Levi Woodbury,
Doe v. City of Mobile — Opinion of the Court
“ There can be no doubt that Congress may attach to a pure donation such terms as it pleases, and may invest the subordinate officers of the United States with power to determine questions of fact, and to ascertain and settle conflicting claims. ”
Levi Woodbury,
Doe v. City of Mobile — Opinion of the Court
“ This case seems, then, definitively to settle these points: that the grant to Mobile was a mere donation by the United States of its right and title, whatever that might be, to the city of Mobile; that it operates no injury whatever to any claim or title, whether those comprehended in the second section, or, still more obviously, such as had been previously recognized and confirmed; and that no construction ought to be given to the act which would make it enure in any way to the detriment of any other claim of any individual. ”
Levi Woodbury,
Doe v. City of Mobile — Opinion of the Court
“ The power given to the registers and receivers, by the different acts of Congress, to determine between conflicting and interfering claims, and to direct the manner of locating and surveying them, applies only to confirmations of imperfect grants by the former proprietors of the country. These officers have, therefore, no power to locate and direct the survey of a disputed line, where one of the parties claims by virtue of a complete and unconditional grant, as in the case of the donation to the corporation of Mobile of the hospital and bakehouse lots by the act of the 26th May, 1824. ”
