[DOWNLOAD] "Niswanger v. Saunders" by United States Supreme Court # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Niswanger v. Saunders
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1863
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 63 KB
Description
Mr. Stanberry, by brief, for the appellant: If this case were to be ruled by Ohio decisions and Ohio laws, we should have no standing in this court. But the case arises on a statute of the United States, and the decision below having been against the right set up under it, this court has final authority in the matter. The question rests on precedents here. In Jackson v. Clark,4 an entry was set up by the defendants, on the land in controversy, made July 19, 1796. The plaintiffs attempted to overcome this entry, by showing that two prior entries had been made upon the same warrants, both of which had been patented. There was no evidence of any withdrawal of the two prior entries, or of any surrender or cancellation of the patents. So that the case presented the question of a re-entry on a satisfied warrant, satisfied by prior entries carried into grant without withdrawal or cancellation. The court sanctions the last entry, and holds, that however irregular or unauthorized it may have been, yet the land covered by it was effectually withdrawn from entry by any other locator. Our entry of 1810 stands upon a better foundation than the entry there held valid, for it appears that the 640 acres were 'withdrawn' from the Kentucky entry; and that the 640 acres so withdrawn had been lost by interference with a prior claim. The court below decided the case against us, on the ground that our entry of 1810 and the subsequent survey were nullities, and therefore not within the savings of the proviso. They are nullities, say the court, because warrants under which they were made, were satisfied by the original entry of 1784, and merged in the patent granted on that entry. Now, the first answer to this is, that to the extent of the 640 acres in Henderson's Grant, there was no satisfaction, and no merger. The matter may be plainly put thus: The State of Virginia granted to certain soldiers 1000 acres on warrants, to be satisfied by entry or location upon certain lands which the State then owned on the southwest side of the Ohio River. The warrants did not describe or grant any specific tracts. It happened that in laying off and surveying this 1000 acres, 640 acres were laid off within the bounds of a wellknown tract of country called Henderson's Grant. Not an acre of land within that grant belonged to Virginia in 1784. It had been, prior to that date, granted by Virginia to Henderson. Besides this, by the very act of Virginia, passed in May, 1799, authorizing entries under military warrants, it was provided, that 'no entry or location of land shall be admitted . . . on the lands granted by law to Richard Henderson & Company;' the lands first taken.