Winsor v. O'Connor

Citations

• 69 Tex. 571
• 8 S.W. 519
• 1888 Tex. LEXIS 897

Syllabus

<p>1. Constitution Construed — Surveys and Locations.— Section 9 of article 14 of the State constitution provides, among other things, that . “all genuine land certificates, heretofore or hereafter issued, shall be located, surveyed or patented only upon vacant and unappropriated public domain, and not upon any land titled or equitably owned under color of title from the sovereignty of the State, evidence of the appropriation which is on the county records, or in the general land office, or when the appropriation is evidenced by the occupation of the owner, or of some person holding for him.” Held,</p> <p>(1) The words “land titled,” as used in the section, embrace land covered by that evidence of right which the State gives through a patent, and are not restricted to those lands which are held under patent which, in the absence of section 2, article 14, would be deemed sufficient to confer title.</p> <p>(2) If for reasons not appearing on the face of a patent, the grant would be void, or voidable, yet in contemplation of section 2, article 14, the land embraced in the calls of the patent would, for the purposes contemplated by the section, be deemed “land titled.”</p> <p>(3) Trueheart v. Babcock, 51 Texas, 117; Summers v. Davis, 49 Texas, 554; Westrop v. Chambers, 51 Texas, 188; Bryan v. Crump, 55 Texas, 10; Stub blefield v. Boggs, 2 Ohio St., 219; Day Land and Cattle Company v. The State, 68 Texas, 525; DeCourt v. Sproul, 66 Texas, 368; Hanrick v. Dodd, 63 Texas, 91; Woods v. Durrett, 28 Texas, 436; Sherwood v. Fleming, 25 Texas Sup., 427; and Patrick v. Nance, 26 Texas, 301, cited.</p> <p>(4) Under section 2, article 14 of the Constitution any location made on land which, before the adoption of that Constitution, had been patented is illegal, though the patent may have been void if it emanated from offices of the State authorized to convey title.</p> <p>(5) Hanrick v. Dodd, 62 Texas, 91, and Miller v. Brownson, 50 Texas, 583, reviewed.</p> <p>(6) When an illegal