Title (law)

“ If it were permitted to argue with power, might one not ask these gentlemen whether it would not be more natural, instead of wantonly mooting these questions concerning their property, as if it were an exercise in law, to found it on the solid rock of prescription,—the soundest, the most general, and the most recognized title between man and man that is known in municipal or in public jurisprudence?—a title in which not arbitrary institutions, but the eternal order of things, gives judgment ”

“ No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. ”

“ Smith: 'Those only who have a clear legal and equitable title to land, connected with possession, have any right to claim the interference of a court of equity to give them peace or dissipate a cloud on the title.' 18 How. 265. A person out of possession cannot maintain such a bill, whether his title is legal or equitable; for, if his title is legal, his remedy at law, by action of ejectment, is plain, adequate, and complete; and, if his title is equitable, he must acquire the legal title, and then bring ejectment. ”

“ The methods therefore of acquiring on the one hand, and of losing on the other, a title to estates in things real, are reduced by our law to two: descent, where the title is vested in a man by the single operation of law ”

“ The History of the World is but a Modern Treatise of things of a late Date, which were done in pursuance of Counsels and Decrees made before: Matters of Fact set forth, without the Original Design and Institution of them seem irrational, and to have no Meaning in them: Would any thing seem more ridiculous, than that the taking off a Seal, and delivery of a piece of Parchment by one Man, should give another a Title to an Estate, if the Law were not known, which gives the Sanction to this Ceremony? ”

“ But yet when the legal title to lands has passed from the United States to one party, when in equity and good conscience, according to the facts conceded, found, or established, and when, as a matter of law, in view of those facts, it ought to have gone to another, the former may be adjudged to hold the title in trust for the latter, true owner, and compelled to convey to him. ”

“ Where a statute innovates upon the common law, and confers authority in derogation thereof to do a particular thing; as in this case, to surrender land to the commonwealth; the act must be performed in the manner directed by the statute, else it cannot prevail: not by the common law, for that does not at all permit it; not by the statute, because its requisitions have not been complied with. The statute declares that when certain things are done in the mode pointed out by it, they shall operate a relinquishment of the title. ”

“ For the good order and peace of society their authority is to be respected and obeyed until, in some regular mode prescribed by law, their title is investigated and determined. It is manifest that endless confusion would result if in every proceeding before such officers their title could be called in question. ”

“ If there is any one point in the case on which an opinion may be given with confidence, it is this, whether we consider the letter of the statute, or the spirit, intent, or meaning, of the constitution and of the legislature, as expressed in the 27th section, it is equally clear that the title is the primary object to which the attention of the court is called in every such case. The words are, 'and the decision be against the title,' so set up, not against the construction of the treaty contended for by the party setting up the title. ”

“ Where any title, right, privilege, or immunity is claimed under the Constitution or any treaty or statute of, or commission held, or authority exercised under, the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, or immunity specially set up or claimed by either party under such Constitution, treaty, statute, commission or authority. ”

“ The adjudications of their courts; the settled and uniform practice and usage of the state, in the practical operation of its provisions, evidencing the judicial construction of its terms; are to be considered as a part of the statute: and as such furnishing a rule for the decisions of the federal courts. The statute and its interpretation form together a rule of title and property, which must be the same in all courts. ”

“ Courts of justice have no authority to mark out and define the land which shall be subject to the grant. But when the political authorities have performed this duty, the compact has an object, upon which it can attach, and if there is no legal impediment the title of the State becomes a legal title. ”

“ A man whose title was good in 1876, when the constitution was adopted, whether his nuniments of title were on record or not, could not be deprived of it by a simple ipse dixit of the constitution any more than by a legislative act. ”

“ Congress has the sole power to declare the dignity and effect of titles emanating from the United States, and the whole legislation of the federal government in reference to the public lands declares the patent the superior and conclusive evidence of legal title. ”

“ We supose that, in the absence of a statute specially dealing with the matter, either the title would be taken to relate back, or it would be held that a permitted conveyance, before the government has given a legal title to anyone, made by a person in process of acquiring a title in the statutory method, would be taken to have contemplated that the grantee should have the benefit of what was done afterwards to perfect it. Those propositions we are not called upon to discuss. ”

“ If in any such case a title so claimed to be perfect shall be established and confirmed, such confirmation shall be for so much land only as such perfect title shall be found to cover, always excepting any part of such land that shall have been disposed of by the United States, and always subject to and not to affect any conflicting private interests, rights, or claims held or claimed adversely to any such claim or title, or adversely to the holder of any such claim or title. ”

“ In such a case, a court of equity, whose appropriate and peculiar jurisdiction is to act upon the conscience of the person who holds the formal or legal title to the property, compels him to convey it to the person to whom he is bound in good conscience to make a complete title, thus uniting form to substance. ”

“ If its effect is to make titles void which were before good, a grave constitutional question may arise with regard to its validity, which we would prefer not to pass upon until it has received the consideration of a local court, state or federal. In our judgment, all the matters of objection to the plaintiffs' title, arising under the constitution, are matters of defense, and could not properly be urged to prevent the title of the plaintiffs from being received in evidence. ”

“ But what we do affirm and reiterate is that power is vested in the departments to determine all questions of equitable right or title, upon proper notice to the parties interested, and that the courts must, as a general rule, be resorted to only when the legal title has passed from the government. ”

