Miller v. Dale

Citations

• 44 Cal. 562

Syllabus

<p>Mexican Gbant on Land—When Inchoate.—If an order made by the Mexican Government for a license to occupy land, be treated as a grant of land, it does not make a perfect grant, but only an inchoate title.</p> <p>Idem.—If a petition made to the Mexican Government for a concession of land asks for a certain number of leagues, more or less, within boundaries which are indefinine, the concession gives only an inchoate title.</p> <p>Idem.—An approval of a Mexican grant of land by the Departmental Assembly, and the giving of juridical possession, are necessary to create a definitive grant.</p> <p>Approval of Survey of Mexican Grant.—The approval of a final survey of a Mexican grant of land hy the United States Courts, under the Act entitled “an Act to expedite the settlement of titles to lands in the State of California,” approved July 1st, 1864, is not equivalent to a patent for the land.</p> <p>Idem.—The approval of a final survey of a Mexican grant cannot have the force of a patent unless such effect is given to it hy statutory enactment, and the Act of Congress of July 1st, 1864, is silent as to the effect an approval of a survey shall have.</p> <p>Conflict of Surveys of Mexican Grants. — Where two imperfect grants of land were made hy the Mexican Government, both of which were confirmed by the United States, and their final approved surveys, made under the Act of Congress of July 1st, 1864, lapped over each other, and for one a patent was issued by the United States: Held, that the owners of the grant for which no patent had been issued could not recover, from those claiming under the other grant, possession of the land where the surveys conflicted.</p> <p>Third Persons against whom Survey and Patent are not Conclusive.—Third persons, within the meaning of the Act of Congress of 1851, against whose interest the final confirmation and patent of a Mexican grant are not conclusive, are those, and those only, who have such claim of title that they could, under the stipu