Valentine

(after stating the facts as above).

We find no error in the ruling of the court that the affirmative matter pleaded in the answer constituted no defense to the action as to the tracts in lots 1 and 3, particularly described in the complaint. In Miller v. Margene, 149 F. 694 , 79 C.C.A. 382 , in a similar case, this court held that, under the law and the regulations of the Secretary of the Interior, persons claiming the right to obtain legal title to lots in the town of Juneau were required to make application therefor to the trustee of the town site, that the trustee was clothed with authority to investigate and determine the rights of all persons making such applications, and that his action thereon has the same legal effect as that of the register and receiver in passing upon a claim of right to enter public land under the homestead or pre-emption laws. Said the court: “In the absence of fraud, accident, or mistake, his decision of all questions of fact arising in such a proceeding was final, except as the same might be reversed upon appeal to the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the Secretary of the Interior. This rule in relation to the effect of the decisions of…