True v. Thompson
True v. Thompson
Opinion of the Court
The quarter section of land in contest in this case is a portion of a thirty-sixth section, and is included in the general tract known as the “ Suscol Banch.” The action is ejectment, and as proof of title the plaintiff relies upon a certificate of location issued under the Act of April 26th, 1863, entitled “An Act to provide for the sale of certain lands belonging to the State.” (Stats. 1863, p. 591.) The statute requires an applicant desiring to purchase from the State, lands included in sixteenth or thirty-sixth sections, to make his application to the State Locating Agent for the proper district, and if the application is approved, it is made the duty of the agent to apply to the Register of the proper. United States Land District for the land on behalf of the State, for the use of the applicant. If the Register approves the selection by the State, the Locating Agent is to forward the papers to the State Surveyor General, and if he approves the location and selection, it is the duty of the applicant, within a specified time thereafter, to pay a certain percentage of the purchase money, or, if he sees fit, he may then pay the whole purchase price to the County Treasurer; and when the whole is paid, it is made the duty of the Register of the State Land Office to issue to the applicant a certificate of purchase. Section seventeen of the Act provides that “when a certificate of purchase has been issued by the Register, the same shall be deemed prima facie evidence of legal title to the land for which the certificate of purchase is issued;” and the same section provides that the certificate, all rights acquired thereby, “ shall be subject to sale and transfer by deed or assignment executed and acknowledged before any officer authorized by law to take acknowledgments of deeds,” etc. The certificate put in evidence by the plaintiff was not the certificate of purchase referred to in this section, but the certificate of location, issued
The plaintiff having failed to produce any evidence of legal title, cannot maintain his action.
Judgment affirmed.
Mr. Justice Sprague did not participate in the foregoing decision.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ELIJAH TRUE v. SIMPSON THOMPSON, WILLIAM G. MORRIS, and ROBERT SHEEHY
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- School or Lieu Lands—Certifícate of Location will not Support Ejectment.—A certificate of location of school or lieu land, issued under the Act of April 27th, 1863 (Stats. 1863, p. 591), is not evidence of legal title, and will not support ejectment. Virtual Repeal of Old Land Law by Adoption of Mew System.— The Act of April 13th, 1859 (Stats. 1859, p. 227), in so far as it made a certificate of location of school or lieu lands prima facie evidence of title, was superseded and repealed by the Act of April 27th, 1863 (Stats. 1863, p. 591), which inaugurated a new system of land law, intended to be complete in itself. Certificate of Purchase as Evidence of Title.—Under the Act of April 27th, 1863, for the sale of certain lands belonging to the State (Stats. 1863, p. 591), the Register’s certificate of purchase of school or lieu land is the only prima facie evidence of legal title prior to a patent.