The Loophole in the Timber Claims
A federal court ruling clarifies that innocent buyers are protected even when the land they purchased was originally obtained through fraudulent timber claims.
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Judge Hanford of the U.S. District Court at Tacoma has reaffirmed that property titles remain valid even when there were irregularities in the original entry. In the case of United States v. John P. Scholl, the government sought to cancel a patent for land issued in 1887 under the Timber and Stone Act of 1878. While the court acknowledged the land was not actually valuable for timber—making the original entry fraudulent—it ruled that the current owners purchased the land in good faith. Because the government's own patent documents did not explicitly state the land was claimed under the timber statutes, subsequent purchasers could not have known of the fraud. The court dismissed the suit, prioritizing the security of real estate titles over the government's pursuit of fraudulent entrymen.
“There would be no equity, it seems to me, in imposing upon them the entire loss of the property and the purchase money which they have paid for it.”
This ruling highlights the early legal friction in Grays Harbor, where land speculation and fraudulent homesteading were rampant. It remains a fascinating look at the tension between government oversight of public lands and the desire for market stability in private real estate.
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