Thomas v. Lawlor

By the Court : The action was brought for the recovery of the possession of a tract of land. The answer denies that the plaintiff is the owner or entitled to the possession of the land, and it also sets up the Statute of Limitations. It also avers certain facts as the basis for equitable relief, and prays that the plaintiff be adjudged to convey the lands to the defendant. .»

The facts upon which the claim to equitable relief is based are in substance as follows: The lands are within the limit of [406]the lands claimed by the City of Los Angeles, and while they were so claimed the city conveyed the same to Carpenter, a remote grantor of the defendant. The patent afterwards issued by the United States to the city, in pursuance of the decree of confirmation, did not include the land in controversy. Carpenter and those claiming under him have been in the continuous occupation of the land, having improvements thereon from 1865 to the commencement of this action. The defendant has filed two applications in the United States Land Office—one before and the other after the commencement of this action—to purchase the lands under the Act of Congress of July 23rd, 1866, which are still pending, but he has made no application to purchase the same from the State.

Application was made by Hazard, in 1868, to purchase the land from the State, and in pursuance of his application a patent was issued to him by the State; and the title thus acquired afterwards vested in the plaintiff. It is alleged that the application of Hazard falsely stated that the land was unoccupied except by him, and that there were no improvements thereon other than his own, and that there was no valid claim existing to the land adverse to his own; when in fact Hazard ■well knew that the defendant’s grantor was in occupation of the land, having improvements thereon and claiming the land. It is also alleged that the plaintiff and all those through whom he claims title from the State had full notice of the rights and claims of the defendant to the land, and of those under whom he claims; and the defendant offers to pay the plaintiff the money paid by him for the land.

From these facts no trust will be implied, in favor of the defendant or his grantor, against the plaintiff or his grantors. Should the defendant succeed in his application to purchase the land from the United States, and should it be shown that the land was improperly listed to the State, he will prevail upon his legal title, and there would be no ground upon which he could invoke the aid of a Court of Equity to compel a conveyance from the plaintiff. If his claim to relief in equity is dependent in any degree upon his success in his application to purchase from the United States, it is obvious that he is not now entitled