BRADFORD
II.
BALI,oo
801.
BRADFORD v. HALLet ua:. SAME v. TURNER. (lJitre'Uit Oourt. S. D. Mississippi, E. D. November 20,1888.)
L
PUBLIC LANDS-SWAMP LANDs-TITLE FROM STATE,
By act Miss. March 12, 1852, the swamp lands theretofore granted the state by congrells were transferred to a board of commissioners to sell, and cause certificates of purchase to issue to the purchailer thereof. Upon presents-' tion of these certificates, the secretary of state was authorized to issue a patent. By act April 2. 1871. a corporation was created as the successor to the commissioners, and vested with their rights, properties, etc.. and upon filing a bond the corporation was to receive a patent for the lands. except lands . theretofore sold to legal purchasers. Held, that a purchaser from the board of commissioners, who had paid the price, and received a certificate, before the passage of the act of April 2. 1871, acquired the equitable title, which was sufficient as against purchasers from the corporation. . By the act of 1871 the execution of a valid bond was made a condition precedent to the vesting of the title in the corporation. The bond having been declared invalid, an act was passed reciting that, as under the patent to the: corporation the land had been assessed for taxation, and taxes paid. the corporation should have the right to purchase lands patented by it, upon paying mto the state treasury, within a certain time. a certain snm per acre. Held, that, as no payment by the corporation had been .Illade for the lands in con-. troversy, the curative act was inoperative as to them. The purchasers from the corporation were chargeable with notice of the recitals in the act creating it and authorizing the transfer of the lands. l\oIl well also the failure of the corporation to comply with the terms of the act. The registry laws of the state have no bearing upon complainant's title. 8S· the. certificates were not required to be registered as notice to the world of their existence. Tax deeds from the state auditor are insufficient to show title in the grantee, where there is no evidence oftha tax sales, and report of the tax collector.. by which title to the land· vested in the st8;te. ' The purchasers from the corporation are entitled to have refunded money expended by them in good faith in the payment of taxes and for the purchase of the tax title of the state, and it is immaterial that the complainant applied to the assessor to have the lands taxed in his name, and to the .tax collector to pay the taxes. and W8S refused. " PATENTS-RIGHTS OF PURCHASERS-TAXES.
I.
SAME-CURATIVE ACTS.
SAME-BONA FIDE PURCHASERS-CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE.
.. SAME-CERTnrrCATE OF PURCHASE-REGISTRATION.
G.
SAME-TAX'TITLE-EvIDE.NCE.
6.
In Equity. .Bill to quiet title. Actions by J. J. Bradford against Israel Halla:nd wife, and one against Margaret P. Turner, to quiet title to certain swamp lands in the state of Mississippi. W. P. J. B. Harris, for complainant. . E. E. Baldwin and Russell Boone, for defendants. HILL, J. These two causes are submitted together upon bills, crossbills, answers, exhibits, and proofs, from which the following facts ap'" pear: By an act of the congress of the United States, approved 28ih September, 1850, the title to the lands described in the bills, together with many other lands knownas"swamp lanqs/'in.thiRstate, was vested v.36F.lio.13-51 .
