Grant (law)

“ In conjunction with this universal presumption, must be taken also the wise policy of our own peculiar law, which interprets the grants of the crown in this respect, by other rules than those which are applicable in the construction of the grants of individuals. Against an individual, it is presumed, that he meant to convey a benefit, with the utmost liberality that his words will bear. It is indifferent to the public, in which person an interest remains, whether in the grantor or the taker. With regard to the grant of the sovereign, it is far otherwise. ”

“ There are many rights, franchises and authorities, which are valuable in contemplation of law, where no beneficial interest can accrue to the possessor. A grant of the next presentation to a church, limited to the grantee alone, has been already mentioned. A power of appointment, reserved in a marriage settlement, either to a party or a stranger, to appoint uses in favor of third persons, without compensation, is another instance. A grant of lands to a trustee, to raise portions or pay debts, is, in law, a valuable grant, and conveys a legal estate. ”

“ If it be a private grant, that right must be asserted by entry or its equivalent. If the grant be a public one it must be asserted by judicial proceedings authorized by law, the equivalent of an inquest of office at common law, finding the fact of forfeiture and adjudging the restoration of the estate on that ground, or there must be some legislative assertion of ownership of the property for breach of the condition, such as an act directing the possession and appropriation of the property, or that it be offered for sale or settlement. ”

“ If the instrument separates the land from the public domain, and approprates it to the use of an individual, it is a grant. No words of inheritance or terms of grant are necessary by the civil law. In this grant the words are, 'We destine and appropriate conclusively for the establishment of the aforesaid Marquis,' &c. ”

“ No new law or regulation can be introduced, and no existing law or regulation can be altered, without the sanction of His Highness. No grant can be made of State lands or of any recurring allowance from State funds, no transfer of any existing State grant in lands or cash, either by inheritance or sale, mortgage or gift, can be made otherwise than with the permission of His Highness. ”

“ A grant in present terms, subject to a condition precedent, is familiar to the law, and is not unknown in grants of the present kind. Dunlap v. United States, 173 U.S. 65, 43 L. ed. 616, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. ”

“ In support of this contention, common-law authorities are cited to the proposition that an estate created by the execution of a power takes effect in the same manner as if it had been created by the deed which raised the power; that the beneficiary takes, not under the execution of the power by the donee, but by authority and under grant from the grantor, in like manner as if the power and the instrument which created it had been incorporated into one instrument. ”

“ The grant was of sections to be afterwards located, and their location depended upon the route to be established; when that was settled, the location became certain, and the title that was previously imperfect acquired precision and attached to the lands.
It is always to be borne in mind in construing a congressional grant, that the act by which it is made is a law as well as a conveyance, and that such effect must be given to it as will carry out the intent of Congress. ”

“ The doctrine settled by the adjudications of this court is this: That the mere grant, for a designated time, of an immunity from taxation, does not take it out of the rule subjecting such grant to the general law retaining the power to amend or repeal, unless the granting act contain an express provision to that effect. The doctrine on which the argument depends is that any grant for a designated time is, by implication, taken out of the general rule, even although there be no express provision to that end in the act making the grant. ”

“ Such further grant or agreement, is effective with respect to all of the persons in whom the right it covers has vested under this subclause, including those who did not join in signing it. If any person dies after rights under a terminated grant have vested in him, his legal representatives, legatees, or heirs at law represent him for purposes of this subclause. ”

“ The law exempted orphans from the above provision and permitted them a five-year period after coming of age. A later enactment in 1657⁄58 repeated the provision on orphans and added to the exemption married women and persons of unsound mind. A second provision designed to prevent quarrels among neighbors required a person holding patent to land adjacent to a proposed grant to show the boundaries of his property within twelve months; otherwise the latest grant as surveyed would be valid and would take precedence over the old patent. ”

“ All have a proud record, and all sections can well congratulate themselves and each other for having done their full share in restoring the supremacy of law over every foot of territory belonging to the United States. Let them hope for perpetual peace and harmony with that enemy, whose manhood, however mistaken the cause, drew forth such herculean deeds of valor. ”

“ If we are justified in taking property from the Enemy in War, when you have rescued an oppressed People from the oppression of that Enemy, by what principle of the Law of Nations, by what principle of philanthropy, can you return them to the bondage from which you have delivered them, and again rivet the chains you have once broken? ”

“ And, after appealing to both Border-State men, and Democrats of the Free States, not to stay the passage of this Resolution which "will strike the Rebellion at the heart," he continued: "Gentlemen may flatter themselves with a restoration of the Slave-power in this Country. 'The Union as it was!' It is a dream, never again to be realized. The America of the past, has gone forever. A new Nation is to be born from the agony through which the People are now passing. This new Nation is to be wholly Free. Liberty, Equality before the Law, is to be the great Corner-stone." ”

“ I hold that, in contemplation of Universal Law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all National Governments. It is safe to assert that no Government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever—it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. ”

“ In the condition in which matters stood, however, the recital tht the land was to be held in trust for the object stated may well be treated as having been inserted with the intent of showing that the grant related alone to one of the purposes covered by the law, the court house, and not to both therein expressed ”

