Warren v. Van Brunt

ERROR to the Supreme Court of Minnesota.

This was a contest between two pre-emption claimants, Warren, on the one hand, and the representatives of Van Brunt, deceased, on the other, for the ownership of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, section 13, township 108 N., R. 27 W. (forty acres), in the State of Minnesota. These last had the legal title under a patent from the United States, issued upon the claim of Van Brunt. Warren, alleging that he had an elder and better right of pre-emption, sought by his action in the court below to charge the representatives of Van Brunt as his trustees, and to compel them to convey to him the title they acquired by the patent.

The case was decided below upon facts found by the court, and stated in the record. No exception was taken to the finding, and the question presented, therefore, for the determination of this court was, whether upon the facts as found there was error in the decree.

These facts were substantially as follows: Warren and Van Brunt being each, in May, 1853, and thereafter until the death of Van Brunt, legally competent to avail themselves of the pre-emption laws of the United States, in the said month jointly selected for occupancy about two hundred and eighty acres of unsurveyed public lands in Minnesota, to which the Indian title had been extinguished. They settled upon the forty acres in dispute, and after ploughing and planting two or three acres, proceeded with their joint means and labor to erect thereon a house for a residence, into which they moved with their families in June. They occupied this house together until the 18th of July, when, a difficulty having arisen between them, a contract of partition was entered into, by which, after establishing a dividing line, which ran diagonally across the premises in controversy and through the ploughed lands, it was agreed that Warren should have the sole and exclusive use of all the lands selected for occupancy situated on the east side of the line, and Van Brunt of all on the west. The house they had built was on the part set off to Warren, but by the agreement Van Brunt was to have the exclusive use of it until May 1st, 1854, when, on the payment to him of one-half its cost, he was to surrender the possession to Warren for his exclusive use thereafter. Upon the execution of this contract, Warren went with his family to the town of Mankato a town in the neighborhood of the two hundred and forty acres of land, but not on any part of it-leaving Van Brunt in the house. Soon after, and within a reasonable time, he began the erection of a new house on a part of the premises set off to him, adjoining the disputed property, into which he moved in the autumn of 1853 with his family.

Van Brunt continued to occupy the first house in accordance with the terms of the contract of partition until May 1st, 1854, when Warren, having paid him for one-half its cost, evicted him by legal proceedings. After his eviction, he went into an abandoned 'claim-shanty' on the part of the premises set off to him, and remained there from two to four weeks, during which time he erected a new house upon the disputed property, but on his side of the dividing line. As soon as this house was completed he moved into it with his family and resided there until his death, on the 5th of January, A. D. 1856. His family occupied the same house as their residence after his death, until their title was perfected under his claim. In 1853 and 1854 he ploughed and cultivated about twenty acres of the land occupied by him, seventeen of which were on the disputed forty. In 1854 and 1855, he ploughed a few acres more and cultivated all his improved lands. In 1855 he inclosed all his improvements with a fence, and dug some ditches. In addition to his house, he put up on the disputed property a large corn-crib, a cow-house, and other outbuildings.

After the eviction of Van Brunt from the first house, Warren moved into it and resided there until the autumn of 1854. He then went back to the house he built after the partition, and remained there until after Van Brunt's heirs perfected their title. He cultivated and improved his lands upon the east of and up to the agreed division line, by fencing, ploughing, and planting, and kept tenants in the first house all the time after he left it until the commencement of the action in the court below. Neither of the parties disputed the right of the other to occupy and cultivate up to the line of division until after the title of the Van Brunt heirs was perfected.

The township lines were surveyed through the public lands, which included the premises in dispute, in 1854, and the subdivision lines in 1855. When the township lines were run, Warren was residing with his family in the first house, and his improvements on the disputed forty, including the house, were then equal to, if not greater in value, than those of Van Brunt.

On the 19th July, 1855, Van Brunt filed in the land office his declaratory statement under the pre-emption laws, claiming the right to enter and purchase the north half of the southeast quarter and south half of the northeast quarter, section 13, T. 108 N., R. 27 W., containing one hundred and sixty acres. His claim included the forty acres in dispute. In his statement he gave the 4th of June, 1855, as the date of his settlement.

It appeared from the pleadings and the statements of the counsel for the plaintiff, in the argument, that in December, 1855, Warren filed his declaratory statement, also claiming the right under the pre-emption laws to enter and purchase the disputed premises, and the northwest quarter, southwest quarter, and south half of the northwest quarter, section 18, T. 108 N., R. 26 W., in all one hundred and sixty acres. He gave the date of his settlement as November 17th, 1853. On the 7th March, 1856, Warren served a notice upon the widow and administratrix of Van Brunt, that he should contest her claim to the pre-emption of the forty acres in controversy, and, in consequence of this notice, both claimants appeared before the register and receiver of the land office and produced and examined their witnesses. After a full hearing, these officers were unable to agree upon a decision, and the papers and proofs were thereupon sent to the Commissioner of the General Office, who, on the 4th of April, 1857, decided in favor of the Van Brunt claim. Warren appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, who, on the 31st of October, A. D. 1857, affirmed the decision of the commissioner. On the 15th of May, 1860, a patent was issued to the heirs of Van Brunt for the whole one hundred and sixty acres claimed by him. In January, 1857, Warren received a patent for the one hundred and twenty acres claimed by him in section 18, and in February, 1865, filed a bill in one of the State courts of Minnesota to recover from Van Brunt's heirs the disputed forty acres.

The bill prayed a decree that Van Brunt's representatives should convey to Warren the whole forty acres.

The answer-which mentioned as part of a history of things which it gave, that the parties had divided their claims by running a line, which line they supposed when they made it would correspond with the east line of the forty acres, as that line would be laid down by the government survey-resisted this claim of the plaintiff and asserted title in the whole forty acres in Van Brunt's representatives.

The replication, denying that the division-line as thus agreed on gave Van Brunt any title to the forty acres, thus continued:

'And the plaintiff prays in addition to the prayer of original complaint, that, in case the court should not find for the plaintiff that he is entitled to a decree for a release of the whole disputed forty acres, that then the court may ascertain how the said alleged division-line divides said forty acres, and that the defendants, on terms of payment of the original cost of the same, be decreed to convey so much thereof as may be found to have been assigned to him, to the plaintiff.'

The Supreme Court of Minnesota, to which the case finally got, adjudged the title to be in the heirs of Van Brunt, and Warren brought the case here on error.

Messrs. M. S. Wilkinson and C. K. Davis, for the plaintiff in error:

1. Warren, in his declaratory statement, dates his settlement as of November 17th, 1853. Van Brunt does not pretend that his was made prior to June 4th, 1855. Warren's settlement was thus anterior to Van Brunt's. Where two or more persons have settled on the same quarter-section the right of pre-emption belongs to him who has made the first settlement.

2. If, in this view of the case, Warren is not entitled to the whole forty acres, a joint entry should have been allowed by the land department. There is nothing in the pre-emption laws which forbids a joint settlement, declaration, and purchase. The admitted rule, 'that where two or more persons have settled upon the same quarter-section each shall be permitted to enter his improvement as near as may be by legal subdivisions,' is very well so far as it goes, but it will not apply where both claimants have their improvements on the same quarter of the quarter-section, or forty acres, the smallest legal subdivision. In such a case exact justice would seem to require that they enter jointly the whole.