Hastings v. Jackson
Before: Belcher
Synopsis
Selection of Five Hundred Thousand Acres of Land Granted to Each S.tate.—No valid selection can be made of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to each State by the Act of Congress of September 4tb, 1841, until after the land selected has been surveyed by the proper officers of the United States.
Idem.—No valid selection of such lands can be made except in the manner prescribed by the Legislature of the State.
Idem.—Neither the Secretary of the Interior nor any officer of the Land Department of the General Government has authority to determine the question of the regularity or the sufficiency of the selection of such lands.
Idem.—As between conflicting claimants to such lands, under the State, neither the Commissioner of the General Land Office nor the Secretary of the Interior has the power to decide.
Idem.—The proper officers of the General Government must approve of the selection of such lands when made in accordance with the laws of the State, and in. such parcels and from such lands as the Act of Congress prescribes, but beyond such approval they have no power to act.
Who Mat Not Attack Patent Made bt the State.—A person who, with a State land warrant, locates three hundred and twenty acres of land under the provisions of the Act of May ■ 3d, 1852, for the disposal of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the State, but whose location is void because made before the land is surveyed by the United States, bears no such relation to the land as to enable him to attack a patent made by the State for (he same land to a person who makes a subsequent location, after a survey.
Error Which Does Not Prejudice.—A judgment will not be reversed for error in admitting testimony, if the appellant is not prejudiced thereby.
By the Court, Belcher, J.: In June, 1853, one Isaac Thomas, being then the owner of school land warrant number one hundred and thirty-three, for three hundred and twenty acres of land, proceeded to locate his warrant upon the south half of a certain section fourteen, in conformity with the provisions of the Act of [239]May 3d, 1852, to provide for the disposal of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to this State by Act of Congress. The land was then unsurveyed public land of the United States, and the attempted location was void, and conferred no rights in the land upon the locator. (Hastings v. Devlin, 40 Cal. 358.) In October, 1853, the township in which the land was situated was surveyed by the United States, and the plat of the survey was returned to and filed in the local land office. On the 24th of December, 1853, a list called “List No. 9, exhibiting the tracts of public land situated in the district of lands subject to sale at Benicia, which have been selected for the State of California under the eighth section of the Act of Congress, approved 4th September, 1841, entitled ‘An Act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and to grant preemption rights,’” was made and filed in the Land Office. It showed a description and the number of acres of the land which Thomas had attempted to locate, and had entries upon it in these words:
“Warrant No. 133, State of California, 24th December, 1853.—I hereby apply, in behalf of the State of California, for the tracts described in this list as being selected for said State under the eighth section of the Act of 4th September, 1841.
“ISAAC THOMAS, Agent.”
“Land Office, at Benicia, 24th September, 1853.—I hereby certify that the foregoing list was filed in this office on the 24th December, 1853, and that the selections are correct, and that no valid conflicting right is known to exist.
“WM. W. GIFT, Register.”
This list and the warrant number one hundred and thirty-three were afterwards forwarded to the General Land Office, at Washington, where they remained, without approval or [240]other action in reference to them, until February, 1870. Upon the warrant, when forwarded, there was an indorsement, in these words:
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