George Shiras, Jr.

“ In the fall of 1883 they were notified by the settlers that they could not furnish any more money to defray the expenses of the trial of said causes, neither could they pay attorneys any sum in compensation for services, for the reason that almost all the lands embraced within said fraudulent survey belonged to, and would revert to, the United States, and not to the settlers, in case of a successful result of said litigation, and that, as the benefits would result to the United States, they should bear the expenses of the litigation. ”

“ But we think that a promise to pay for services can only be implied when the court can see that they were rendered in such circumstances as authorized the party performing to entertain a reasonable expectation of their payment by the party benefited. ”

“ The petitioners further state that upon portions of the lands included in said fraudulent survey many persons had become actual settlers and residents prior to the confirmation of the survey, and that some of said settlers, who claimed that their right to possession had been invaded by the land-grant company, determined, in 1881, to commence legal proceedings to test the title of that company to so much of said lands as had been fraudulently or mistakenly conveyed to the company by the United States. ”