Stofferan v. Okanogan County

Citations

• 76 Wash. 265
• 136 P. 484
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1809

Syllabus

<p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error. Irregular additional findings are harmless, where the trial court did not see the witnesses, since, on trial de novo on the same record, the findings are accorded no weight in the supreme court.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error. The admission of a letter from the register of a local land office, not an exemplified copy of its records under the terms of any statute is harmless error where the fact to which it was directed was established by other competent evidence.</p> <p>Public Lands — Settlers—Homestead — Possession — Evidence— Admissibility. The right to possession of land by a claimant of an additional homestead may, as against mere trespassers, be shown by oral evidence of the date of the filing of the application and of a dona fide intent to take the land as an additional homestead.</p> <p>Same — Grants—Rights oe Wav — Highways—Settlers on Unsurveyed Land — Possessory Rights. U. S. Rev. Stats., § 2477, granting rights of way over the unreserved public lands of the United States, and Rem. & Bal. Code, § 5607, authorizing boards of county commissioners to accept by resolution such Congressional grant, do not amount to a grant in praesenti, as to unsurveyed lands in the possession of a dona fide settler; but the grant is held in abeyance until a highway is established by law.</p> <p>Same — Federal Grant — Establishment oe Highway. The grant by U. S. Rev. Stats., § 2477, of a right of way for county roads oyer the unreserved public lands of the United States, tabes effect when the highway has been established by prescription or used for the requisite period; and in such case it is not necessary that the road-he first established by proceedings before the county commissioners upon petition.</p> <p>Same — Federal Grant — Lands In Indian Reservation — Adverse Use. Indians being wards of the government, lands in an Indian reservation are reserved for public use until the reservation is thrown open to settlement, and do not come