The salt Lake Herald
February 4, 1890
The Supreme Court sustains the decision of the Utah Courts on Trespassing on Open Lands.
Buford Against Houtz
from
The salt Lake Herald
February 4, 1890
The Supreme
Court sustains the decision of the Utah Courts on Trespassing on Open Lands.
Washington, February 3, 1890 -- The Supreme Court today affirmed the judgment of
the Utah courts in the case of Buford et.al. against Houtz et.al. in which the
former, who owns 250,000 acres of unenclosed grazing lands, asked for an
injunction to prevent Houtz from allowing his cattle to trespass upon Buford's
land. Buford's property is the odd numbered sections of railroad land and
the effect of the injunction would be to prevent Houtz and others from using
775,000 acres of public lands adjoining Buford's private property and give the
latter a monopoly of this much of the public domain. The court says it is
the common law of the highly cultivated countries that grazers must keep their
animals off unenclosed lands belonging to others, but that such a doctrine would
be greatly injurious to a sparsely settled region. The custom and consent
of all the departments of the government for nearly one hundred years have given
an implied license to the people to graze upon the open and unenclosed and
outlet lands and that is always has been held in the frontier regions that a man
was not liable for trespass if his cattle strayed from the public lands to
unenclosed private estates. The states in their early days have generally
required property owners to erect fences when they do not wish their land
trespassed upon, and as this is the law of Utah, the court denies the
application for an injunction.
Home
BUFORD Families in America Book 2005
Letters
Simeon R. Buford
Letters
John Quincy Adams Buford
And my ALL-TIME favorite ~ TRIVIA
