The case before us is an appeal from the circuit court of the United States for the district of Colorado. The decree from which this appeal is taken dismissed a bill brought in that court by the United States against the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company, the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley Railroad Company, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company. It was brought by the attorney general of the United States, and its purpose was to have a decree setting aside and declaring void a patent from the United States granting to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, their heirs and assigns, a tract of land described in a very extensive survey, which is made a part of the patent. It is stated in the brief of the assistant attorney general in this court that the patent conveys 1,714,764.94 acres of land, lying partly in the territory of New Mexico and partly in the state of Colorado. This patent is dated May 19, 1879, and seems to be regular on its face in every particular. The bill to set this patent aside was filed in the Colorado circuit court on August 25, 1882, which was a little over three years after the patent was issued. By virtue of certain mesne conveyances, and other transactions not necessary to be recited here, it may be stated that the title conveyed by the patent to Beaubien and Miranda inured, immediately upon its being issued, to the benefit of the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, a corporation which has the beneficial interest in the grant, so far as appears in this record, and the contest is mainly, if not exclusively, between the United States and that company.
The original bill filed in the case assailed the grant mainly upon the ground that the patent was issued by the executive department of the government upon the false representations of the defendant the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, and those whose estate the company has in the land, and of whose fraudulent actings and doings in the premises the company had notice at the time it acquired the title. This bill recites the original grant of January 10, 1841, by the republic of Mexico, which it declares was in due form of law, made to Beaubien and Miranda, citizens of said republic, and it gives the description of the land and its boundaries which is here the subject of controversy. The bill also declares that said grant, and the proceedings had in regard thereto, werei n due form of law, and in accordance with the usages and customs of that country, as more fully appeared by reference to the grant and act of possession, copies of which were annexed thereto, and that it was duly accepted by the grantees, who immediately thereupon entered into possession of the premises, and that they, and those holding under them, have ever since been in the quiet, peaceable, and exclusive possession thereof. The bill then declares that the surveyor general of the territory of New Mexico, under the act of 1854, made a report in favor of this grant; that on June 21, 1860, the congress of the United States confirmed and ratified it as recommended; and that the patent was afterwards issued upon a survey made by order of the government under the instructions of the surveyor general of New Mexico, approved by the commissioner of the general land-office, which patent is made an exhibit to the bill. This original bill then goes on to charge that the survey on which this patent was issued, was falsely and fraudulently made, and that the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, and certain parties who made this survey under a contract with the government, conspired to cheat and defraud the government of the United States by including a larger amount of land than was intended to be embraced by the original grant of the republic of Mexico; and it especially charged that about 265,000 acres, to-wit, all the lands lying and being in the county of Las Animas, in the state of Colorado, were fraudulently included in this survey, and were of the value of two millions of dollars. The main purpose of the bill, and the only specific prayer for relief, is that the survey may be declared void so far as it includes lands within the state of Colorado, though it concludes by praying for general relief.