Pollard v. Putnam

Citations

• 54 Cal. 630

Syllabus

<p>State Lands—Application to Purchase — Contest. — An application to purchase. State lands, made in accordance with law, gives the applicant, as against the State—so long as the statute remains in íorco—a privilege to purchase the land applied for; and as against the officers of the State, and subsequent applicants, it gives him a right to purchase, which can only be lost by his own failure to pursue the subsequent steps prescribed by the statute, and of which he cannot be deprived by the malfeasance or misfeasance of any of the officers. Accordingly, in an action upon a reference by the Surveyor-General—under § 3414 of the Political Code—of a contest between applicants to purchase State lands, where it appeared that the application of the defendant was regular, and i>rior to that of the plaintiff, but that the Surveyor-General had approved the application, and issued the certificate of purchase before the expiration of the sixty days required by § 3498 of the Political Code: Held—admitting that the approval and certificate were void—that the validity of defendant’s application was not affected thereby.</p> <p>It>.—Id.—Id.—Constitutional Law—Constbuction—Repeal of Statute.— The original judgment remanded the cause, with instructions to the lower Court to enter judgment for the defendant. Upon the application for rehearing, (cited infra) the judgment was modified so as to direct a new trial.</p>