1823. Green V. Biddle. to the commencement of the suit for the land, al-. though he may, when he first took possession, have had full notice of the plaintiff's title, and consequently be a malæ fidei possessor. The act of 1812, purporting to be in amendment of the former act, with the avowed purpose of still further protecting the interests of the occupant, completely exempts him from all liability for waste committed, or for rents and profits received, before the judgment or decree in the suit. In no possible case can the right owner recover more than five years' rent, although the litigation may, and frequently does, last a much longer period; whilst he is subjected to the payment for all improvements made at any period of the suit, down to the time of final judgment, to be set off against the amount of his claim for rents and profits. abridged and limited as it is by this act. The object of the compact was plainly to secure to all persons deriving titles under the then existing laws of Virginia, the entire and perpetual enjoyment of their rights of property, against any future legislative acts of the State of Kentucky, which it was foreseen might be passed under the influence of local feelings and interests. The compact did not merely intend to secure the determination of the titles to land by those laws, but also the actual enjoyment of the rights and interests thus established. It did not intend to give the true owner a right to recover, and then to couple that right with such onerous conditions as to make it worthless: to compel him to repurchase his own land, by indemnifying the occupant, (often a mala fidei possessor,) not for his expenses and labour in improving the value, but frequently in the deterioration of the land, to the great injury of the owner. The "rights and interests," of which the compact speaks, were not only to be rendered valid and secure, by preserving the modes and forms of proceeding for the assertion of those rights, but by preserving the existing provisions of law and rules of equity, under which the practical object and end of a suit are to be attained: the possession and enjoyment of the land, unburthened with any unjust conditions extorted by fraud and violence. Its letter and spirit both, forbid the interpretation, by which laws are made to exempt the occupant from his liability to account for the mesne profits, upon the pre-existing principles of law and equity; and by which that exemption is extended to every period of time, from his first taking possession down to his being actually ejected, without any regard to the circumstances by which the original character of his possession may be entirely changed by notice of a better title, of which he might have been originally ignorant. And is not the loss or injury resulting from the diminution of the value or amount recovered and actually received by the true owner, by taking one half the value of the land to pay for the estimated value or cost of the pretended ameliorations, of the same extent, as if, upon a recovery of an entire tract of land, the judgment was to be declared satisfied by delivering possession of a moiety only? Do then the rights and interests of land, as they were derived from the laws of Virginia, remain valid VOL. VIII. 1823. Green V. Biddle. Green V. Biddle. 1823. and secure, under these acts of the legislature of Kentucky? If by validity and security be meant injury, forfeiture, and destruction, then indeed the terms of the compact are amply satisfied. But if an entire and complete protection of these rights and interests, as to their value, use, and enjoyment by the true owner, was intended; then the laws in question, (the avowed object and intention, as well as the practical operation of which, is to better the condition of the occupant at the expense of the true and lawful owner, by compelling the latter, after he has recovered a formal judgment, establishing the validity of his title, to purchase the execution of that judgment by the performance of conditions which the laws existing in 1789 did not require,) are a gross violation of the compact, and consequently unconstitutional and void. If, in short, that which cannot be done directly, ought not to be permitted to be done indirectly and circuitously, the legislature of Kentucky were no more authorized to enact rules or regulations, by the operation of which the land recovered by the real owner is encumbered with a lien, to the amount of half, or any other proportion of its value, for the benefit of the occupant, and to indemnify him for his fault or misfortune in claiming under a defective title, than they would have been to produce the same effect, and to equalize the condition of the parties, by dividing the specific land between them. March 5th, 1821. Mr. Justice STORY delivered the opinion of the Court. Green The first question certified from the Circuit 1823. Court of Kentucky, in this cause, is, whether the acts of Kentucky, of the 27th of February, 1797, and of the 31st of January, 1812, concerning occupying claimants of land, are unconstitutional? This question depends principally upon the construction of the seventh article of the compact made between Virginia and Kentucky, upon the separation of the latter from the former State, that compact being a part of the constitution of Kentucky. The seventh article declares, "that all private rights and interests of lands, within the said District, derived from the laws of Virginia, shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed State, and shall be determined by the laws now existing in this State." We should have been glad, in the consideration of this subject, to have had the benefit of an argument on behalf of the tenant; but as no counsel has appeared for him, and the cause has been for some time before the Court, it is necessary to pronounce the decision, which, upon deliberation, we have formed. As far as we can understand the construction of the seventh article of the compact contended for by those who assert the constitutionality of the laws in question, it is, that it was intended to secure to claimants of lands their rights and interests therein, by preserving a determination of their titles by the laws under which they were acquired. If this be the true and only import of the article, it is a mere nullity; for, by the general principles of law, and from the necessity of the case, titles to V. Biddle. Green V. Biddle. 1823. real estate can be determined only by the laws of the State under which they are acquired. Titles to land cannot be acquired or transferred in any other mode than that prescribed by the laws of the territory where it is situate. Every government has, and from the nature of sovereignty must have, the exclusive right of regulating the descent, distribution, and grants of the domain within its own boundaries; and this right must remain, until it yields it up by compact or conquest. When once a title to lands is asserted under the laws of a territory, the validity of that title can be judged of by no other rule than those laws furnish, in which it had its origin; for no title can be acquired contrary to those laws and a title good by those laws cannot be disregarded but by a departure from the first principles of justice. If the article meant, therefore, what has been supposed, it meant only to provide for the affirmation of that which is the universal rule in the Courts of civilized nations, professing to be governed by the dictates of law. Besides, the titles to lands can, in no just sense, in compacts of this sort, be supposed to be separated from the rights and interests in those lands. It would be almost a mockery to suppose that Virginia could feel any solicitude as to the recognition of the abstract validity of titles, when they would draw after them no beneficial enjoyment of the property. Of what value is that title which communicates no right or interest in the land itself? or how can that be said to be any title at all which cannot be asserted in a Court of justice |