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30 Wash. L. Rev. & St. B. J. 224 (1955)
Evolution of Legislation on Proof of Title to Land

handle is hein.journals/washlr30 and id is 226 raw text is: EVOLUTION OF LEGISLATION ON PROOF OF TITLE TO LAND R. G. PATTON* Apparently the earliest method of proving title to land was by actual occupancy-not necessarily a complete or exclusive occupancy but nevertheless that form which precluded other use of the land. This was the basis, and the extent, of land ownership by the American Indians, both as tribes and as families. It has been the criterion among all nomadic people. It has a preferential status in the establishment of private ownership when the nomads changed their way of life and effected permanent settlements. Some of the earliest legislation of the United States provided for the survey and sale of its public lands, and restricted the private acquisi- tion of land from the government in other than the surveyed rectangular sub-divisions of the survey.' However it was necessary to recognize the possessory titles of pioneers who had settled on public land in advance of the making of the surveys. This was done by the enactment of numerous townsite acts which provided a legal procedure for proof of rights thus acquired and the issuance of patents to the respective settlers.2 Thus their possessory titles were changed to documentary or legal titles. Possessory titles are recognized by the courts when they protect a first trespassing squatter against acts of a subsequent trespasser.' They are given priority over the claims of the conventional title holder when the latter has lost his right to judicial assistance by reason of acts which raise an estoppel' or for failure to act within a period of time which the courts or the legislature have fixed as a limitation of action.' In these cases the holder of the possessory title may by court action secure a documentary title in the form of a judgment which con- firms a title acquired by estoppel or by adverse possession. In early English jurisprudence, possession, seizin and title were so nearly synonimous that for several centuries the standard, and almost exclusive, method of an inter vivos transfer of title was by a ceremony * Joint author: AMERICAN LAW OF PROPERTY (Little, Brown & Co., 1952) ; PATTON ON TITLES (West Pub. Co., 1938). Referee, Land Title Calendar, District Court, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 13 AM L. OF PROP. (1952) 399, n. 1; Id. 401, § 12.100. 2 PATTON, TITLEs (1938), § 164. 2 3 Am. L. OF PROP. (1952), 760, n. 2. 4Id., 839, § 15.17. 5 Id., 755-764.

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