Edward Douglass White

“ Without elaborating the reasons by which the conviction of want of genuineness is suggested, by the comparison, it suffices to say that the entire characteristics of the signatures to the grant present such saliently suspicious features, when the comparison is made, as to leave it impossible for the mind to resist, if not the absolute conviction, in any event the grave doubt which irresistibly arises. ”

“ No action having been taken by Congress, in December, 1876, certain persons alleging themselves to be part owners of a claimed Spanish grant of land, which it was averred conflicted with the one in question, petitioned the then surveyor general of New Mexico to hear additional testimony as to the reality of the grant which had been recommended for confirmation, on the ground that the testimony when heard would establish that the grant had been erroneously recommended for confirmation, because, among other reasons stated, it was a forgery. ”

“ By necessary implication in the passage already quoted from the testimony of Ramon Sena, he also affirms the official character of Trujillo as an alcalde or justice of the peace.
By the Mexican law in force at the time of the making of the alleged grant a justice of the peace exercised his authority over a designated area known as a demarcation. Contemplating the contingency of the absence or inability from other cause of such an appointed official to act, there was an official known as a juez de paz suplente or substitute justice of the peace. ”

“ The witness, after stating that he was appointed by the Department of Justice to assist in preparing the defense of cases coming before the court of private land claims, proceeded to say that for a long period of time, covering about sixteen years, he had been previously employed in the office of the surveyor general of New Mexico; that in such employ as clerk, copyist, translator, and custodian of the archives, he had constant official occasion to examine, translate, and consider the Spanish and Mexican archives extant in the office ”

“ By the application of the rule which we have at the outset referred to, casting upon the claimant the burden of sustaining the validity of an asserted grant, we are compelled to refuse to affirm the judgment of confirmation, unless the testimony offered for the claimants removes the doubt in question. ”

“ But is the witness incompetent unless he has obtained his knowledge in one or the other of these modes? Clearly not, for in the varied affairs of life there are many modes in which one person can become acquainted with the handwriting of another, besides having seen him write or corresponded with him. ”

“ It is preliminarily necessary to dispose of certain exceptions taken to the admissibility of evidence, and which are pressed on our attention.
1. The petitioners in opening their case offered in evidence the original proceedings before the surveyor general, including the testimony of the witnesses then examined, after having made the prerequisite proof of death of such witnesses in accordance with the requirements of § 5 in the act of 1891. ”

“ The statute authorizes no presumption in favor of the genuineness of a title from the mere fact that the claimant for confirmation presents a paper which is asserted to be a grant from a Mexican official. ”

“ The witnesses who testified before the surveyor general in 1872 were as follows: Antonio Sena, who was for some time prior to December, 1845, prefect of the department in which the land in question was situated, and who ceased to hold that office about the month stated, and after an interregnum again held the office after the end of March, 1846 ”

“ It results that it becomes unnecessary to examine the legal questions to which at the outset attention was called, and that the court below erred in confirming the grant, and its decree so doing is reversed, and the cause remanded to that court with directions to enter a decree rejecting the claim and dismissing the petition, and it is so ordered. ”