Romero v. Janss Inv. Corp.

84 F.2d 332, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4464
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 8, 1936
DocketNo. 7517
StatusPublished

This text of 84 F.2d 332 (Romero v. Janss Inv. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Romero v. Janss Inv. Corp., 84 F.2d 332, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4464 (9th Cir. 1936).

Opinion

DENMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in an action at law in ejectment in which the appellant, administrator of the estate of Maria Dorotea Alanis de Romero, seeks to establish his right to possession of land situated in the county of Los Angeles, state of California. Appellant’s case rests upon a claimed Mexican title vesting in his intestate as the alleged owner of the one-half community interest of her mother in the land in question.

The title of the appellee, defendant below, rests upon a patent from the United States made to certain persons, Wilson and Sanford, who had acquired a Mexican title to the property prior to March 3, 1851. They had had it adjudicated as conveying a valid title to them under the Land Commission Act of that date, the patent being issued pursuant to the provisions of the statute after the adjudication. The title so acquired by Wilson and Sanford was by mesne conveyances transferred to the Holmby Corporation, which, in turn, trans[333]*333ferred portions of the land in question to the appellee.

Dorotea failed to file any claims before the Commission created by the Act of March 3, 1851 (9 Stat. 631), and the first question presented by the appeal is whether she can assert any legal title to the land of which Wilson and Sanford were adjudicated by the Commission to hold legal title, patent for which was subsequently granted by the United States.

This question has long been settled by decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. One of the later holdings is the case of Barker v. Harvey, 181 U.S. 481, 21 S.Ct. 690, 692, 45 L.Ed. 963. In that case the then Mexican governors had granted certain property in San Diego county to one Juan Jose Warner. Warner presented his title to the Board of Land Commissioners for confirmation and the Board adjudicated the title to be in him, and subsequently a United States patent was issued to Warner pursuant to the adjudication. The act creating the Board of Land Commissioners (section 15) provided that the patent so issued “shall be conclusive between the United States and the said claimants only, and shall not affect the interests of third persons.” ‘(Italics supplied.) The plaintiffs in the Barker Case claimed title through Warner and commenced an action to quiet title. The defendants were Mission Indians whose claim to possession was based upon a right of permanent occupancy of the land under the Mexican law. The Indians had not filed their claims with the Board of Land Commissioners, and the question was whether such failure to file claims had defeated their alleged Mexican rights or whether they were protected by the provision of the statute which was incorporated in the patent that the grant “shall not affect .the interests of third persons.” In holding that the Indians had abandoned .any claims founded on the action of the Mexican government, the Supreme Court states as follows:

“Undoubtedly by the rules of international law, and in accordance with the provisions of the treaty between the Mexican government and this country, the United States were bound to respect the rights of private property in the ceded territory. But such obligation is entirely consistent with the right of this government to provide reasonable means for determining the validity of all titles within the ceded territory, to require all persons having claims to lands to present them for recognition, and to decree that all claims which are not thus presented shall be considered abandoned. * * *

“As between the United States and Warner, the patent is as conclusive of the title of the latter as any other patent from the United States is of the title of the grantee named therein. As between the United States and the Indians, their failure to present their claims to the land commission within the time named made the land, within the language of the statute, ‘part of the public domain of the United States.’ * * * So far, therefore, as these Indians are concerned, the land is rightfully to be regarded as part of the public domain and subject to sale and disposal by the government, and the government has conveyed to Warner. It is true that the patent, following the 15th section of the act, in terms provides that the patent shall not ‘affect the interests of third persons,’ but who may take advantage of this stipulation? This question was presented and determined in Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. 478, 18 L.Ed. 88, and the court, referring to the effect of a patent, said (pp. 492, 493, L.Ed. p. 93):

“ ‘When informed, by the action of its tribunals and officers, that a claim asserted is valid and entitled to recognition, the government acts, and issues its patent to the claimant. This instrument is therefore record evidence of the action of the government upon the title of the claimant. By it the government declares that the claim asserted was valid under the laws of Mexico; that it was entitled to recognition and protection by the stipulations of the treaty, and might have been located under the former government, and is correctly located now, so as to embrace the premises as they are surveyed and < described. As against the government this record, so long as it remains unvacated, is conclusive. * * * The term “third persons,” as there used, does not embrace all persons other than the United States and the claimants, but only those who hold superior titles, such as will enable them to resist successfully any action of the government in disposing of the property.’

“If these Indians had any claims founded on the action of the Mexican government they abandoned them by not presenting them to the commission for consideration, and they could not, therefore, in the [334]*334language just quoted, 'resist successfully any action of the government in disposing of the property.’ ” (Italics supplied.)

In so holding the Supreme Court follows its decisions in Botiller v. Dominguez, 130 US. 238, 9 S.Ct. 525, 32 L.Ed. 926, and Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. (70 U. S.) 478, 18 L.Ed. 88.

It thus appears that appellant administrator’s intestate, Dorotea, abandoned her legal title by failure to present it to the Commission and that she is therefore unable to “resist successfully any action of the government in disposing of the property” so far as such legal title is concerned.

It is contended on behalf of Dorotea’s claimed interest in the land that this failure to present her title for confirmation to the Land Commission “made no difference, and a confirmation to Sanford and Wilson inured to the benefit of Maria Dorotea Alanis de Romero and her heirs,” and that in an action in ejectment this beneficial holding by the successors in interest to Sanford and Wilson can be asserted as the basis of the right of possession.

This contention has been disposed of adversely to appellant’s argument by the Supreme Court in the case of Carpentier v. Montgomery, 13 Wall. (80 U.S.) 480, 494, 20 L.Ed. 698. That was a suit in ejectment, where the right to possession was asserted, and a claim to no more than an equitable interest in the land was shown. One Luis Peralta, a grantee under a Mexican title, died leaving four sons, four daughters, and several grandchildren by a deceased daughter. The sons presented their claim to the Board of Land Commissioners, basing it upon an alleged devise from their father. No claim was presented on behalf of - the daughters and grandchildren.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Beard v. Federy
70 U.S. 478 (Supreme Court, 1866)
Townsend v. Greeley
72 U.S. 326 (Supreme Court, 1867)
Carpentier v. Montgomery
80 U.S. 480 (Supreme Court, 1872)
Botiller v. Dominguez
130 U.S. 238 (Supreme Court, 1889)
Barker v. Harvey
181 U.S. 481 (Supreme Court, 1901)
Murphy v. Crowley
73 P. 820 (California Supreme Court, 1903)
Wilson v. Castro
31 Cal. 420 (California Supreme Court, 1866)
Bludworth v. Lake (No. 1.)
33 Cal. 255 (California Supreme Court, 1867)
Banks v. Moreno
39 Cal. 233 (California Supreme Court, 1870)
San Felipe Mining Co. v. Belshaw
49 Cal. 655 (California Supreme Court, 1875)
Conlan v. Quinby
51 Cal. 412 (California Supreme Court, 1876)
Frink v. Roe
11 P. 820 (California Supreme Court, 1886)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 F.2d 332, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/romero-v-janss-inv-corp-ca9-1936.