Foster v. Neilson

Facts of the Case

Provided by Justia

This suit was brought by the plaintiffs in error in the Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana to recover a tract of land lying in that district, about thirty miles east of the Mississippi, and in the possession of the defendant. The plaintiffs claimed under a grant for 40,000 arpents of land, made by the Spanish governor, on the 2d of January, 1804, to Jayme Joydra, and ratified by the King of Spain on the 29th of May, 1804. The petition and order of survey are dated in September, 1803, and the return of the survey itself was made on the 27th of October in the same year. The defendant excepted to the petition of the plaintiffs, alleging that it does not show a title on which they can recover; that the territory within which the land claimed is situated had been ceded before the grant to France, and by France to the United States; and that the grant is void, being made by persons who had no authority to make it. The court sustained the exception and dismissed the petition. The cause is brought before this Court by a writ of error.

Conclusions

A treaty is in the nature of a contract between two nations, not a legislative act. It does not generally effect, of itself, the object to be accomplished, especially so far as its operation is infra-territorial, but is carried into execution by the sovereign power of the respective parties to the instrument.