812.52/575
The Chargé in Mexico (Summerlin) to
the Acting Secretary of State
Mexico, January 19,
1921.
[Received February 1.]
No. 3601
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the
translation of a law enacted by the Mexican Congress, and published in
the Diario Oficial of the eighth instant,
prescribing the procedure to be followed
[Page 475]
in making grants or restitutions of lands to
towns, hamlets, congregations (congregaciones),
communities and other nuclei of population, for their common use until
such time as legislation may be enacted on the general subject of land
division.
The law prescribes that such grants are of public utility and,
consequently, that the legitimate owner thereof has the right to proper
indemnization by the Federal Government in accordance with rules
established in the law which appear to provide for paying the owner the
value of the property as fixed in the tax list plus ten percent and any
additional excess which may be allowed by experts for improvements made
after the value was fixed in the tax list.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation—Extract90]
Mexican Law of December 28, 1920, Relating to
Land Grants
I, Alvaro Obregon,
Constitutional President of the United Mexican States, to the
inhabitants thereof, know ye:
That the Congress of the Union has transmitted to me the following
decree:
The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter V
indemnifications
- Article 35. The granting of
sufficient lands to towns, hamlets, congregations, or
communities which prove the necessity or expediency of obtaining
lands for their subsistence, shall be of public utility.
- Article 36. A grant of lands gives
to the legitimate owner thereof a right to proper
indemnification.
- Article 37. All claims for
indemnification brought about through the application of this
law shall be against the Federal Government, and they shall be
decided in accordance with the following rules:
- I.
- The amount of the indemnification for lands affected
in consequence of a grant shall be proportional to the
part of the land affected, according to its assessed
value, tacitly or expressly recognized by the owner,
including aqueducts, buildings, and any other class of
constructions which may exist, plus 10 percent.
- II.
- The excess of value which the private property may
have attained through improvements made subsequent to
the fixing of the
[Page 476]
taxation value, shall be the only
part subject to appraisal, two appraisers being named:
one by the National Agrarian Commission and the other by
the interested party; and in case of the disagreement of
the latter or of the National Agrarian Commission with
the appraisal, the valuation of improvements shall be
submitted to judicial decision. The same shall be done
as concerns property the value of which is undetermined
in the tax offices.
- Article 38. In cases of claims
against restitutions and the interested party obtains a judicial
decision that the restitution made to the town is not in order,
the decision shall only give the right to obtain from the
Government of the Nation the proper indemnification.
Within the same term of one year, the owners of appropriated lands
may appeal to the judicial authority, claiming the indemnification
which should be paid them, and stating their unsatisfied claims.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Done at the
Palace of the Federal
Executive Power, Mexico, December 28,
1920.
A. Obregon
