Harlan F. Stone

“ The validity of the Castro grant was the only matter with respect to which the Board could render a decree which, under the procedure of the Mexican Claims Act, could become final and conclusive as to the claimant and the Government. So far as appears, each was as much concerned with the determination of that question after as before the Bissell and Aspinwall deed and bond, for accordingly as it was decided one way or the other, the one or the other stood to gain an amount equal to the purchase price of the property. The reasonableness of the purchase price is not challenged. ”

“ Even where the right of the state under the Swamp Lands Act is unqualified, it would perhaps be more accurate to say that the United States is no more than a donor granting without warranty those lands falling within the description and the purview of the statute, subject to a duty imposed by the statute, to perfect by survey and patent such inchoate title as it had conveyed to the state. Beyond this the United States, by the enactment of the Swamp Lands Act, assumed no duty. ”

“ If it be taken that the Government has failed to prosecute its appeal to final decree in the District Court, it is enough that the decree of the Board has never been set aside or otherwise disturbed. If the appeal was not still pending when the decree of the District Court was entered nunc pro tunc in 1930, the decree of the Board remains as effective as if no appeal had been taken, and has become final and conclusive within the provisions of the act. ”