United States Court of Private Land Claims

The United States Court of Private Land Claims (1891–1904) was an ad-hoc court created to decide land claims guaranteed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and in the states of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming.

During Spanish (1598–1821) and Mexican (1821–1846) rule over what was to become the U.S. Southwest, the governments made land grants to various individuals and communities.

[2] In 1851, Congress passed the first legislation implementing the property protection provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, however it addressed only the Spanish and Mexican grants in California.

By 1880 the corruption[4] inherent in determining these claims by politics rather than on a legal basis forced an end to this practice.

So, in 1891, 42 years after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the U.S. Congress created the Court of Private Land Claims consisting of five justices appointed for a term to expire on December 31, 1895.

Many of these Spanish or Mexican land grants were based upon incomplete documentation, in part because those governments did not issue deeds to the grantees, and records were kept variously at the territorial, state, vice-royal or imperial level.