Seaverns v. State

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Burch, J.:

About the year 1889 the plaintiff in error, W. H. Seaverns, entered upon a tract of state school-land, and in the years following occupied and improved it. In the year 1902 he leased the land from the state under a lease expiring in January, 1906. Before the expiration of his lease he assisted in circulating a petition to the county superintendent of public instruction to expose the land to sale, in consequence of which appraisers were appointed who, on January 22, 1906, returned the land as unimproved and of the value of $1.25 per acre. At…