Monroe Cattle Co. v. Becker

Citations

• 147 U.S. 47
• 13 S. Ct. 217
• 37 L. Ed. 72
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2142

Syllabus

<p>During the ninety days allowed by the statutes of Texas concerning the purchase of school lands to a purchaser to make his first payment, (Laws, of 1879, special session, p. 23, Laws of 1881, p, 119,) it is not competent for the surveyor to permit a person who had filed an application for a designated tract to treat the application as withdrawn and abandoned, and to make another application for the same tract in the name -of a different person.</p> <p>During that period of ninety days the land is in the position of'reserved. lands under railroad grant acts, to which it is well settled that the grant does not attach if the land is in any way 'segregated from the public lands.</p> <p>The issue of a patent of public land to a person who is not equitably entitled to it does not preclude the owner of the equitable title from enforcing it in a court of equity against claimants under the patent.</p> <p>Where the defendant in a suit in equity answers under oath denying charges of fraud, and no other evidence is offered, the charges are not sustained.</p> <p>.Charges of fraud made upon information and belief and not sustained by proof must be treated as not sustained.</p> <p>Under the laws of Texas regulating the sale of the school lands, a purchaser who makes the first payment called for, who executes the obliga;tions for subsequent payments as called for, and complies with those obligations as they mature, is protected against forfeiture.</p> <p>The act of the legislature of Texas of April 14, 1883, concerning purchases of school lands, had no effect upon the vested rights of the plaintiff in this case.</p> <p>It is bad pleading to describe a party by the initials only, of his Christian name, but, when no advantage is taken of the defect in the court below, it will not be considered here.</p>