Collins v. Bartlett

School Land Wabbants.—The location of school land warrants, issued by this State, prior to the survey of the land on which they are located by the United States, is void.

When Purchaser of Land is not a Trustee for Another.—The facts that two parties purchase separate tracts of land from one who had located school land warrants on the same before the land was surveyed by the United States, and which location was consequently void, and that said parties acquired possession of said tracts by virtue of said purchase, do not create the relation of trust or confidence between them, so as to make a subsequent purchase from the United States, of all the land, by one of the parties, as a preemptioner, inure to the benefit of the other party in equity.

Idem.—When two or more persons separately purchase distinct parcels of land from a common grantor, who possesses the same under an invalid title, and one of them afterwards acquires the true title to the whole, he does not hold the true title as trustee for the other, nor is he estopped from denying that the purchase from the holder of the invalid title was void.

Cross-Complaint.—Neither an agreed statement of facts nor a finding of facts can add a material fact to a cross-complaint, for it must fall unless it can stand on its own allegations of facts.

Aot of Congress Confirming State Land Sales.—The Act of Congress of July, 1866, to quiet land titles in California, provides the means by which an invalid location of a State school land warrant on unsurveyed lands may he confirmed, but in order to obtain such confirmation the purchaser must present and prove up his purchase and claim within the time allowed to preemptioners under existing laws. The land will not be certified to the State until the claim is presented and proved up.

Idem.—No title to such lands passes from the United States to the State, or to the purchaser from the State, until the same are certified over to the State by the Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington.

Idem.—If one holding public land under an invalid location of State school land warrants, made before the passage of the confirmatory Act of Congress of July, 1866, fails to present and prove up Ms claim under said Act, and another, after the passage of said Act, preempts the land and obtains a patent therefor, he acquires the legal title.

Attack on Patent.—A party claiming land under a patent from the United States has the benefit of the presumption that the officers rightly performed all their duties in selling the land and issuing the patent, and it devolves on the party assailing the patent to show that it was issued without authority of law.

Declaratory Statement by Prb-emptioners.—There are some classes of lands subject to preemption which may bo purchased by preemptioners without filing declaratory statements, such as lands reserved for railroad purposes which have been settled on; and one attacking a patent issued to a preemptioner on the ground that no declaratory statement was filed, must show that it belonged to that class of lands to purchase which a declaratory statement is required.