Hestres v. Brennan

Citations

• 50 Cal. 211
• 1875 Cal. LEXIS 128

Syllabus

<p>Power of Secretary of Interior in Relation to Public Lands.—The Secretary of the Interior, in reviewing the decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office in relation to the sale of public lands, exercises a supervisory rather than an appellate power in the sense in which the term appellate is employed in defining the powers of courts of justice.</p> <p>Idem.—In the exercise of such supervisory power, the Secretary of the Interior may approve, modify or annul the acts, proceedings and decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, whenever certified to him, without the formality of an appeal.</p> <p>Idem.—But even if the power of the Secretary of the Interior over the decisions of the Commissioner is to be regarded as appellate, the statute has not provided the machinery for taking an appeal, and consequently that matter is subject to such rules and regulations as the department may prescribe, and if the Commissioner of the General Land Office transmits the papers to the Secretary of the Interior, the presumption is that they were regularly and properly transmitted.</p> <p>Idem.—After a person claiming to be a pre-emptor has filed his declaratory statement, and has been permitted to pay for the land, and has received a certificate of purchase under the ruling of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the Secretary of the Interior may direct the entry to be cancelled and annul the purchase, and after his decision the preemptor ceases to have any right or title to the premises.</p>