Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : May-02-1887
Wright v. Roseberry - 121 U.S. 488 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Wright v. Roseberry, 121 U.S. 488 (1887) Wright v. Roseberry Submitted March 21, 1887 Decided May 2, 1887 121 U.S. 488 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus The grant of swamp and overflowed lands to the several states by Act of September 28, 1850, is one in praesenti, passing title to the lands of the character therein described from its date, and requiring only identification thereof to render such title perfect. Such identification by the Secretary of the Interior is conclusive against collateral attack as being the judgment of the special tribunal on which such duty was imposed. On neglect or failure of that officer to make such designation, it is competent for the grantees of the state to identify the lands in any other appropriate mode to prevent their rights from being defeated. After segregation of the lands by the state and adoption of the segregation surveys by the proper fed...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Oct-31-1887
Parker & Whipple Company v. Yale Clock Co. - 123 U.S. 87 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Parker & Whipple Company v. Yale Clock Co., 123 U.S. 87 (1887) Parker and Whipple Company v. Yale Clock Company Argued October 20, 1887 Decided October 31, 1887 123 U.S. 87 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT Syllabus The first eight claims of reissued letters patent No. 10,O62, granted March 14, 1882, to Arthur E. Hotchkiss for improvements in clock movements on an application for a reissue filed July 19, 1881 (the original patent, No. 221,310, having been granted to Hotchkiss November 4, 1879, on an application filed July 29, 1879, and a prior reissue, No. 9656, having been granted April 12, 1881), are invalid because not for the same invention as that of the original patent. The statutes and the decisions of this Court on the question of the necessity that a reissued patent should be granted only for the same invention as the original patent r...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Nov-21-1887
Colorado Coal & Iron Co. v. United States - 123 U.S. 307 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Colorado Coal & Iron Co. v. United States, 123 U.S. 307 (1887) Colorado Coal and Iron Company v. United States Argued November 2, 1887 Decided November 21, 1887 123 U.S. 307 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Syllabus To a bill in equity to cancel a patent of land from the United States to a preemptor, solely on the ground that there was no actual settlement and improvement on the land, as falsely set out in affidavits in support of the preemption claim, the defense of a bona fide purchaser without notice is perfect. In a suit by the United States to cancel a patent of public land, the burden of producing the proof and establishing the fraud is on the government, from which it is not relieved although the proposition which it is bound to establish may be of a negative nature. When a plaintiff's right of action is grounded on a negative allegatio...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Apr-18-1887
Maxwell Land Grant Case - 121 U.S. 325 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Maxwell Land Grant Case, 121 U.S. 325 (1887) Maxwell Land Grant Case Argued March 8-11, 1881 Decided April 18, 1887 121 U.S. 325 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Syllabus It does not satisfactorily appear that the grant of Governor Armijo of 1841 to Beaubien and Miranda, since ascertained to amount to 1,414,164.94 acres, was of that character which, by the decree of the Mexican Congress of 1824, was limited to eleven square leagues of laud for each grantee. It does appear that, though the attention of Congress was turned to this question, it confirmed the grant in the Act of June 21, 1860, to the full extent of the boundaries as described in the petition of claimants. In such case, the courts have no jurisdiction to limit the grant, as the Constitution, by Article IV, 1, vests the control of the public lands in Congress. Tameling v. United States Freehold Co., ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Nov-21-1887
Doolan v. Carr - 125 U.S. 618 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Doolan v. Carr, 125 U.S. 618 (1887) Doolan v. Carr No. 34 Argued October 24-25, 1887 Decided November 21, 1887 125 U.S. 618 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus The proper Circuit Court of the United States has jurisdiction, irrespective of the citizenship of the parties, of an action in ejectment, in which the controversy turns upon the validity of a patent of land from the United States. Want of power in an officer of the Land Office to issue a land patent may be shown in an action at law by extrinsic evidence, although the patent may be issued with all the forms of law required for a patent of public land. Land within the limits of a valid Mexican grant (which grant was sub judice when the grant of public land in aid of the Pacific Railroads was made by the Act of July 1, 1862, as amended July 2, 1864, and March 3, 1865), if found after the location of the railr...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Nov-14-1887
