Blythe v. Houston

Citations

• 46 Tex. 65

Syllabus

<p>1. Grant—Presumption—Innocent purchaser—Testimonio— Evidence.—By the XIVth Article of the Provisional Government of Texas, all land commissioners were ordered forthwith to cease their operations during the unsettled condition of the country. That article went into force on the 13th day of November, 1S35, after which date any title issued by a commissioner was a nullity. The plaintiff, after taking depositions to prove the genuineness of the testimonio of a grant, which testimonio purported to have been issued on the 15th oí November, 1835, introduced on the, trial the nrotoeol of the grant or title of possession, issued by George W. Smyth, commissioner, with date as follows: “Given at the town of Nacogdoches,-, A. D. 1833.” The protocol showed the date of the application and the order of survey to be September 15, 1835, and the date of the field-notes and of the order that title issue, to be November 11,1835. The genuineness of the testimonio was questioned under oath, and both the protocol and a translation of the testimonio were in evidence: Held—</p> <p>1. Presumption in favor of acts of public officer.— That the suspicion which might grow out of the irregularity of the protocol in its date alone should not prevent the operation of the presumption that the commissioner who issued it acted in all respects in conformity to law.</p> <p>2. Same.—In the absence of any evidence of the date of a grant issued in 1835, the law would presume that the commissioner acted in the extension of title at a time when he might legally do so; and that the true date was prior to the closing of the land office, in the absence of evidence sufficient to overcome such presumption; and after tile lapse of thirty-five years the evidence required to rebut the presumption must be full and satisfactory.</p> <p>3. Presumption—Innocent purchaser.—In favor of innocent purchasers, the presumption of the regularity and validity of a grant will he so strengthened, by acquiesence and the lapse of