Diaz v. Patterson, 263 U.S. 399 (1923)

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Diaz v. Patterson

No. 113

Argued November 28, 1923
Decided December 10, 1923
263 U.S. 399

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. Owners of a registered title to land in the Canal Zone who are in possession and have maintained it for the period of extraordinary prescription (Civ.Code, Art. 2531) cannot be disseized and deprived of the property by the mere registration of what purports to be a conveyance by a stranger to the title and subsequent lapse of the ten-year period of ordinary prescription.

2. Reasons for following local decisions in Porto Rico, with its own peculiar system of law, do not apply in the same degree to the Panama Code in its present application to the Canal Zone. P. 402.

3. A decision of the circuit court of appeals reversing a decree of the Court of the Canal Zone held not res judicata on second appeal to the former court or on review of its final decision here. P. 402.

4. Failure of the court to order notice to unknown claimants in a suit over title to land will not avail a plaintiff who fails to establish any title or interest in himself. P. 402.

Appeal from a decree from the circuit court of appeals affirming a decree recovered by the defendant, here appellee, in a suit brought by the appellants in the United States Court for the Canal Zone to confirm their title to a tract of land and, later, to the money for which it was expropriated by the United States.