Botiller v. Dominguez
Supreme Court of the United States
Submitted January 7, 1887 Decided April 1, 1889
Full case name	Brigido Botiller, et al. v. Dominga Dominguez
Citations	130U.S.238 (more) 9 S. Ct. 525; 32L. Ed. 926
Case history
Prior	Writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of California
Holding
No title to land in California dependent upon Spanish or Mexican land grants can be of any validity unless presented to and confirmed by the board of land commissioners within the time prescribed by Congress.
Court membership
Chief Justice Melville Fuller Associate Justices Samuel F. Miller · Stephen J. Field Joseph P. Bradley · John M. Harlan Horace Gray · Samuel Blatchford Lucius Q. C. Lamar II
Case opinion
Majority	Miller, joined byunanimous

Part of a series on
Chicanos andMexican Americans
Terms Identity Chola/o La Raza Pachuca Pachuco Pinta/o Xicanx Concepts Anti-Mexican sentiment
History Early-American Period Josefa Segovia Las Gorras Blancas Mexican–American War Mutualista San Elizario Salt War Sonoratown Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Pre-Chicano Movement 1917 Bath riots Bisbee Deportation Bloody Christmas Bracero program California agricultural strikes Cantaloupe strike of 1928 Citrus Strike of 1936 La Matanza Mexican Repatriation Operation Wetback Plan de San Diego Porvenir Massacre Sleepy Lagoon trial Zoot Suit Riots Chicano Movement Aztlán Black-brown unity Brown Berets Católicos por La Raza Tulare labor camps rent strike Delano grape strike Centro Cultural Chicanismo Chicano Moratorium Colegio César Chávez CFMN Conferencia de Mujeres CRP East L.A. walkouts Hijas de Cuauhtémoc Huelga schools Land grant struggle Las Adelitas de Aztlán Los Siete de la Raza Los Seis de Boulder MANA MAYO MEChA Occupation of Catalina Island PCUN Plan Espiritual de Aztlán Plan de Santa Bárbara Quinto Sol Raza Unida Party United Farm Workers Post-Chicano Period 1985–1987 cannery strike 1992 Drywall Strike 2019 El Paso shooting Abolish ICE Arizona SB 1070 Castro 2020 Chicano Art Exhibit DACA Great American Boycott IRCA Farah strike Justice for Janitors Murder of Selena Proposition 187 South Central Farm
Culture Language Abrazos, no balazos Caló Chicano English Chicano names Órale Food New Mexican cuisine Tex-Mex cuisine Mexican-American cuisine Music Chicano rap Chicano rock Chicano soul Tejano music Symbols Cal-Style VW Homies Lowrider Lowrider bicycle Mexican-American folklore Pancho Claus Zoot suit
Literature Literature Chicana literature Chicano literature Chicano poetry Autobiographical Always Running Living Up the Street Who Would Have Thought It? Novels Bless Me, Ultima Caballero Desert Blood From This Wicked Patch of Dust Mexican WhiteBoy The Dirty Girls Social Club The House on Mango Street The Rain God The Revolt of the Cockroach People So Far from God Under the Feet of Jesus ...y no se lo tragó la tierra Poetry and Short Stories Emplumada I Am Joaquin Moment of Silence Pensamiento Serpentino The Moths
Chicano studies Fields Chicana feminism Chicanafuturism Organizations MAS Programs, Tucson NACCS UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Texts Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza Brown, Not White The Church in the Barrio This Bridge Called My Back Theory Barrioization Coyolxauhqui imperative Gringo justice Nahui Ollin Nepantla New tribalism Rasquachismo Spiritual activism Vergüenza Youth control complex
Visual art Visual Art Chicana art Chicano art Chicano cinema Paño Tortilla art Art Collectives Asco Culture Clash East Los Streetscapers Los Four Mujeres Muralistas Teatro Campesino Royal Chicano Air Force Art organizations Centro de Arte Público Galería de la Raza Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Precita Eyes Self Help Graphics & Art Locations Balmy Alley Chicano Park Estrada Courts Great Wall of Los Angeles
Law Supreme Court cases Botiller v. Dominguez Hernandez v. Texas San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co. U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce Plyler v. Doe Medellín v. Texas Flores-Figueroa v. U.S. Leal Garcia v. Texas Mendez v. Westminster Bernal v. Fainter Perez v. Brownell DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal. Federal Court cases Madrigal v. Quilligan
Population Population by City Arizona (Tucson) California (Los Angeles) Illinois (Chicago) Michigan (Detroit) Nebraska (Omaha) Texas Dallas–Fort Worth Houston Multiethnic Blaxicans Californios Nuevomexicanos Tejanos Indigenous Mexican Americans Punjabi Mexican Americans
Lists Chicano films Chicano poets Chicano rappers Mexican Americans Writers Bibliography
United States portal Category Index
v t e

Botiller v. Dominguez, 130 U.S. 238 (1889), was a decision by theUnited States Supreme Court dealing with the validity ofSpanish orMexicanland grants in theMexican Cession, the region of the present daysouthwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The action was in the nature of ejectment, brought in the Superior Court of theLos Angeles County by Dominga Dominguez against Brigido Botiller and others, to recover possession of a tract of land situated in said county, known asRancho Las Virgenes. The title of theplaintiff was a grant claimed to have been made by the government of Mexico to Nemecio Dominguez and Domingo Carrillo, on October 1, 1834, but no claim under this grant had ever been presented for confirmation to the board of land commissioners, appointed under theCalifornia Land Act of 1851 (9 St. 631,) "to ascertain and settle the private land claims in the state of California", and noland patent had ever issued from the United States to any one for the land, or for any part of it.

The Court held that no title to land inCalifornia dependent upon Spanish or Mexican land grants can be of any validity unless presented to and confirmed by the board of land commissioners within the time prescribed by theUnited States Congress.

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 130
• Alta California
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Aboriginal title in California

• Clay, Karen B. (1999). "Property Rights and Institutions: Congress and the California Land Act of 1851".Journal of Economic History.59 (1):122–142.doi:10.1017/S0022050700022312.JSTOR 2566499.S2CID 154277873.
• Hornbeck, David (1979). "The Patenting of California's Private Land Claims, 1851–1885".Geographical Review.69 (4):434–448.Bibcode:1979GeoRv..69..434H.doi:10.2307/214806.JSTOR 214806.
• Soltero, Carlos R. (2006)."Botiller v. Dominguez (1889), Mexican land grants, and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo".Latinos and American Law: Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 9–16.ISBN 0-292-71411-4.
• Tolley, H. B. (1983). "The Domestic Applicability of International Treaties in the United States".Revista Jurídica de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico.17: 403.ISSN 0041-851X.

• Works related toBotiller v. Dominguez at Wikisource
• Text ofBotiller v. Dominguez,130 U.S. 238 (1889) is available from: Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress

This article related to a case of theSupreme Court of the United States of theFuller Court is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• United States Supreme Court cases
• United States Supreme Court cases of the Fuller Court
• United States land use case law
• History of Mexican Americans
• 1889 in United States case law
• Mexico–United States relations
• Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California
• United States Supreme Court cases of the Fuller Court stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from September 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from September 2023
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All stub articles