Banning Co. v. California Ex Rel. Webb

Citations

• 240 U.S. 142
• 36 S. Ct. 338
• 60 L. Ed. 569
• 1916 U.S. LEXIS 1437

Syllabus

<p>The- withdrawal from sale of lauds by 'a State before any right is consummated, docs not amount to the impairment of the obligation of a contract within the meaning of Article I, § 10 of the Federal Constitution.</p> <p>While an offer made by a State, though no particular person be designated, and accepted, may constitute a contract protected by the Federal Constitution, the offer and acceptance must have the characteristics of a bargain and be conventional counterparts.</p> <p>Where a State makes a general offer to sell and provides for contest and determination of conflicting claims of parties contending for the right to purchase, the State is not bound by its offer or precluded from withdrawing it,, until the rightful claimant is determined and his right of purchase perfected by payment of at least an installment of the price thereof.</p> <p>Expenditures, other than payment to the State, by one intending to accept a general offer of a State to sell public lands are but voluntary qualifications to become a purchaser and are not binding on him to proceed to purchase,or on the State to wait for him to purchase.</p> <p>Although the statute of California of 1863 gave private parties the right to acquire tide lands under certain conditions, the right was abrogated by later statutes and the constitution of 1879, and such abrogation was not unconstitutional under the contract clause of the Constitution as to one who had not paid any part of the purchase price prior thereto.</p> <p>169 California, 542, affirmed.</p>