in this state, to be used or sold, and the proceeds used in reclaiming said lands, and for other purposes. Toca.rry into effect the object of this dopassed an act, approved on the 12th nation by congress, the day of March, 1852, crea-tinga board of commissioners for the Pearl river swamp lands,inwhich the lands in controversy are situated, and by said act the swamp lands in said district, including the lands in controversy, . trans,ferred and granted ,to said commissioners, and gave power 'to sl;tid bom.;d to sell and dispose ofany of the lands so transferred and conveyed,for the purposes stated, and to order and cause certificates to issue tcLth!l pu.rchaser or grantee of lands, specifying the number of acres that the purchaser may be entitled to, and the number of the section and of8ections transferred,and the township and 'range in which That, upon the presel,ltl,Ltion of the certificate of the treasurer of said board ofcommissioners, the sMretary of state should issue a patent to the lands described in the certificate, in the same manner as patI;tre to issue for th,6 improvement lands. This act was amended by an act approved November 21, 1865, which, among other thihgs,provided that after the 1st of January, 1866, the minimum price ofsajd lands then unsold should' be 121 cents per acre, each.' On the 29th' day of March, 1871, the.cOInplainant, jointly with J. J. Seal, now deceased, purchased from Hiram Bonner, the then treasurer of said board, the lands in controversy, at t1'e rate of 121 cents Per acre, and received. fx-om:said Bonner, as such treasurer, certificates for the same, in compHanc6with said act. The legislature passed an Mt which became a law and was in force 01,1 th13 ,2dqay of April, 1871, .witnout the approval of the governor, incorporating the Pearl River Improvement & Navigation Company, and for other purposes. This act declared the said company to be the sue-: Cessor Pfthe said board of commissioners, .with powerpnd authority 'to carry out the powers and duties of said board according to the act of March 12, 1852, and vested the company with all the rights, properan,d demands, real, personal, and mixed, belonging to said under their control. The third section.of the act has this provision: "That said company shall sixty days after the passage of this act file in the office of the secretary of state, a bond in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, with two or more good securities, who shall make oath that they are of the bond, overan:<!above all liabilities and exemptions. 'V,hieh 1l6curiUes reside in to be approved by the governot; an'dupon the approval and filing of said bond said secretary shall from time to time, as demanded by said compally, ,make out a patent or patents to said company. which patents shall vest'the title in fee-simple iil said company: provided nothing in this seetionshldl ,be so construed as to reqUire patents to issue for any land heretofore sold to legal purchasers; provided further, that no be:disposed of or sold fora less sum than twenty-five cents per flere. . .,' . '.' . ·Oii the'l1thday of June, 1871, and on the 27th day of June, 1871, patents were issued, signed by the governor and Elem:etary ofstate, under the seal of the state, COll veying, among many' other the lands in'
or
controversy NavigationCompany;alldontbe 2:1atday of a deed, or, what purports to, b!3 &uch, was executed by Samuel A.Vose, as the president of said ;navigat.ioll:con1pany,Jor:all of said lands described in the two patents aforel'laid,to M. S. J3aldwin, forthe recited consideration of $11,000. On the 29th day of November, 1872,the navigation company, by Vase as president, executed another deed to Baldwin for lands described therein for the ,recited consideration of $10,000, but stated to be to correct certain descriptions of the. lands intended to be conveyed in the deed of November 21,1872. On the 17th of April, 1878, Baldwin, by Vose, as his attorney in fact, eXflcuteda deed of conveyance to defendant Israel Hall, for the lands described in the bill against Hall's wife, and in the cross-bill, for the recited consideration of $40,000, but which was paid in other lands and real estate ,situate in several of the northern states; and on the 5th day of November, 1874, ISfael Hall executed a deed of conveyance to a one-half interest in the land to his wife and co-defendant. On the 15th day of December, 1873, a deed of conveyance to the lands described in complainant's billagainst Mrs. Turner, and in her cross-bill, to Charles H. Shepard, for the rfr cited consideration of $53,804.61, with other lands. Shepard gavehia notes for part of the purchase one of which was purchased by Mrs. Turner. Shepard, to secure the note, executed a mortgage, which, with the note, was transferred to Mrs. Turner, who filed her bill in this court to foreclose the mortgage, obtained a decree for the amount due, which, DOt being paid as required by the decree, in pursuance to the de. cree the land' was sold, when she became the purchaser, and obtained ,a deed therefor from the comnlissioner, all of which was confirmed by the court. The 'proof shows that neither Mrs. 'rurner, nor her husband, who acted for her, knew of any defect in the title under which she claims. The same is true of the testimony regarding Hall a,nd wife. Both parcontinued to pay the taxes on the lands claimed by them up to this present time. On the 20th d:1y of July, 1881, patents were issued by the governor and secretary of state, under the seal of the state, to complainant and J. J. Seal to the lands described in the bills and bills in these cases, under the certificates of purchase so executed by Hiram Bonner. On the 19th of April, 1873, the legislature passed an act declaring that the purpose of the act of 1871, incorporating the Pearl River Navigation Company, had failed, but that, as the patent to the lands be. fore then made to the company had subjected them to taxation, which taxes had been paid, that, upon the payment into the treasury of the state of 25 cents per acre of all the lands that had been patented, the secretary of state should cancel and deliver up the bond or undertaking that had been filed in his office, intended to be the ,bond required by the l,l.ct of incorporation to be executed, appoved, and filed; that the purchase money so directed to be paid should be paid on or before the 1st day of October, 1879; and that, unless. payment was made as provided in the act, that the title to the land. should rest absolute in the state; and the patents issued ,should be deposited with the secretary of state. This act also provided ,that if any orthe lands patentel1 to the compll.nyha.d