Burns v. Hayden
Supreme Court of Missouri
Appeal from Polls Circuit Court. This suit was originally commenced before a justice of the peace, to recover the price of an improvement sold by Burns to Hayden. The case was appealed to the Circuit Court.
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Appeal from Polls Circuit Court. This suit was originally commenced before a justice of the peace, to recover the price of an improvement sold by Burns to Hayden. The case was appealed to the Circuit Court. The court refused the following instruction asked by the defendant: “ If the jury believe from the evidence that the subject matter of this suit was for an improvement which Burns had made upon the public lands, and that after Burns made the improvement said Tipton entered said land with a land warrant, and while Tipton so owned the land Burns sold his claim to the improvement to the…
1Opinion of the CourtLeonard, Judge
In the western states the possession of an improvement on the public ’ domain may, we suppose, be considered a kind of squatter interest in the land — a subordinate species of property — held at the pleasure of the United States, and, to some extent, as between citizen and citizen, recognized and protected *216by the law. It is a common subject of traffic among the people, and the sale and delivery of it constitutes a sufficient consideration for a promise to pay the price, which the courts have pretty uniformly enforced. (Clark v. Shutz, 4 Mo. 235; Freeman v. Holliday, 1 Morris., Iowa, 80; Doyle…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Harrison v. CachelinSupreme Court of Missouri · 1856
- Clark v. ShultzSupreme Court of Missouri · 1835
3Cited by3 opinions
- Welch v. BryanSupreme Court of Missouri · 1859
- Moore v. McIntoshSupreme Court of Kansas · 1870
- State ex rel. Castlio v. EdwardsMissouri Court of Appeals · 1881