“ As one of the Millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle, at any sacrifice but that of principle and honor, but who now feel that the triumph of the Union is indispensable not only to the existence of our Country, but to the well-being of mankind, I entreat you to render a hearty and unequivocal obedience to the Law of the Land. ”

“ Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul Finglemore.
The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound to protect their own interests—as secretaries or as principals. ”

“ And here we must notice the peculiar way in which the idea of “virtue” is introduced into the ‘Ethics.’ Instead of at once recognising the law of moral obligation as the deepest thing in man, Aristotle, as we have seen above, introduces the idea of virtue and morality in a dry logical way, saying that the chief good for man must consist in the realisation of his powers “according to their own proper law of excellence.” Having in this colourless and neutral way brought in the term “excellence” or virtue, Aristotle divides it, in relation to man, into moral and intellectual. ”

“ Charles was bubbling with indignation. 'You cheated me at Nice,' he said; 'at Meran; at New York; at Paris!'
Paul Finglemore shook his head. 'Won't do,' he answered, calmly. 'Be sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that on an extradition warrant.'
'Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,' Charles cried out excitedly. 'Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away from us!'
A convenient policeman. ”

“ I had been out of college for eight years, had studied law, and was the managing clerk of a large law firm, and in receipt of what I then thought a tremendous salary. Russell was still at Cambridge. He had elected at graduation to pursue post-graduate courses in chemistry and physics, and had recently accepted a tutorship. He had not discovered until the beginning of the Junior year his strong predilection for scientific investigation, but he had given himself up to it with an ardor which dwarfed everything else on the horizon of his fancy. ”

“ Besides the house on Saville Street, Mr. Ramsay had some bonds and stock—fifty or sixty thousand dollars in all—which tidy little property would, in the natural course of events, descend to his next of kin; in this case, however, only a first cousin once removed. In the eye of the law a living person has no heir; but blood is thicker than water, and it was generally taken for granted that Mr. Horace Barker, whose grandmother had been the sister of Mr. Ramsay’s father, would some day be the owner of the house on Saville Street. ”

“ But the learned doctors are only the expounders of the law, and merely give their opinions upon points referred to them. They have no authority to see their precepts put into practice, or to insist on their decisions being carried out. ”

“ What solid ground is there to say, that the words of a grant, in the mouth of a citizen, shall mean one thing, and in the mouth of the legislature shall mean another thing? That in regard to the grant of a citizen, every word shall, in case of any question of interpretation or implication, be construed against him, and in regard to the grant of the government, every word shall be construed in its favor? ”

“ It is a general rule that all public grants are to be construed strictly and in favor of the public, and that nothing passes but what is granted in clear and explicit terms. [6]
3. That the acts of Congress were not per se a grant in presenti to the State of all the lands therein described, and that a present right, estate, and interest in the same, did not pass by the terms of the acts, is settled by the case in this court of Rice v. Railroad Company. ”

“ On the face of the complainants' grant, there is no stipulation that the legislature will do nothing that shall injure the rights of the grantees; but it is said, that this is implied; and on what ground, does the implication arise? Does it arise from the fact, that the complainants are the immediate grantees of the state? The principle is admitted, that the grantor can do nothing that shall destroy his deed; and this rule applies as well to the state as to an individual. And the same principle operates with equal force on all grants, whether made by the state or individuals. ”

“ The grant does not convey power, which might be beneficial to the grantor, if retained by himself, or which can enure solely to the benefit of the grantee; but is an investment of power for the general advantage, in the hands of agents selected for that purpose; which power can never be exercised by the people themselves, but must be placed in the hands of agents, or lie dormant. We know of no rule for construing the extent of such powers, other than is given by the language of the instrument, which confers them, taken in connexion with the purposes, for which they were conferred. ”

“ This event puts an end to all considerations as to any immediate contingencies to affect our decision of the point which relates to me. It is therefore not necessary to take any immediate steps upon it, till we can find some satisfactory solution. You see that my mind leans at present to taking the Rolls at the diminished value, but for life; thinking, as I do, more and more, every day, that such a grant would be perfectly legal and maintainable against all the world, on the ground of precedent, of authority, and on the words of the statute itself. ”

“ In answer to the question, Mr Chief Justice Marshall, in delivering the opinion of the court, said, 'In the nature of the thing, we perceive no reason why the grant should not be good for land which it might lawfully pass, and void as to that part of the tract, for the granting of which the office had not been opened. It is every day's practice to make grants for lands, which have, in fact, been granted to others. ”

“ He subscribed one dollar a year to the civil-service reform journal, and invariably voted on Election Day for the best men, cutting out in advance the names of the candidates favored by the Law and Order League of his native city, and carrying them to the polls in order to jog his memory. ”

“ I quote from the opinion:
'Nothing can be clearer than that if a grant is made for a specific, limited, and defined purpose, the subject of the grant cannot be used for another, and that the grantor retains still such an interest therein as entitles him, in a court of equity, to insist upon the execution of the trust as originally declared and accepted. ”