Smith v. Third Nat. Exchange Bank of Sandusky

Defendants in error brought suit in the District Court, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, seeking judgment against plaintiff in error Smith upon his three notes for forty-five hundred dollars ($4,500) each and also foreclosure of the mortgage upon lands in that county given to secure them. Recovery was resisted upon the ground that although Smith was in actual possession of the lands under deed from Reinhart they belonged to the United States and were unlawfully in the vendor’s possession when so conveyed without bona fide claim or color of title, contrary to the Act of Congress approved February…