Walters v. Jewett

Citations

• 28 Tex. 192

Syllabus

<p>A husband and wife with their infant children emigrated to Texas in 1835, and thereby became entitled to their head-right league and labor of land, under the 10th general .provision of the constitution of the republic. In January, 1837, before obtaining their certificate, the husband sold and made conveyance of one half of the head-right claim. In December, 1837, the wife died; and in February, 1838, the surviving husband sold the remaining half of the head-right claim to the same vendee, and executed to him a power of attorney, authorizing him to apply for, obtain, and locate the certificate for his own use and benefit, and transferring to him all right, title, and interest in the certificate and in the land to be located by it. The effect of this latter instrument was that of an absolute sale and conveyance by the maker of all the grantor’s interest'to the quantum of land to which he was entitled.</p> <p>In March, 1838, the board of land commissioners for Red River county issued to the vendee, as assignee of the husband, (who, before the death of the wife, had conveyed one-half of their right against the government, and after her death all the residue of his right,) a certificate for the league and labor to which the latter was entitled as the head of the family, and subsequently the vendee located the certificate, and received a patent fpr the land located. The certificate thus became the property of the assignee.</p> <p>In 1856, the children, of parents who had sold their head-right certificate before it issued, having attained their majority, brought suit against the patentee for .one-half of the land, alleging that they were entitled thereto as the heirs of their mother, upon whose estate no administration had ever been had: Held, that the facts do not invest the plaintiffs with a valid legal title to any portion of the land, and consequently their suit, being based upon the assumption of such a title, is not maintainable. (See the opinion for distinctions