United States v. Estate of St. Clair

819 F.3d 1254, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6431, 2016 WL 1392510
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 8, 2016
Docket15-1181
StatusUnpublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 819 F.3d 1254 (United States v. Estate of St. Clair) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Estate of St. Clair, 819 F.3d 1254, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6431, 2016 WL 1392510 (10th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

MATHESON, Circuit Judge.

In 2011, the federal government sued Láveme St. Clair, alleging he had trespassed on southwest Colorado land that is part of the San Juan National Forest. 1 Following a bench trial, the district court held Mr. St. Clair liable for trespass, ordered him ejected, and imposed damages for alterations he had made upon the land. Mr. St. Clair appeals. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This case spans 140 years 'of land surveys and transfers. We describe the sys *1256 tem that has been used to survey the vast lands that became part of the United States, the factual history of this case, and how the district court adjudicated the parties’ claims to 7.856 acres of disputed property.

A. The Public Land Survey System

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams led a coalition in the Continental Congress to create a system for the government to survey public domain land. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, Bureau of Land Mgmt., A History of the Rectangular Survey System 11 (1991). The Land Ordinance of 1785 established the rectangular survey system, which was promptly used to survey public land in the original 13 colonies and the Northwest Territory. See id. at 13-16. Known as the Public Land Survey System, it is still used today. See id.; 43 U.S.C. § 751; 2 George Cameron Coggins & Robert L. Glicksman, Public Natural Resources Law § 13:52 (2nd ed. 2012).

Under this system, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”), like its predecessors, commissions surveyors to divide federal land into “townships,” which are 36-square-mile tracts of land. Coggins & Glicksman, supra, at § 13:52; U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, Bureau of Land Mgmt., Manual of Surveying Instruction 12 (2009) [hereinafter BLM Surveying Manual]. Surveyors then divide each township into 36 “sections” — one-square-mile (640 acres) tracts of land. BLM Surveying Manual at 12.

A township with sections appears as follows:

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BLM Surveying Manual at 12.

Surveyors set boundaries for townships and sections by placing monuments on the ground and recording the location of these monuments in their field notes. See 43 U.S.C. § 752. Monuments are placed to *1257 mark a given section’s four corners and the half-way points between two corners— called “quarter corners.” Id.; see also U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, Bureau of Land Mgmt., Glossary of BLM Surveying and Mapping Terms 52 (1980) [hereinafter BLM Glossary]. From a surveyor’s field notes, the BLM creates an official “plat,” a map showing the boundaries of a township and its sections. 43 U.S.C. § 751; see also BLM Glossary at 49.

Based on an official plat, the government may issue land patents, essentially deeds, to convey land in a township or a section of a township to private citizens. See 2 Joyce Palomar, Patton and Palomar on Land Titles § 292 (3d ed.) (“A patent is a government conveyance just the same as a deed is a private conveyance.”). Land patents describe the land conveyed either by reference to a fraction of the official plat — an “aliquot” description — or by reference to landmarks and adjoining properties — a “metes and bounds” description. See BLM Surveying Manual at 47; 1 Palomar, supra, § 126.

“[A] patent is the highest evidence of title, and is conclusive as against the Government, and all claiming under junior patents or titles, until it is set aside or annulled by some judicial tribunal.” United States v. Stone, 69 U.S. (2 Wall.) 525, 535, 17 L.Ed. 765 (1864).

B. Factual History

1. The Fahringer Survey and the Over-ocker Patent

In 1876, shortly after Colorado achieved statehood, Walter H. Overocker laid claim to 160 acres of unsurveyed land in La Plata County, Colorado, north of Durango. In 1877, John Fahringer conducted a survey on behalf of the Department of the Interior, General Land Office (“GLO”), the BLM’s predecessor. The Fahringer survey noted Mr. Overocker’s house but did not mark the boundaries of his claim.

Based on the Fahringer survey, the GLO created a plat of the township— “Township 36” — that included Mr. Over-ocker’s claim. 2 Like all townships, Township 36 was divided into 36 sections. Mr. Overocker’s claim was located in Section 33. Because Township 36 followed the typical pattern, Section 33 was the fourth section from the east boundary of Township 36. Section 33’s southern boundary also formed part of the southern boundary of Township 36, which separated Township 36 from Township 35.

On March 20, 1880, Mr. Overocker purchased his claim from the government for $200.00. In 1881, the government issued a land patent to Mr. Overocker (the “Over-ocker patent”). The Overocker patent described the boundaries of Mr. Overocker’s property in relation to the “Official Plat of the Survey of the said Lands.” Aplt. App. at 1634. According to its aliquot description, the Overocker patent covered the “south half of the north-east quarter and the north half of the south-east quarter of section thirty three” of Township 36. Aplt. App. at 1634. 3

*1258 The Fahringer plat indicated Mr. Over-ocker’s home in Section 33, but did not show the boundaries of his land:

Excerpt of Attachment 1 (Fahringer Plat) of the District Court’s Order, Aplt.App. at 645. 4

2. Clark Survey

In 1882, the GLO sent F.W. Gove to locate the monuments Mr. Fahringer had placed and to retrace his survey. Mr. Gove reported Mr. Fahringer “did not execute the survey in good faith,” and the GLO found egregious errors in portions of Fahringer’s surveys of Southern Colorado. ApltApp. at 621, 814.

Later in 1882, the GLO sent Deputy Surveyor William Clark to investigate set-tlors’ complaints regarding property boundaries in Township 36. Mr. Clark was unable to locate many of the monuments Mr. Fahringer was supposed to have placed.

But Mr. Clark did find a few comer monuments and conducted a new survey to establish new corners where Mr. Fahringer’s corners were lost or never placed. Mr. Clark’s new-corners moved the boundary line between Township 35 and Township 36 north by approximately 850 feet of where Mr. Fahringer had set it.

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Bluebook (online)
819 F.3d 1254, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6431, 2016 WL 1392510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-estate-of-st-clair-ca10-2016.