Chapter 104. authorizing claimants to the Rancho de Napa, in Napa County, California, to prove up their title
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/statutes-at-large/vol-23/chapter-104-217431·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 104.— An Act authorizing claimants to the Rancho de Napa, in Napa County, California, to prove up their title.June 20, 1884. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Rancho doNapa, Napa County. California, claimants to laud of. allowed one year to present claims, etc. That the claimants to the lands situated in Napa County, California, known as the Rancho de Napa, who deraign title through the original Mexican grantee of said rancho, and whose claims or those of their predecessors in title have not been hitherto passed upon by proper authority, are hereby permitted and authorized to present their claim to said lands to the district court of the United States for the district of California within one year next after the passage of this act, and not afterward, for examination ; and if upon the hearing of said case it shall appear to said court that the claim of the original grantee was good and valid under Mexican laws relating to such cases, and that the claimants are entitled to ha ve such confirmation, the said court shall by decree confirm said claim : *Provided,**Proviso.* That no lands shall be confirmed to said claimants to which there are Lands exempted.any valid claims existing under the preemption, homestead, or other laws of the United States at the date of the passage of this act; nor shall any decree of confirmation affect any valid adverse right of any other person or persons, or give to the confirmees, or any of them, any claim upon the United States for compensation for any land such con-firmees may lose by pre emption, homestead, or other claims or rights as aforesaid: *Provided further,* That said claimants, before filing their claim, *Proviso.*shall execute releases to any person who may have or hold any portion of Releases to persons holding valid claims.said lauds, under valid claims under the pre emption, homestead, or .other laws of the United States, at the date of the passage of this act, to the portions of said lands so held respectively; and before rendering a decree of confirmation the said court shall ascertain that said releases have been duly executed.
Sec. 2. That the United States and any party in interest are herebyRight of appeal to Supreme Court. U. S., etc.9 Stat., 631. granted the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, within six months next after any decree shall be entered, in the manner allowered in other eases of appeal; and the said court in the examination of the claims presented by any person under this act shall be governed, so far as applicable, by the provisions of the act passed March third, anno Domini eighteen hundred and fifty-one,’entitled “An act to ascertain and settle private land claims in the State of California”.
Sec. 3. That the United States surveyor-general for California isPatent to issue; conditions. hereby directed, upon the filing in his office by said claimants of a certified copy of a final decree of confirmation under the provisions of this act, to cause said claim to be surveyed as other claims of like nature are now surveyed under existing laws ; and upon the approval of said survey by the proper authority a patent shall issue to said claimants in the usual form. Approved, June 20, 1884.