Botiller v. Dominguez

Infobox SCOTUS case
Litigants=Botiller v. Dominguez
ArgueDate=
ArgueYear=
DecideDate=April 1
DecideYear=1889
FullName=Brigido Botiller, et al. v. Dominga Dominguez
USVol=130
USPage=238
Citation=9 S.Ct. 525; 32 L.Ed. 926
Prior=Writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of California
Subsequent=
Holding=No title to land in California dependent upon Spanish or Mexican land grants can be of any validity unless presented to and confirmed by the board of land commissioners within the time prescribed by Congress.
SCOTUS=1888-1889
Majority=Miller
JoinMajority="unanimous"
LawsApplied=

"Botiller v. Dominguez", 130 U.S. 238 (1889), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court dealing with the validity of Spanish or Mexican land grants in the Mexican Cession, the region of the present day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The action was in the nature of ejectment, brought in the Superior Court of the Los Angeles County by Dominga Dominguez against Brigido Botiller and others, to recover possession of a tract of land situated in said county, known as 'Rancho Las Virgenes.' The title of the plaintiff was a grant claimed to have been made by the government of Mexico to Nemecio Dominguez and Domingo Carrillo, on October 1, 1834, but no claim under this grant had ever been presented for confirmation to the board of land commissioners, appointed under the California Land Act of 1851 (9 St. 631,) 'to ascertain and settle the private land claims in the state of California,' and no patent had ever issued from the United States to any one for the land, or for any part of it.

The Court held that no title to land in California dependent upon Spanish or Mexican land grants can be of any validity unless presented to and confirmed by the board of land commissioners within the time prescribed by the United States Congress.

ee also

*List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 130
*Alta California
*Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Further reading

*cite journal |last=Clay |first=Karen B. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1999 |month= |title=Property Rights and Institutions: Congress and the California Land Act of 1851 |journal=Journal of Economic History |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=122–142 |doi=10.2307/2566499 |url= |accessdate= |quote=
*cite journal |last=Hornbeck |first=David |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1979 |month= |title=The Patenting of California's Private Land Claims, 1851–1885 |journal=Geographical Review |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=434–448 |doi=10.2307/214806 |url= |accessdate= |quote=
*cite book |chapter="Botiller v. Dominguez" (1889), Mexican land grants, and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |title=Latinos and American Law: Landmark Supreme Court Cases |last=Soltero |first=Carlos R. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2006 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin, TX |isbn=0292714114 |pages=9–16
*cite journal |last=Tolley |first=H. B. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1983 |month= |title=The Domestic Applicability of International Treaties in the United States |journal=Revista Jurídica de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico |volume=17 |issue= |pages=403 |issn=0041851X |url= |accessdate= |quote=

External links

* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=130&page=238 Full text opinion from Findlaw.com]