Stevens v. Southern Pacific Land Co.

WELLER, J.

Plaintiff instituted suit in the superior court of Riverside County seeking to have it decreed that certain lands in that county which had been patented to the defendant by the United States were held in trust for plaintiff, by reason of irregularities in the actions of government officials through which the patents were issued.

Chronologically, the events which enter into the history of the land in controversy transpired in the following order:

On May 15, 1876, by executive order, certain lands (including the lands in controversy) were set apart for the use and benefit of the Mission Indians. An act of Congress, approved January 12, 1891 (26 Stat. 712), provided for the appointment of a commission of three persons to select a reservation for each band or village of the Mission Indians residing in the state of California, the selection to include, as far as practicable, the lands and villages which had been actually occupied by the Indians. The commission submitted its report to the Secretary of the Interior on December 5, 1891, and, among other things, recommended that the land here in controversy should be restored to the public domain. On December 28, 1891, the report of the Smiley commission was approved by an order reading as follows: “Executive Mansion, December 29th, 1891. The report of the Mission

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Indian commission, appointed under the act of January 12, 1891 (26 Stat. 712), is hereby approved, except so much thereof as relates to the purchase of lands from and exchange of lands with private individuals, which is also approved subject to the condition that Congress shall authorize the same. All of the lands mentioned in said report are hereby withdrawn from settlement and entry until patents shall have been issued for said selected reservations, and until the recommendations of said commission shall be fully executed, and, by the proclamation of the president of the United States, the lands or any part thereof shall be restored to the public domain. Benj. Harrison, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., December 29th, 1891. Under the act of Congress as provided, approved John W. Noble, secretary.” No proclamation has ever been made restoring any of the lands to public entry.

In a letter of date February 17, 1911, addressed to the commissioner of the general land office, the commissioner of Indian affairs expressed the opinion that the lands described in the complaint had been restored to the public domain, and, on April 1, 1911, the register and receiver of the United States land office at Los Angeles, California, were directed to note upon their records that the land was subject to disposition in accordance with the provisions of the law relating to public lands.