{
  "id": 2670525,
  "name": "The County of Piatt v. David Gumley",
  "name_abbreviation": "County of Piatt v. Gumley",
  "decision_date": "1876-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "350",
  "last_page": "352",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "81 Ill. 350"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill.",
    "id": 8772,
    "name": "Illinois Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "78 Ill. 133",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill.",
      "case_ids": [
        824012
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill/78/0133-01"
      ]
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:06:43.418924+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "The County of Piatt v. David Gumley."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Sheldon\ndelivered the opinion of the Court:\nThis was an action of ejectment, brought at the February term, 1875, of the Piatt county circuit court, by the county of Piatt, against David Gumley, to recover a certain tract of swamp and overflowed land, situate in said county.\nThe only question presented is, as to the rejection in evidence of a list of swamp and overflowed lands, certified to by the Auditor of Public Accounts.\nA list of swamp and overflowed lands lying in the county of Piatt, which included the tract in controversy, having attached thereto the Auditor\u2019s certificate, as follows:\nAuditob\u2019s Office, Illinois, Spbingfield, May 28, 1858.\nI, Jesse K. Dubois, Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Illinois, hereby certify that the foregoing is a correct list of swamp and overflowed lands lying in the county of Piatt, approved to the State of Illinois, as shown by list Ho. 3 of such lands, in the Danville, now Springfield, district, and for which the Governor has applied to the United States General Land Office for patent.\nIn testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my [seal.] name and affixed my seal of office, the day and year first above written.\nJesse II. Dubois, Auditor.\nwas offered in evidence by the plaintiff, and rejected by the court.\nThe statute provides that, \u201cthe evidence of title from the general government of the swamp and overflowed lands granted to this State, by act of Congress of September 28, 1850, shall be filed in the Auditor\u2019s office, and as soon as practicable thereafter the Auditor of Public Accounts shall cause to be made out for each of the several counties, a correct abstract, or list of said lands, the correctness of which list shall be certified to by the said Auditor, with the seal of his office attached thereto, and the lists so made out shall be sufficient evidence of the title of the lands therein described.\u201d (See section 8, page 1159, of Scates, Treat & Blackwell\u2019s Stat.)\nThe same section further provides that said list \u201cshall have the same force and effect as patents issued for school lands.\u201d\nIt is objected that the Auditor\u2019s certificate shows on its face that there had been no evidence of title from the general government filed in his office; that the only evidence of title is the patent; that the certificate shows that had not been issued, but that the Governor had applied for it.\nWhen the list of swamp and overflowed lands had been .selected and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the title was, by act of Congress, vested in the State. Keller v. Brickey, 78 Ill. 133.\nObjection is taken to the form of the Auditor\u2019s certificate, that it does not show that any evidence of title had been filed in his office, nor that it is a copy of the list required to be transmitted by the Secretary of the Interior to the Governor, and that the Auditor does not certify from evidence in his own office, but from a list in a land office of the United States.\nAll the statute requires is, that the Auditor shall make out for each of the counties a correct list of the swamp and overflowed lands granted to the State, and certify to the correctness thereof, and that the lists so made out shall be sufficient evidence of title to the lands described therein.\nIt will be presumed that the Auditor performed his duty under the statute, and made out the list from competent data in his office.\nThe certificate that \u201cthe foregoing is a correct list of swamp and overflowed lands lying in the county of Piatt, approved to the State of Illinois,\u201d we regard as substantially sufficient under the statute. Although the certificate makes reference to the Danville, now Springfield, district, we do not understand the Auditor as certifying to something which appears in the land office in such district, and does not appear in his own office.\nUnder the act of our legislature the Auditor\u2019s list was evidence of title in the county, and we are of opinion the circuit court erred in not receiving it in evidence.\nThe judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded.\nJudgment reversed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Sheldon"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Mr. P. A. Hamilton, and Messrs. Reed & Barringer, for the plaintiff in error.",
      "Mr. W. E. Lodge, for the defendant in error."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "The County of Piatt v. David Gumley.\n1. Swamp lands\u2014evidence of title to. A list of the swamp and overflowed lands approved to the State, made by the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State, for a county, and by him certified to be a correct list of such land, lying in such county, is sufficient evidence of title to the lands therein described.\n3. Same\u2014when title is vested in the State. Where the list of swamp and overflowed lands was selected and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the title was, by the act of Congress, vested in the State.\nWrit of Error to the Circuit Court of Piatt county; the Hon. C. B. Smith, Judge, presiding.\nMr. P. A. Hamilton, and Messrs. Reed & Barringer, for the plaintiff in error.\nMr. W. E. Lodge, for the defendant in error."
  },
  "file_name": "0350-01",
  "first_page_order": 350,
  "last_page_order": 352
}