Menotti v. Dillon

Citations

• 167 U.S. 703
• 17 S. Ct. 945
• 42 L. Ed. 333
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 2127

Syllabus

<p>The land in controversy, being 240 acres situated in California, was settled upon and improved in good faith by H., in 1858, with the intention of taking, at the proper time, the necessary steps to acquire the title thereto from the United States, by procuring its.location in part satisfaction of the grant made by the United States to the State of California of 500,000 acres of land; and then of purchasing the land in question from the State. In June, 1864, H., in proper form, made application to the State, under the act of California approved April 27,1863, fbr the sale of certain lands, to locate this land as a “ lieu school land location,” and to purchase it from the State. This application and offer to purchase were approved by the State’s locating agent upon the condition that “if said location should be made and approved by the United States, it should be for the use and benefit of said applicant upon his complying with all the conditions and provisions of the said act of April 27,1863.” Subsequently, February 28, 1865, the State’s agent, proceeding under the state law, located this land in lieu of a portion qf those which had been lost to the State, at the request and for the use of H., by filing an application fot the same in the United States land office at San Francisco. This application to purchase was completed, so that on the 31s.t day of August, 1865, H. received from the State a certificate of purchase in due form. Menotti, the plaintiff in error, claims under H. At the time the above application was filed in the land office at Sau Francisco, the lands in controversy were withdrawn from preemption, private entry and sale, by order of the Land Department, for the benefit of a railroad company which had filed its map of general route under the acts of Congress of July 1, 1862, 12 Stat. 489, c. 120, and July 2, 1864, 13 Stat. 356, c. 216, granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri Fiver to the Pacific