Florida Town Improvement Co. v. Bigalsky

Citations

• 44 Fla. 771

Syllabus

<p>1. The President of the United States bad power in 1842 and 1849, by executive order, and without a special act of Congress authorizing him so to do, to reserve part of the public domain on the north end of Amelia island for a military reservation.</p> <p>2. Public lands of the United States on the north end of Amelia island, reserved from sale for military purposes by executive orders of the President in 1842 and 1849, were effectually segregated from the public domain and passed beyond the control or jurisdiction of the General Land Office as a part thereof; and any action taken there thereafter, whether resulting in the issuance of a patent to an individual or in the certification of such lands to the State as swamp and overflowed under the act of Congress passed in 1850, had no binding force or effect, but was and is subject to.attack whenever or wherever such proceedings should he asserted as the basis of title . .</p> <p>3. Where documentary evidence on file in the General Land Office is produced proving that certain land sought to he recovered was lawfully reserved for military purposes, a court of law can in an action of ejectment adjudge a patent and a certification of such land as swamp and overflowed, made in defiance of such reservation under proceedings had in that office, void and refuse to give effect to them.</p> <p>4. A Spanish grant in Florida, whether complete and perfect or not, was required by vai'ious acts of Congress to be presented for confirmation to the hoard of commissioners appointed to adjudicate upon such claims, or to be adjudicated by proceedings in the courts, and all grants not so presented or adjudicated became barred by the limitation in those acts, and can not’ be now recognized as valid by -the courts.</p>