Dreyfus v. Badger

Citations

• 108 Cal. 58
• 41 P. 279
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 822

Syllabus

<p>Patent—Enforcement of Trust—Showing Required.—A person seeking to have a patentee declared his trustee, in the absence of any contract between the parties, must connect himself with the paramount source of title, and show that he has prosecuted his claim with diligence.</p> <p>Id.—Lieu Lands Listed to State — Laches of Occupant.—Where an occupant of land listed to the state in lien of school land, who seeks to have the patentee of the land from the state declared his trustee, was a qualified pre-emptor residing on the land, and had filed in the local United States land-office his declaratory statement of his intention to pre-empt the land after the state surveyor general had made application to have the land listed to the state as lieu land, whereupon his declaratory statement was canceled, and the land listed to the state, but he took no appeal, and recognized the land as state land, and made application to purchase it from the state, which was rejected to his knowledge on account of the prior application upon which the patent was issued, after which he took no steps to contest the prior application, hut slept upon his rights for several years, and until the patent was issued, without being kept in ignorance by any fraud of the patentee, he is guilty of such laches as does not give him any status under which to hold the patentee as his trustee.</p> <p>Id.—Conclusiveness of Patent—Collateral Attack.—Where a patent regular on its face for land owned by the federal or state government has been issued under a law providing for its disposal upon the ascertainment of certain facts, the officers of the land department have jurisdiction to determine such facts, and the issuance of the patent is, upon collateral attack, a conclusive declaration, as against all claiming under the government, that the facts have been found in favor of the patentee.</p> <p>Id.—Character of Land—Suttableness for Cultivation—Ejectment— Collateral Attack Upon Patent.—Where the plaintiff in eje