Margaret A. Muse and others filed their original complaint in ejectment against the Arlington Hotel Company, July 25, 1894, in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Arkansas, to which defendant demurred. Pending the demurrer, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, in which they averred: That defendant was 'a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Arkansas, and doing business at the city of Hot Springs, in that state,' and that plaintiffs, except 'Alice F. South, who is a citizen and resident of Coahuila, Mexico,' were all citizens and residents of the United States, some of Louisiana, some of Texas, some of Mississippi, and one of Illinois.
That they are the only heirs at law of Don Juan Filhiol, who died intestate, a citizen of Louisiana, in 1821, and that they are the owners, in fee simple of a league or land described in the complaint.
Plaintiffs alleged: That Filhiol was born in France in 1740. That he left that country in 1763, going to San Domingo, and thence to Philadelphia in 1779, and finally arrived in New Orleans in May of that year, where he joined the volunteers in the war between Spain and England. That in 1783 he was appointed by the king of Spain captain of the army and commandant of the militia, and assigned to duty at the post of Ouachita, in Louisiana, under instructions from Don Estevan Miro, the governor general of that province.
That, on December 12, 1787, Filhiol memorialized the governor of Louisiana and West Florida for a grant of land, whereon the governor ordered a survey of the land applied for, and that before February 22, 1788, Don Carlos Trudeau, the then surveyor general of Louisiana, made a survey in accordance with the law as it then existed, and made a report thereof, with figurative plan, and proces verbal in due form, in and by which the land was described. That the survey, figurative plan, and proces verbal have been lost or destroyed, and plaintiffs could not produce them, but they alleged that on February 22, 1788, Miro, as governor, made and delivered to Filhiol a grant for a certain league of land, the description of which was set forth in the complaint; that the grant was made while Filhiol was acting as commandant of the post of Ouachita, as a reward for his civil and military services in his position as commandant; and that Miro, as governor, was by the Spanish colonial laws vested with power to make grants of land, and to convey by such grants the absolute fee simple to the lands granted.
Plaintiffs further averred that the land granted by Miro to Filhiol consisted of a certain one-square league, with the hot springs at the city of Hot Springs as its center, the deseription, metes, and bounds of which league were more accurately described in the survey, figurative plan, and proces verbal. And, setting forth a translation of the grant, plaintiffs stated that after the delivery of the grant to Filhiol, December 6, 1788, Trudeau, who was then public and private surveyor of Louisana, made and delivered to Filhiol a certificate of measurement of the land, a translation of which was also given; that the making and delivery of this certificate was a delivery of the judicial possession of the land, and had the force and effect of segregating it from the public domain; and that the grant vested full and complete title in the grantee.
It was further alleged that Filhiol sold and conveyed the land, November 25, 1803, to his son-in-law, Bourgeat, passing the deed before the military and civil commandant of Ouachita, the deed being witnessed by two witnesses, who signed the act in the presence of two others, and a copy of which was set out; that the deed was immediately reported to the proper office of Louisiana, and was afterwards duly recorded; that Bourgeat retroceded the same lands to Filhiol by deed passed before the judge of the parish of Pointe Coup ee, July 17, 1806; that this deed (a copy of which was given) was duly filed and recorded; and that Filhiol never thereafter parted with his title to the land. And plaintiffs alleged that when these deeds were made the Spanish colonial law forbade any public officers, having authority to receive acknowledgments and pass deeds for the conveyance of lands, to pass such deeds, or receive acknowledgments thereof, unless they knew that the vendor had title to the lands proposed to be sold.