Ti)e State's Title to Lands in tl)e 

 Forest Preserve. 



By EDWARD H. LEGGETT.* 



/ 



THE FIRST TRACKING SNOW, 



D 



URING the past year litigation of 

 very great importance relating to 

 State land titles in the Forest Pre- 

 serve has been carried on in the Supreme 

 Court. of the United States, in the United 

 States" Circuit Court, : in the Court of 

 Appeals and -the Supreme Court of this 

 State. ' ; : -. 



The Commission, through its able and 

 learned counsel, assisted by the Attorney- 

 General of the State, has been successful in 

 each of these suits. A summary of the 

 most interesting cases is submitted here- 

 with: 



In the case of Benton Turner, plaintiff 

 in error, against the People of the State of 

 New York, defendants in error (United 

 States Supreme Court), the issues raised 

 involved the constitutionality of a law of 

 this State (chapter 448 of the Laws of 

 1885), an act which in substance limits the 

 time within which actions shall be brought 

 to test the title of purchasers of non- 

 resident lands sold at tax sales, when the 

 actions commenced are based upon alleged 

 irregularities in tax sales and conveyances. 

 This case was of importance as involving 

 the title of the State not only to the lands 

 involved in the action itself but also the State's title to several hundred thousand acres 

 of land in the Forest Preserve, which had been bid in for the State at various tax sales. 



* Of the Attorney-General's Department. 

 438 