“ And by the term 'property,' as applied to land, all titles are included,-legal or equitable, perfect or imperfect. 'It comprehends,' assaid by this court in Soulard v. U.S., 4 Pet. 511, 'every species of title, inchoate or complete. It is supposed to embrace those rights which are executory as well as those which are executed. ”

“ If the accident to the controversy that both parties claim title under the United States should be considered as sufficient to bring it within our jurisdiction, then every controversy involving the title to such lands, whether it involve the inheritance, partition, devise, or sale of it, may, with equal propriety, be subject to the examination of this court in all time to come. ”

“ When, therefore, in an ordinary trial in an action at law we speak of the common law we refer to the law of the state as it has been adopted by statute or recognized by the courts as the foundation of legal rights. It is in regard to decisions made by the state courts in reference to this law, and defining what is the law of the state as modified by the opinions of its own courts, by the statutes of the state, and the customs and habits of the people, that the trouble arises. ”

“ Must swear to support the constitution, renounce any hereditary title or order of nobility, and must have resided five years in the country, and satisfy the court that he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same. ”

“ Moreover, these statutes, which at any moment may revolutionize a man's liberty or his property, are not as they were in old times—a mere codification, or attempt at the best expression of a law already existing and well "understanded of the people" ”

“ It is elementary that the meaning of a statute must, in the first instance, be sought in the language in which the act is framed, and if that is plain, and if the law is within the constitutional authority of the lawmaking body which passed it, the sole function of the courts is to enforce it according to its terms. ”

“ The first is where an act, if not so limited, would deprive the sovereign of a recognized or established prerogative title or interest. [6] A classical instance is the exemption of the state from the operation of general statutes of limitation. ”

“ Statutes serve to record the rights of a people, and speak the intention of parties to defend what the letter of the law has expressed; but without the vigour to maintain what is acknowledged as a right, the mere record, or the feeble intention, is of little avail.
A populace roused by oppression, or an order of men possessed of temporary advantage, have obtained many charters, concessions, and stipulations, in favour of their claims ”

“ It is believed to be clear, upon principle and authority, that when an act of Congress of this character has passed, and nothing remains to be done by any officer of the government to convey the title, the title passes by the act itself, and no shadow of title remains in the government to be conveyed subsequently to another individual. ”

“ We are of the opinion, that the equity of the statute allowing a bill of exceptions in courts of common law of original jurisdiction, embraces all such judgments or opinions of the court that arise in the course of a cause, which are the subjects of revision by an appellate court, and which do not otherwise appear on the record. ”

“ The language of the great charter is, that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned but by the lawful judgment of his equals, or by the law of the land. And many subsequent old statutes expressly direct, that no man shall be taken or imprisoned by suggestion or petition to the king or his council, unless it be by legal indictment, or the process of the common-law. ”

“ Saving to all manner of Persons Bodies Politic and Corporate their Heirs and Successors, having lawful Right Title and Interest to have such Issues to be before any such Justices or their Deputies at any time or times hereafter lost and forfeited, all such Right Title and Interest as they or any of them should or ought to have had to such Issues to be lost and forfeited, as though this Act had never been had or made. ”

“ Now, the question arises, What proceedings are meant by the phrase 'suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity,' in the latter section, conferring original jurisdiction, and the phrase 'a suit,' in the former section, giving the right of removal? ”

“ The pleadings in this cause nowhere allege any right, title, or interest derived from or under any authority of the United States, nor the violation of any right, title, or interest so derived, nor any violation of the Constitution, nor of any right guarantied thereby. ”

“ Its interpretation is accepted as the true interpretation, whatever may be our opinion of its original soundness. It becomes a part of the statute, as much so as if incorporated into the body of it, and in following the statute as thus interpreted we only apply to a local question the law of the place. ”

“ That the respondents have a perfect and indefeasible title to soil and jurisdiction up to the existing line, by prescription, a title resting on a possession of more than a century, the highest and most sacred of the titles of nations. ”

“ Where the expression is in general terms, statutes are to receive such a construction as may be agreeable to the rules of the common law in cases of that nature, for statutes are not presumed to make any alteration in the common law, beyond what is expressed in the statute. ”

“ There must be an act of solemnity and importance, such as a statute, and that statute must be by a State, a member of the Union and a public body, owing obedience and conformity to its constitution and laws. ”

“ An enactment regarding the rights of persons or property, passed by representatives of the people in legislature assembled.
When a question has arisen concerning which statute law has no provisions, or some regular enactment is so worded that its meaning is doubtful and extremely liable to be misunderstood, to compensate for the lack in the one instance and to interpret properly the intention of the law makers in the other, we resort to the common law, fairly said to be “the accumulated wisdom of centuries.” ”

“ When a statute alters the common law the meaning shall not be strained beyond the meaning of the words, except in cases of public utility, as when the end in view appears to be more comprehensive than the enacting words. ”

“ No person shall be forced to do, or leave undone, anything whatever, except by virtue of law. § 2. Before the law all persons are equal. The Republic does not recognize privileges of birth, or titles of nobility, and abolishes all existing honorary orders, with all their prerogatives and decorations, as well as all hereditary and conciliar titles. {524} § 3. All persons and religious professions may exercise, publicly and freely, the right of worship, and may associate themselves for that purpose, acquire property, observance being had to the provisions of the common law. ”