Daughty v. Hall

Citations

• 59 Tex. 518
• 1883 Tex. LEXIS 216

Syllabus

<p>I. Pke-emption — Patent.— One seeking to establish a pre-emption went with his family on public land in 1871, and, after beginning an improvement, sold his claim to another, agreeing to make a transfer to whoever be would name, after which he moved out of the state, and three years afterwards conveyed to the defendant, who was the widow of his vendee, and whose husband went upon the land in 1871, and was killed May 12, 1872. -The first purchaser never occupied the land, but owned and occupied at the time of the purchase another homestead. The widow occupied the land until 1874, when, returning home after a visit, she found plaintiff in possession. The defendant received a patent, as the assignee of the first occupant, August 23, 1875. In a suit by one claiming under a pre-emption settlement August 15, 1874, held,</p> <p>(1) The removal of the first settler from the state operated an abandonment of his right to claim as a pre-emptor, and the first purchaser already having a homestead, the land became a part of the unappropriated public domain.</p> <p>(2) The patent issued to the vendee of the first purchaser, in 1875, conferred no right to the land as against one claiming adversely as a pre-emptor, who settled as such on the land in 1874.</p>