United States v. Vallejo

Supreme Court of the United States
United States v. Vallejo, 1 U.S. 658 (1863)

United States v. Vallejo

Opinion of the Court

Mr. Justice MILLER,

delivered the opinion of the court

The objection to the quality of the land does not seem to be sustained by the testimony. If there be a difference in quality between the part surveyed and the part left, it must be too slight to be the subject of consideration here.

It is certainly true that the surplus left to the United States should have been in one connected piece, if there were not sufficient reasons to justify a different course. In all these locations of a limited quantity within a larger one, many rules deserve attention. But as some of these may, and often do conflict with others, they cannot all be observed in every case.

In the present case the survey is supported:

1. By the fact that it was located as desired by the claimant.

2. That it is in a reasonably compact form.

3. That it includes two old adobe houses, inhabited now and for many years past by the heirs of the original grantee, the present owners of the claim.

Both of the first-named two considerations are prominent among the rules laid down by the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the location of this class of claims.

As respects the third, it appears that if the two leagues were taken from either end of the sack as claimed by the government, the one of these houses must be left out. They were both there when the grant was made, and are, probably, twenty years old. This raises a strong presumption that the grant was intended to cover them both.

Tnese reasons, we think, overbalance the inconvenience of having the surplus left to the United States in two disconnected parcels ; especially when one of these parcels contains *660as much as three thousand five hundred acres, and the other about two thousand acres.

Besides, in this class of cases, a large discretion must necessarily be left to the surveyor; and while we are not prepared to say that we will not in any ease review the exercise of that discretion, we have no hesitation in saying that we do not sit here to determine whether it has been accompanied with the nicest discrimination, or the highest of wisdom.

Decree affirmed.

Reference

Cited By
5 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Asa general rule a warrant for public land should be so located and surveyed that the surplus left to the United States shall be in one connected piece. But a large discretion must be left in this class of cases to the surveyor, and the rule is not one of universal application. Hence, in a California case, where the surplus was left in two very large parcels, one of three tbóusand five hundred and the other of two thousand acres, the rule was held to be controlled by the facts that the survey was located as desired by the claimant, that it had a reasonably compact form, and that it included two “adobe houses,” probably twenty years old, now and long inhabited by the heirs of the original grantee, the present owners of the claim, and one of which houSes would be excluded, if the survey were made in the more usual form. The court declared that while it is not prepared to say that it will, in no case, review the discretion which belongs to the surveyor, it does not hesitate to announce that it will not determine whether this discretion has been exercised with the nicest discrimination or the highest wisdom.