Johnson v. Drew

Citations

• 34 Fla. 130

Syllabus

<p>1. A plea on equitable grounds may be interposed in an action of ejectment, provided it sets np matters not available as a legal defense, and which would authorize the defendant to obtain relief in equity by injunction against the judgment in ejectment.</p> <p>'3. It will not be error to refuse an application to file a plea on equitable grounds if the defense sought to be set up in the plea can be made available as a legal defense under the general issue.</p> <p>■3. A patent purporting to have been issued by the land office under authority of law, and regular on its face, is evidence of a good conveyance of the land therein described; but it may be shown m an action of ejectment for the possession of the land that the land office department did not in fact have authority to issue the patent, and that the land undertaken to be conveyed had never been subject to disposition by that department, or, if so, had been withdrawn from sale before the patent issued. In such a case the patent will be void, and its invalidity may be shown as a defense in an action at law for the possession of the land.</p> <p>4. A patent issued by the land office department for any portion of the public lands is at least prima facie evidence of the authority of that department to dispose of the land patented, and • all matters passed upon and properly coming within the jurisdiction of the land department in granting the patent, are conclusive until set aside by proper direct proceedings.</p> <p>5. The right given by the act of Congress (Chapter 314, acts of 1884) to a settler upon a military reservation when entitled to make a homestead entry, to enter one hundred and sixty acres in a body, is dependent upon the fact that said land was subject to entry under the public land laws at the time of its withdrawal; and when a settler upon a portion of a military reservation, without any certificate of entry or showing any privity with the title of the government other than that of bare possession