US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

In 1816, the register and receiver of a land office, acting under the authority of a law, reported as follows:

"We are of opinion that all the claims included under the second species of the first class are already confirmed by the Act of Congress of 12 April, 1814."

In 1820, Congress passed an Act, 3 Stat. 573, confirming all those claims which were recommended in the report for confirmation.

But where the commissioners erred in placing a claim in the second species of the first class, and erred in supposing that such a claim was already confirmed by the act of 1814, these errors prevent the act of 1820 from confirming the claim. It is consequently invalid.

By agreement of counsel in the state court, many original documents were used in the trial in the Supreme Court of Louisiana which were left out of the record when it was transmitted to this Court. It did not, therefore, furnish all the facts necessary for a complete statement of the case, which, however, have been taken from other authentic sources.

It was a conflict between a patent issued for some land near New Orleans to General Lafayette in 1825 and a clam advanced by Blanc under an old Spanish alleged grant. If the latter was not good, the patent to Lafayette covered the land in dispute. Blanc claimed under Liotaud.

On 23 May, 1801, Louis Liotaud presented a petition to the Intendant Morales praying that a tract of public land be granted to him having six arpents front on the left bank of Canal Carondelet, with the ordinary depth, if there should be such a depth vacant, being bounded on the one side by the land of Carlos Guardiola, and on all the other sides by chanrobles.com-red

Page 52 U. S. 105

public land. He states as a reason which entitled him to the favorable notice of the intendant, that his object was to establish a large garden and drain the land, which would be advantageous to the public and contribute to the salubrity of the city. And he bound himself to conform to the regulations relating to grants of land.

On this petition an order was made on February 11, 1802, which is attested by Carlos Ximenes, the notary, in these words: "Vistos: pasese este expediente al agrimensor gnl. Don Carlos Trudeau para que en vista de el informe lo conbeniente." "Let this petition be referred to the Surveyor-General, Don Carlos Trudeau, in order that he may report his opinion thereon."

These appeared to be all the papers to support the claim. No survey was ever made nor any report upon the petition.

On 12 April, 1814, Congress passed an Act, 1 Land Laws 242, confirming certain claims in Louisiana. The title of the act is, "An act for the final adjustment of land titles in the State of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri." By it, certain claims were confirmed which had been presented to the register or recorder of land titles in the mode pointed out by a preceding law. Liotaud had filed a claim in the land office, stating in his application,

"This land is claimed by virtue of proceedings had before the Spanish intendancy in 1801 and 1802, of which proceedings the accompanying document is a true copy, as taken from the original in the register's office for the Eastern District of Louisiana."

On 20 November, 1816, the commissioners made their report, and noticed this claim as follows:

"Louis Liotaud claims a tract of land situated in the County of Orleans on the left bank of the Canal Carondelet, leading to the Bayou St. John, containing six arpents in front and forty in depth, and bounded on one side by lands granted by the Spanish government to Carlos Guardiola and on the other side by vacant lands. This tract of land is claimed by virtue of an order of survey dated in the year 1802."

The commissioners included this claim in the second species of the first class of claims, on which the board reported as follows:

"We are of opinion that all the claims included under the second species of the first class are already confirmed by the Act of Congress of 12 April, 1814."

On 16 January, 1817, the Commissioner of the General Land Office transmitted this report to Congress, and on 11 May, 1820, Congress passed an Act, 3 Stat. 573, entitled "An act supplementary to the several acts for the adjustment of land claims in the State of Louisiana." chanrobles.com-red

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The first section of this act was as follows:

"That the claims for lands within the Eastern District of the State of Louisiana, described by the register and receiver of the said district in their report to the Commissioner of the General Land Office bearing date on 20 November, 1816, and recommended in the said report for confirmation be and the same are hereby confirmed against any claim on the part of the United States."

So the matter stood until the year 1825, when, as has been already mentioned, a patent was issued to General Lafayette which included the land claimed by Liotaud.

On 1 May, 1841, George Washington Lafayette, residing in France, and John Hagan, residing at New Orleans, brought a petitory action against Evariste Blanc, who claimed under Liotaud. The defendant alleged that he then was, and had been for more than a year before the commencement of the suit, in quiet possession of the land, and denied the plaintiffs' possession or right of possession. He also pleaded the prescription of twenty and thirty years.

In May, 1846, the cause came on for trial in the Parish Court in and for the Parish and City of New Orleans, when there was a judgment for the defendant. The plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, by which, in January, 1848, the judgment of the parish court was reversed, and to review this decision upon the ground that his claim was confirmed by an act of Congress Blanc sued out a writ of error and brought the case up to this Court. chanrobles.com-red

Page 52 U. S. 112