U.S. Supreme Court U S v. TURNER, 52 U.S. 663 (1850) 



52 U.S. 663 (How.) 

THE UNITED STATES, APPELLANTS, v. SARAH TURNER, THE WIFE OF JARED D. TYLER, WHO IS AUTHORIZED AND ASSISTED HEREIN BY HER SAID HUSBAND; ELIZA TURNER, WIFE OF JOHN A. QUITMAN, WHO IS IN LIKE MANNER AUTHORIZED AND ASSISTED BY HER SAID HUSBAND; HENRY TURNER, AND GEORGE W. TURNER, HEIRS AND LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES OF HENRY TURNER, DECEASED. 

December Term, 1850 

THIS was an appeal from the District Court of the United States for the District Court of Louisiana. 

It was a petition filed in the District Court by the appellees, who claimed a tract of land under the Maison-Rouge grant. 

[Page 52 U.S. 663, 664]



The District Court decided in favor of the petitioners, and the United States appealed to this court. 

It was submitted by Mr. Crittenden (Attorney-General), for the United States, upon the ground that this court had already decided, in the case of United States v. King (3 Howard, 773, and 7 Howard, 833), that the grant was invalid. 



Mr. Chief Justice TANEY delivered the opinion of the court. 

This is an appeal from the decree of the District Court of the United States for the District of Louisiana. The proceedings were instituted by the appellees against the United States, according to the acts of Congress of May 26, 1824, and June 17, 1844; and they claim title to a parcel of land in the State of Louisiana, under an instrument of writing executed by the Baron de Carondelet, on the 20th of June, 1797, in favor of the Marquis de Maison-Rouge. The conveyances by which they deduce title to themselves from him are set forth in the petition. The case turned altogether, in the District Court, upon the construction and effect of the document above mentioned; and this is the only question arising on this appeal. 

The appellees insist that this instrument of writing conveyed to the Marquis de Maison-Rouge either the legal or equitable title to the thirty superficial leagues of land described in the plan of Trudeau annexed to the instrument. But the question which they propose to raise has already been decided. The instrument under which they claim title came under the consideration of this court in the case of the United States v. King and Coxe, reported in 3 Howard, 773, and 7 Howard, 833. And in the last- mentioned report it will be seen that the construction and effect of this instrument was at that time directly before the court, and the decision of the case depended upon it. The question was then fully and carefully examined and considered, and the court held that this instrument of writing conveyed no interest in the land to Maison-Rouge, as his private property; and that it was intended merely to mark out by certain and definite boundaries the limits of the establishment he was authorized to form, according to the stipulations of a previous contract which he had entered into with the Spanish government, in 1795. And as regarded that previous contract the court said: 'It will be observed that this contract contains no stipulation in favor of Maison-Rouge. All the engagements on the part of the government are in favor of the emigrants who should accept the conditions. Indeed, it seems to have been no part of the purposes of this agreement to regulate the compensation which he was to receive for his services. Its only object, as appears by the concluding sentence, was to 

[Page 52 U.S. 663, 665]



make known the offers made by the Spanish government to those who were disposed to come. It was therefore to be shown by the Marquis to those whom he invited to remove to this establishment, and it does not appear to have been thought necessary, and perhaps was not desirable, that his compensation or his interest in forming the colony should be made public. That was a matter between him and the Spanish authorities, which doubtless was understood on both sides. And whether it was to be in money, or in a future grant of land, does not appear. Certainly it was not to be in the land on which this establishment was to be formed, because the government was pledged to grant it to the colonists.' 

The question which this appeal brings up is therefore res judicata. Nor does the court perceive any ground for doubting the correctness of the opinion heretofore pronounced. And in the case arising under the claim of the Baron de Bastrop, in which the judgment of the court has just been delivered, the principles decided in the case of the United States v. King and Coxe have again been affirmed, after full argument by counsel and reconsideration by the court. The De Bastrop claim was upon an instrument of writing similar to that in favor of Maison-Rouge, and executed on the same day by the Baron de Carondelet, for a still larger tract of country than that destined and appropriated for the establishment of the Marquis de Maison-Rouge. Undoubtedly the validity and effect of both of these instruments depend altogether upon the laws, ordinances, and usages of the Spanish government, prevailing in the province of Louisiana at the time they were made; and it is the duty of the court to expound them accordingly. And they are both strikingly unlike the grants for colonization authorized by the Laws of the Indies; and equally unlike the grants usually made by the Spanish authorities to persons undertaking to introduce into the province a certain number of colonists. In grants of this description, authorized by the Laws of the Indies and usually made by the provincial authorities, the colonists were introduced by the grantee free of expense to the government, and the grant was the equivalent for the service performed, and depended upon the number thus brought in. And in such cases the intention to grant as private property was always indicated in clear and appropriate words, which severed the land at once from the royal domain, and converted it into private property.