Valentine

The plaintiff in error brought this action in the court below against one J. J. McGrath and his tenant, Hirsch, to recover the possession of certain lots of land, and damages for their detention, stating in his complaint three causes of action — the first relating to lot 1 of block 3 in the town of Juneau, Alaska; the second relating to lots 2 and 3 of the same block; and the third to a specifically described portion of lot 1 of block G in the same town. McGrath answered the complaint, putting in issue its allegations, and also setting up an affirmative defense, in which, among other things, he alleged the patenting by the government of the town site of Juneau on September 4, 1897, and that, long before the entry of the town site under the act of Congress providing therefor, his grantor took possession of certain lands, including the lots sued for by the plaintiff, and was in the actual and exclusive possession thereof at the time the town site was entered; that the trustee of the town site gave notice, pursuant to the regulations of the Secretary of the Interior, that he would, on November IS, 1897, set apart lots and parcels of land in the town site to the occupants thereof, and…