Vance v. Lindsey

Citations

• 60 Tex. 286
• 1883 Tex. LEXIS 322

Syllabus

<p>1. Pre-emption.— Ho rights can be acquired to laud, under the location of a land certificate upon land occupied by one as an actual settler under pre-emption laws, before the expiration of the twelve months within which the settler was required to make return of his field notes to the general land office.</p> <p>3. Pre-emptor—Statute construed.—An occupant of public land claiming as a pre-emptor caused the land to be surveyed five months after the passage of the act of May 36, 1873, concerning pre-emptions, and made the required affidavit of occupancy, etc., stating that his occupancy began under the previous act of 1870. Held,</p> <p>(1) The occupant claiming pre-emption rights came within the provisions of the act of May 36, 1873, as “a person who has occupied a portion of the public domain as a homestead under previous law,” and was entitled to have the land surveyed and the field notes thereof returned to the general land office within twelve months from the passage of that act.</p> <p>(3) His possession and occupancy were notice to one filing a certificate thereon and procuring a survey in September, 1873, and no rights could be obtained as against the pre-emptor, under a patent issued on such certificate.</p> <p>(3) The law of 1873 extended the benefit of occupancy to the settler’s right, so as to waive his default in not having the survey made within the time prescribed by the previous law under which the settlement was made.</p> <p>(4) This case distinguished from Teel v. Huffman, 31 Tex., 781.</p> <p>3, Damages.— The pecuniary loss sustained in defending a suit involving title to land cannot be considered as damages which a party may recover; and when this is the only basis for actual damages there can be no recovery for exemplary damages.</p>