Hamilton v. Southern Nev. Gold & Silver Min. Co.

33 F. 562, 13 Sawy. 113, 1887 U.S. App. LEXIS 2882
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1887
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 33 F. 562 (Hamilton v. Southern Nev. Gold & Silver Min. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hamilton v. Southern Nev. Gold & Silver Min. Co., 33 F. 562, 13 Sawy. 113, 1887 U.S. App. LEXIS 2882 (uscirct 1887).

Opinion

Sawyer, J.

This is a suit in equity, brought under the statute of Nevada, by a party claiming to be in possession against a party alleged to be out of possession, to determine an-adverse claim of title to a mine. [564]*564The locator’s title was conveyed to defendant June 30, 1880, and the complainant alleges that he has obtained the title so conveyed to defendant, through sales on certain judgments made subsequently to the said conveyance of June 30, 1880. A constable sold the premises onajudg'ment rendered by a justice of the peace against defendant, said sale having been made July 21,1882. Such title, as passed by that sale, has been conveyed to complainant. An appeal from said judgment was taken to the district court, and on such appeal a judgment was rendered in the district court for the amount recovered below, and subsequent costs. Under this judgment, for the same indebtedness, the property was again sold on October 11, 1883, and such title as passed by this sale has also become vested in complainant. It is insisted that the judgment of the justice of the peace is void, on the ground that, it not being a court of record, its jurisdiction must affirmatively appear, and that the record does not show jurisdiction over the person; also, for numerous other reasons. It is also claimed, and if it be so I do not see how the conclusion can be avoided, that the justice’s court, not having obtained jurisdiction, the appeal from this void judgment could not give the district court jurisdiction, and its judgment is also void. On the other hand if, the justice’s judgment and the sale under it be valid, the sale under the district court judgment is claimed to be void because the sale was for a much larger amount than was due, the judgment for the entire indebtedness having been fully satisfied by the sale in the court below. It is also claimed that the judgments and sales upon both judgments are void for many other reasons. The defendant also claims title under another judgment, and sale thereunder, made April 29, 1882, to one Purcell,— an older sale than either of those under which complainant claims. If this sale is valid, it cut off defendant’s original title before the sales under which complainant holds, and they took nothing by those sales, and the title upon which he relies fails. The title derived under this sale, which was outstanding at the commencement of this suit, has been conveyed to defendant since the suit was commenced. But since it intercepted the very title under which complainant holds, and is the same title upon which he relies, it is just as effectual outstanding as a defense as it it were in the defendant at the institution of the suit, even if, as complainant claims, his objection to the evidence, because not set up by supplemental answer, was sufficiently specific to reject it, which is, at least, doubtful. But the validity of this judgment and sale is also assailed on various grounds. It may well be considered doubtful whether any of these judgments and sales are valid.

The statute of limitations is also relied on by complainant. But that title is disputed by defendant, on the ground that there was no notorious, exclusive, and continued adverse possession by complainant; that the acts .of possession were so obscure that defendant was not even aware that complainants were in possession at all, or claimed title. The only evidence of actual possession for the prescribed time, was, going upon the land once, and looking at its boundaries, and afterwards doing the annual hundred dollars worth of work in tunnels where those doing it were [565]*565unseen, during that timo, for the purpose of not forfeiting complainant’s rights, and not rendering the claim liable to relocation. While defendant also claims and introduces testimony showing, or at least tending to show, that it also did the annual work required by the statute to preserve its rights during the same period for the same purpose, and so was itself in possession; that its possession was better than, or at least as good, as that of complainant. Evidently such a loose, uncertain, scrambling, and mixed possession is not sufficient to vest a title under the statute of limitations.

But the defendant relics upon another defense, and the view we take; of it renders it unnecesary for us to decide the numerous other points made, already referred to. On August 5, 1882, defendant filed an application in the proper land-office to purchase the premises in question, in pursuance of sections 2325, 2326, Rev. St. The 60 days for publication expired October 7,1882, and on May 8,1886, defendant paid for the land, and a certificate of purchase was issued to it. Neither the complainant, nor any of his grantors, before the expiration of the time, or at any time, filed any adverse claim with the register and receiver of the land-office. And the statute provides that—

“If no adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and receiver of the proper land-office at the expiration of sixty days of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent upon the payment to the proper officer of four dollars per acre, and that, no adverse claim exists: And thereafter no objection from third parties to the issuance of a patent shall be heard, except it be shown that the applicant has failed to comply with the tonus of this chapter. ” '

Thus the statute itself makes a proceeding, regularly prosecuted, when the period of notice is completed without the presentation of an adverse claim, absolutely conclusive against all adverse claimants. The proceeding is in the nature of a proceeding in rem, and is binding upon all the world, so far as any unpreseuted adverse claim is concerned. The title, such as it was, good or bad, derived under the constable’s sale of July 21,1882, was an existing advorse claim during the proceedings of defendant for purchase under sections 2325, 2326, Rev. St., and was lost by failure to present it. This sale, therefore, valid or void, can afford no grounds for the relief sought.

But complainant insists that his title under the second sale on the judgment on appeal did not exist at the time of the application to purchase, and during the running of the notice, and as complainant and his grantors had no adverse claim at-that time they cannot be affected by failure to present one; that ho is a successor in interest to defendant, and not an adverse claimant, and, as such, is entitled to the benefit of defendant’s application and purchase. Conceding that judgment to be valid, for the purposes of this suit, though 1 am by no means satisfied that it is, the most that could pass by the sheriff’s sale was the then present interest or estate of the defendant. It could not carry any subsequently acquired interest. The then present interest of the defendant was only a mere privilege to purchase, which he might abandon if he chose. A sheriff’s [566]*566deed can, at most, only have the operation of a quitclaim deed in its strictest sense. It cannot pass an interest which the owner did not have before the sale, but which he subsequently acquires. If the purchase at sheriff’s sale was valid, and the purchaser then stepped into the shoes of the execution debtor, it only gave him a right to go on himself, perform the necessary acts to be performed, pay the purchase money himself, contest the rights of other adverse claimants, such as the Northern 'Belle, make the entry, and, upon payment, receive the certificate of purchase.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 F. 562, 13 Sawy. 113, 1887 U.S. App. LEXIS 2882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hamilton-v-southern-nev-gold-silver-min-co-uscirct-1887.