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Brantly's annotated Bland's Reports, Chancery Court 1809-1832
Volume 198, Page 305   View pdf image (33K)
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CUNNINGHAM v. BROWNING.—1 BLAND. 305

And it would seem strange to call that an equitable title, which,
after a grant has issued, all common law Courts, upon the common
law principle of relation, treat as the commencement of a perfect
legal title. Besides, to speak of an imperfect legal title as an
equitable interest, has a tendency to confuse legal distinctions,
and to obscure that which is otherwise sufficiently plain and clear.

In reference to the jurisdiction of the Chancellor, in cases of
caveat, the distinction between legal and equitable rights, properly
so-called, is unknown. The true and only difference, as regards
his power in such cases, being that which exists between imperfect
and perfect legal titles; those which are merely in fieri, and those
which are complete. The cognizance of all controversies respect-
ing imperfect legal titles derived immediately from the State,
belongs exclusively and finally to the Chancellor in his common
law capacity as the keeper of the great seal, the affixing of which
is essential to the authentication of a patent; which capacity of
the Chancellor, as relates to patent grants for land, is designated
* by his style of Judge of the land office. The rules of
decision by which the Chancellor is governed in the exercise 326
of his jurisdiction, in all such cases, are to be found in the estab-
lished law of the land office, or, in the absence of any such posi-
tive law, the rule of decision may be drawn from the principles of
equity as established in the High Court of Chancery- The whole
law of the land office is thus made up of certain positive regula-
tions, of usages, and of common law and equitable principles re-
specting imperfect legal titles; or those contracts for land between
the State and her citizens which are found in an immature and un-
finished condition.

It is a well settled general rule, that under a special warrant the
title to the land commences from the date of the warrant itself;
because the description of its location, embodied in the warrant,
has distinguished it from every other tract. The warrant is, there-
fore, in itself equivalent to a designation by an actual survey. So
too the title commences with the date of a warrant of resurvey,
and of an escheat, or a proclamation warrant. But upon a com-
mon warrant, it only commences with the date of the certificate of
survey; or from the date of the entry of a special location upon
the surveyor's book. The land aimed at becomes thus bound, be-
cause of its having been, by some of these modes, accurately de-
scribed and distinctly specified. The reason of the rule is the
same in all these cases, and the evils to be avoided alike in all.

The citizen is allowed one year, from the time he designates the
land he proposes to obtain, to complete his purchase, and perfect
his title according to the prescribed rules. During which time
the State stands pledged to sell that land to no one else. But the
State might be greatly retarded, embarrassed and defrauded in
making sale of its lands, if they could be tied up, and held bound

20 1 B.

 

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Brantly's annotated Bland's Reports, Chancery Court 1809-1832
Volume 198, Page 305   View pdf image (33K)
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