Siemens' Administrator v. Sellers - 123 U.S. 276 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Siemens' Administrator v. Sellers, 123 U.S. 276 (1887) Siemens' Administrator v. Sellers Argued October 17, 1887 Decided November 14, 1887 123 U.S. 276 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA Syllabus The English letters patent dated January 22, 1861, and sealed July 19, 1861, issued to Charles William Siemens and Frederick Siemens for "improvements in furnaces," and the American letters patent No. 41,788, dated March 1, 1864, issued to C. W. and F. Siemens for "improved regenerator furnaces" describe the same furnace in all essential particulars, and are substantially for the same invention. When American letters patent are issued covering the same invention described in foreign letters patent of an earlier date, the life of the American patent is not prolonged by the fact that it also covers improvements upon the invention as patented in the forei...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Oct-31-1887
Coan v. Flagg - 123 U.S. 117 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Coan v. Flagg, 123 U.S. 117 (1887) Coan v. Flagg, 123 U.S. 117 (1887) Submitted October 20, 1887 Decided October 31, 1887 123 U.S. 117 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OHIO Syllabus The entry and survey of lands in the Virginia Military District in Ohio, under which the plaintiff claims title, did not invest the owners of the warrant, or their assignee, with an equitable interest in the lands surveyed as against the United states for the reason that the excess of the land surveyed beyond that covered by the warrant was so great as to make the survey fraudulent and void, and consequently Congress could, by the Act of February 18, 1871, 16 Stat. 416, grant the lands at its pleasure. It was the purpose of the Act of February 18, 1871, to grant to the State of Ohio all the lands in the Virginia Military District in that state which had not at that time been legally surveyed and sold by the United States, in that s...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Oct-17-1887
Coffee v. Groover - 123 U.S. 1 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Coffee v. Groover, 123 U.S. 1 (1887) Coffee v. Groover Argued April 20, 1887 Decided October 17, 1887 123 U.S. 1 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA Syllabus Grants of land made by a government in territory over which it exercises political jurisdiction de facto, but which does not rightfully belong to it, are invalid as against the government to which the territory rightfully belongs. Where a disputed boundary between two states is adjusted and settled, grants previously made by either state of lands claimed by it and over which it exercised political jurisdiction, but which, on the adjustment of the boundary, are found to be within the territory of the other state, are void unless confirmed by the latter state, and such confirmation cannot affect the titles of the same lands previously granted by the latter state itself. The boundary between Georgia and Florida was long in dispute, Georgia claiming...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-10-1887
Ives v. Sargent - 119 U.S. 652 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Ives v. Sargent, 119 U.S. 652 (1887) Ives v. Sargent, 119 U.S. 652 (1887) Argued December 15, 1886 Decided January 10, 1887 119 U.S. 652 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT Syllabus It is the duty of a patentee, receiving letters patent for an invention, to examine them within a reasonable time to ascertain whether they fully cover his invention, and if he neglects so to do for the period of three years, and the real invention is then found to be infringed by a construction which is manufactured and sold without infringing the patent as originally granted, he must suffer the penalty of his own laches, and cannot, by means of a reissue, correct the error. Wollensak v. Reiher, 115 U. S. 96 , and Mahn v. Harwood, 112 U. S. 304 , affirmed and applied. The reissue No. 9901, dated October 13, 1881, of letters patent No. 202,158, dated April 9, 1878, and granted to Frank D...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Mar-17-1887
Worden v. Searls - 121 U.S. 14 (1887) U.S. Supreme Court Worden v. Searls, 121 U.S. 14 (1887) Worden v. Searls Argued March 17, 1887 Decided March l8, 1887 121 U.S. 14 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN Syllabus Reissued letters patent No. 5400, granted to Erastus W. Scott and Anson Scads, May 6th, 1873, for an "improvement in whip sockets," on an application for reissue filed January 16, 1873 (the original letters patent, No. 70,627, having been granted to E. W. Scott, November 5, 1867, on an application filed August 23, 1867), are invalid as an unlawful expansion of the original patent. A whip holder constructed in accordance with the specification and drawings of letters patent No. 70,075, granted to Henry M. Curbs and Alva Worden October 22, 1867, for an "improvement in self-adjusting whip holder," did not infringe the original Scott patent, regarding the Scott invention as earlier in date than that of Curtis and Word...
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