was ever made; the duty imposed
upon the grantee to produce the plat and demarcations in proper
time, was never performed. This was a condition he assumed upon
himself; the execution and return of the survey to the proper
office, in such case, could only sever the land granted from the
public domain. . . . No particular land having been severed from
the public domain by John Forbes, his was the familiar case of one
having a claim on a large section of country, unlocated. . . . In
such a case, the government has ever been deemed to hold the fee,
unaffected by a vested, equitable interest, until the location was
made, according to the laws of the particular country."
And though, in the decree granting the land to Forbes, the
governor says, "it will be the duty of the party to produce the
plat and demarcations in the proper time," it does not vary the
principle, but rather serves to establish it; that
"in grants of lands, with uncertain designations, to be made on
a large district of country, they must have been severed from the
public domain by survey, or be void for want of identity."
Upon mature deliberation, the same doctrine was held in
Buyck's Case,
15 Pet. 215, which was a grant for lands "at Musquito," "south and
north of said place." Also, in
O'Hara's Case,
15 Pet. 275; again, in
Delespine's
Case, 15 Pet. 319.
Indeed, the settled doctrine of this Court, in respect to these
Florida grants, is that grants for lands embracing a wide extent of
country, or within a large area of natural or artificial
boundaries, and which granted lands were not surveyed before 24
January 1818, and which are without such designations as will
Page 41 U. S. 161
give a place of beginning for a survey, are not lands withdrawn,
from the mass of vacant lands, ceded to the United States in the
Floridas, and are void, as well on that account, as for being so
uncertain that locality cannot be given to them. The decree of the
court below is reversed, and the grant declared to be invalid.
Decree reversed.
