Brown v. Hitchcock

Citations

• 173 U.S. 473
• 19 S. Ct. 485
• 43 L. Ed. 772
• 1899 U.S. LEXIS 1453

Syllabus

<p>Under the act of September 28, 1850, c. 84, 9 Stat. 519, known as the Swamp Land Act, the legal title to land passes only on delivery of a patent, and as the record in this case discloses no patent, there was no passing of the legal title from the United States, whatever equitable rights may have vested. Until the legal title to land passes from the Government, inquiry as to all equitable rights comes within the cognizance of the land department.</p> <p>Although cases may arise in which a party is iustified in coming into the courts o.f the District of Columbia to assert his rights as against a proceeding in the land department, or when that department refuses to act at all, yet, as a general rule, power is vested in the department to determine all questions of equitable right and title, uppn proper notice to the parties interested, and the courts should be resorted to only when the legal title has passed from the Government.</p>