Blum v. Looney

Citations

• 69 Tex. 1
• 4 S.W. 857
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 762

Syllabus

<p>1. Legislative Grant.&emdash;When in a State Constitution there is found nothing to prohibit the Legislature from, making a grant of land, the power exists to ratify a former act of legislation which attempted to make a grant which was prohibited by the Constitution then in force.</p> <p>3. Evidence.&emdash;When one claims a benefit under a statute he should bring himself, in a suit that involves his right, by allegation and evidence, strictly within the terms and conditions of the law by virtue of which the benefit is claimed.</p> <p>8. Same.&emdash;When the proviso to a confirming aet of the Legislature restricts its benefits to designated persons who on account of meritorious service are to receive such benefits as a bounty, the fact that a claimant of such bounty belongs to the designated class, is in the nature of a condition precedent and must be shown, before he can recover.</p> <p>4. Actual Settler&emdash;Statute Construed.&emdash;The act of March 81, 1883, (Laws of Eighteenth Legislature, page 38), confirming headrights and bounty warrants issued under former special laws which were passed between March, 1870, and April 17,1876, was legal and valid, but in order to be effective to one claiming its benefits as a settler entitled to a head-right, he must allege and show that he was an actual settler in Texas as far hack as March 3, 1836. The issuance of a patent by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, can not affoiffi evidence of this fact.</p>