Thomas C. Donald v. James P. Kimberley, et ux.

When the United States conveys ownership of public land to a person, it does so with a land patent in which the conveyed land is described by the Section in which it lies. The location of the Section is defined by the last survey of the land, in accordance with Title 43 U.S.C. § 752, conducted while the land is still public land. This statute states, in part, that: “The boundary lines, actually run and marked in the surveys returned by the Secretary of the ' Interior or such agency as he may designate, shall be established as the proper boundary lines of the sections, or subdivisions, for which they were intended, and the length of such lines as returned, shall be held and considered as the true length thereof.” Is it a violation of Title 43 U.S.C. § 752 for the location of the boundary of a Section of land to be changed from the location according to the “Official Plat of the Survey of the Land returned to the General Land Office by the Surveyor General”, as stated in the patent of the land granted by the United States, to a different location established bv the Judicial System of Alabama? Title 43 U.S.C. § 752 is binding upon the Judicial System of Alabama by the Supremacy Clause (ArtVI.C2.1.1.1) and by the Due Process Clause (U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1) and by decisions of the Federal Courts. This is a fundamental question in real property law in the United States.