Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

it adjudicated that they are the owners of an undivided one-half of the said land; that the claim of the defendants thereto be adjudged null and void; that plaintiffs recover the possession of the land, etc. A general demurrer to the complaint was interposed by the defendant Lyall and by other defendants. The demurrers were sustained; and plaintiffs declining to amend, judgment was rendered for defendants."

The judgment was affirmed by Department 2 of the Supreme Court and a petition for rehearing in banc was denied. Thereupon the chief justice of the court granted this writ of error.

The contention of plaintiffs in error is that the law cast upon them the title to the land upon the death of their intestate ancestor and that such title could not be divested in a suit in which they were not parties.

To sustain the contention plaintiffs in error make, as we shall see, one part of the law of the State paramount to another part, certain decisions of the courts of the State paramount to other decisions, putting out of view that necessarily the coördination of the laws of the State and the accommodation of the decisions of its courts is the function and province of the tribunals of the State, legislative and judicial respectively.

For their rights of property plaintiffs adduce § 1384 of the Civil Code of the State, which provides that "the property, both real and personal, of one who dies without disposing of it by will, passes to the heirs of the intestate, subject to the control of the probate court, and to the possession of any administrator appointed by that court, for the purposes of administration." And decisions of the Supreme Court are cited holding, it is said, "that upon the death of the ancestor, the title to the real estate vests immediately in the heir." From the code and the decisions it is deduced that the descent being cast at the instant of the death of ancestor, the "right of the heir is

[blocks in formation]

fixed by such positive law and he becomes invested with the measure of title which that law has fixed and cannot be divested of such title without due process of law."

It is admitted that the heir takes subject to administration, but with that limitation only, it being contended further that "he holds precisely the title held by the ancestor." Section 1582 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the State is cited as defining the limitation. It provides that "actions for the recovery of any property, real or personal, or for the possession thereof, or to quiet title thereto, or to determine any adverse claim thereon, and all actions founded upon contracts, may be maintained by and against executors and administrators in all cases in which the same might have been maintained by or against their respective testators or intestates."

The Supreme Court of the State in a number of decisions has considered that section to mean that an heir is not a necessary party with the administrator. Cunningham v. Ashley, 45 California, 485; Bayly v. Muehe, 65 California, 345; Finger v. McCaughey, 119 California, 59; Dickey v. Gibson, 121 California, 276. This is conceded by plaintiffs in error, but they say that because § 1582 of the Code of Civil Procedure "is made the basis of the rule established by the Supreme Court of the State" they complain of it, and respectfully urge that it "is repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, §1." This is equivalent to saying that the legislative power of the State, being the source of the rights and the remedies, has so dealt with one as to make the other repugnant to the Constitution of the United States; or, if the complaint be of the decisions, that the Supreme Court of the State cannot construe the laws of the State and make of them a consistent system of jurisprudence, accommodating rights and remedies. Both contentions are so clearly untenable that further discussion is unnecessary. Judgment affirmed.

Opinion of the Court.

224 U.S.

WASKEY v. CHAMBERS.

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT.

No. 221. Argued April 23, 24, 1912.-Decided May 13, 1912.

The word "conveyance" as used in § 98 of the act of June 6, 1900, c. 786, 31 Stat. 321, 505, is not to be narrowly construed but includes leases as well as transfers in fee.

One, who under a lease of a mine, enters on the property and expends money in developing it, gives a valuable consideration for the lease and is protected by the recording act.

A deed altered after acknowledgment and having only one witness. is not entitled to registration under the recording act of June 6, 1900, and has no effect against persons without actual notice. 172 Fed. Rep. 73; 96 C. C. A. 561, reversed.

THE facts are stated in the opinion.

Mr. Albert Fink, with whom Mr. W. H. Metson was on the brief, for petitioner.

Mr. Albert H. Elliot, with him Mr. George W. Rea was on the brief, for respondent.

MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a suit brought by the respondent, Chambers, against Waskey and others, to recover possession of a placer mining claim and damages for gold extracted from the same. Waskey defended under two leases from the parties alleged by him to be the owners. The plaintiff had a verdict and a judgment which was affirmed by a majority of the Circuit Court of Appeals, 172 Fed. Rep. 73, 96 C. C. A. 561. The facts as they are to be taken under the

224 U.S.

Opinion of the Court.

verdict are these. Whittren was the original locator of the claim. He made a deed of a part interest to Chambers, and acknowledged it on April 21, 1902, the notary being the only witness. In May, 1906, the deed was altered by consent of the parties so as to convey one-half, and was filed for recording on June 20 of that year. On September 24, 1905, Whittren conveyed one-half to Eadie, and this deed was recorded. On June 11, 1906, Whittren and Eadie, who were the record owners, made a lease of a part to Waskey for two years, recorded on August 22, 1906, and on June 20, 1906, Whittren made a lease of the other part to Eadie and Waskey, which was recorded on August 30, 1906. Waskey denied the validity of the deed to Chambers and also claimed as purchaser for value without notice. The Circuit Court of Appeals held that the deed to Chambers was good as between the parties and that Waskey was not within the protection of the statute as a purchaser without notice and also that he gave no valuable consideration for his lease, these questions having been raised below by exclusion of evidence and instructions of the court.

The act of Congress reads, "Every conveyance of real property within the district hereafter made which shall not be filed for record as provided in this chapter shall be void against any subsequent innocent purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration of the same real property, or any portion thereof, whose conveyance shall be first duly recorded." Act of June 6, 1900, c. 786, Tit. 3, § 98, 31 Stat. 321, 505. Code, Part V, § 98. The Circuit Court of Appeals went on the ground that a lease creates only a chattel interest and is not a conveyance and therefore is not within the protection of the statute. But it is obvious that in principle the right of a lessee is the same as that of a purchaser in fee, and it would be a great misfortune, especially to mining interests, if a man taking a lease from those whom the record showed and he believed

Opinion of the Court.

224 U.S.

to be the owners, were liable, after spending large sums of money on the faith of it, to be turned out by an undisclosed claimant on the strength of an unrecorded deed. We find no words in the statute that require such a result. On the contrary, the word "conveyance" is defined, although for other purposes, as embracing every written instrument except a will by which any interest in lands is created. Act of 1900, Tit. 3, § 136, 31 Stat. 510. Code, Part V, § 136. See Tit. 2, § 1046, 31 Stat. 493. Code, Part IV, § 1046. And the statute provides for the recording of leases, as well as of deeds and grants, Act of 1900, Tit. 1, § 15, 31 Stat. 327. Code, Part III, § 15. Blackstone defines a lease as a conveyance, 2 Comm. 317, and in Shepard's Touchstone, 267, leases are ranked under the head of grants, 'as in other grants.' The point does not need authority except to exclude the notion that the statute uses the word in a narrower sense.

It is said that Waskey was not a purchaser for value. By the lease of June 11 he agreed to enter at once and work the mine continuously and to pay thirty per cent of the gold and precious minerals or metals extracted. The other agreement was similar, except that one-eighth was to go to Whittren, one-eighth to Eadie and the remainder, after paying mining expenses, to be divided between Waskey and Eadie. His working the mine was a valuable consideration and none the less so if in the event he was reimbursed for his expenditures and made a profit for his trouble.

Waskey was in possession and at work before the deed to Chambers was filed for recording, but we do not have to consider whether possession under the lease would have the same effect as getting the later instrument recorded before the earlier one under § 98 above quoted. For although the deed to Chambers was filed before the leases, it had no effect as against people without actual notice. It never had but one witness, two being necessary to au

« AnteriorContinuar »