Cavazos v. Trevino

Citations

• 35 Tex. 133

Syllabus

<p>1. Plaintiffs, in an action of trespass to try title, offered in evidence, as a muniment of their title, a copy of a testimonio of a title of possession executed in 1829 by an alcalde of Matamoras, who, in 1857, appeared before the United States consul at Matamoras and acknowledged the execution of the testimonio. The document offered comprised not only the land in controversy, but also two adjacent tracts conceded to other grantees, and also the final title to one of these other grantees, which last instrument bore the signatures of the then Governor and Secretary of the State of Tamaulipas; and the United States Consul, -besides authenticating the acknowledgment of the alcalde, certified -that two certain affiants appeared before him and made oath that the Governor and Secretary were both dead, and that their signatures were genuine. On these proofs the document was recorded in Cam-eron county, and was now offered as a recorded instrument. The defendant objected, alleging that it was not such an instrument as was permitted by law to be recorded, being a copy of a title to land issued by the State of Tamaulipas, a foreign government, and not a patent issued by the Republic or State of Texas, nor a copy of a title or paper found in the General Land Office. Held, that it was not error to overrule these objections, and to admit the document as an “ instrument of writing of and concerning lands and tenements,” entitled to be recorded under the act of May 12, 1846. (Paschal’s Digest, Article 5001, et seq.)</p> <p>2. The prohibition against the colonization of the twenty border and ten littoral leagues, contained in the National Colonization Law of Mexico (Article 546, Paschal’s Digest), had no application to grants of land to citizens of Mexico ; it applied only to foreign colonists. (Arguello v. United States, 18 Howard, 548, cited by the court.)</p> <p>3. The Colonization law of Tamaulipas did not, in all cases, limit grants of land to five leagues. It was competen