Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ Nothing, it is true, can be claimed by prescription which owes its origin to and can only be had by matter of record; but lapse of time, accompanied by acts done, or other circumstances, may warrant the jury in presuming a grant or title by record. Thus, also, though lapse of time does not of itself furnish a conclusive bar to the title of the sovereign, agreeably to the maxim, Nullum tempus occurrit regi, yet, if the adverse claim could have a legal commencement, juries are advised or instructed to presume such commencement, after many years of uninterrupted possession or enjoyment. ”

“ There are no adverse claimants to the land in question, and the proof of possession, exclusive in its nature, has been satisfactory to the court below. What constitutes such possession of a large tract of land depends to some extent upon circumstances, the fact varying with different conditions, such as the general state of the surrounding country, whether similar land is customarily devoted to pasturage or to the raising of crops, to the growth of timber or to mining, or other purposes. ”

“ There is no evidence that lieutenant governors in Mexico did not have the same powers, and a presumption of confirmation might be made in cases of long-continued, exclusive, and uninterrupted possession under such a grant. It is the long-continued, uninterrupted, and exclusive character of the possession here proved which is so important; and when supported, as it has been by the evidence of a grant, and of possession in accordance with and under it, the presumption of validity may safely be made. ”

“ He relied in fact upon evidence of possession by himself and his predecessors in title. Mr. Justice McKenna, in delivering the opinion of the court, made an extended examination of the law in regard to presumptions from possession, and it was held that proof of possession may be sufficient to admit of a presumption that everything had been done that was necessary to be done by way of a grant or conveyance of the title to the individual in possession or his predecessors. ”

“ The record was to be in the archives of Mexico, under the provisions of the treaty, and those archives, according to the evidence, may be presumed in fact to have existed at the place where the documents and their record were in truth destroyed. Taking all the evidence, there is room for the presumption of a record of the grant, as well as that for the existence of the grant itself. ”

“ The decree of the court fixed the south boundary at the point contended for by the government, thus leaving the lands in which the individual defendants were interested untouched, and, as this location of the line has been acquiesced in by the petitioners, the case no longer has any bearing upon the interests of those defendants. ”