Opinion of the Court. his legal rights. There is nothing in the record showing that he ever became possessed of Sawyer's interest in the lode. Assuming that, under the proceedings in the Teal suit, he had acquired the legal title to Sanderson's interest, he became merely a tenant in common with Sawyer, and his subsequent acquisition of the legal title from the land office inured to the benefit of his cotenants as well as himself. It is well settled that cotenants stand in a certain relation to each other of mutual trust and confidence; that neither will be permitted to act in hostility to the other in reference to the joint estate; and that a distinct title acquired by one will inure to the benefit of all. A relaxation of this rule has been sometimes admitted in certain cases of tenants in common who claim under different conveyances and through different grantors. However that may be, such cases have no application to the one under consideration, wherein a tenant in common proceeds surreptitiously, in disregard of the rights of his cotenants, to acquire a title to which he must have known, if he had made a careful examination of the facts, he had no shadow of right. We think the general rule, as stated in Bissell v. Foss, 114 U. S. 252, 259, should apply; that "such a purchase” (of an outstanding title or incumbrance upon the joint estate for the benefit of one tenant in common) "inures to the benefit of all, because there is an obligation between them, arising from their joint claim and community of interest; that one of them shall not affect the claim to the prejudice of the others. Rothwell v. Dewees, 2 Black, 613; Van Horne v. Fonda, 5 Johns. Ch. 388; Lloyd v. Lynch, 28 Penn. St. 419; Downer v. Smith, 38 Vermont, 464." A title thus acquired, the patentee holds in trust for the true owner, and this court has repeatedly held that a bill in equity will lie to enforce such trust. Johnson v. Towsley, 13 Wall. 72; Moore v. Robbins, 96 U. S. 530; Marquez v. Frisbie, 101 U. S. 473; Rector v. Gibbon, 111 U. S. 276, 291; Monroe Cattle Co. v. Becker, 147 U. S. 47. It is contended, however, that Sawyer is precluded from maintaining this bill by the fact that he filed no adverse claim to the lode in question under Rev. Stat. § 2325. This section Opinion of the Court. declares that "if no adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and receiver of the proper land office at the expiration of the sixty days of publication" of notice of application for patent, "it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent, upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, and that no adverse claim exists; and thereafter no objection from third parties to the issuance of a patent shall be heard, except it be shown that the applicant has failed to comply with the terms of this chapter." By § 2326, "where an adverse claim is filed during the period of publication, it shall be upon oath of the person or persons making the same, and shall show the nature, boundaries, and extent of such adverse claim," etc. In this case there was no conflict between different locators of the same land, and no contest with regard to boundaries or extent of claim, such as seems to be contemplated in these provisions. Turner did not claim a prior location of the same lode, and made no objection to the boundaries or extent of Sawyer's claim, but asserted that he had acquired Sawyer's title by legal proceedings. The propriety of such claim was not a question which seems to have been contemplated in requiring the "adversing" of hostile claims. In this particular the case of Garland v. Wynn, 20 How. 6, is in point. In that case it was held that where the register and receiver of public lands had been imposed upon by ex parte affidavits, and a patent has been obtained by one having no interest secured to him in virtue of the preëmption laws, to the destruction of another's right who had a preference of entry, which he preferred and exerted in due form, but which right was defeated by false swearing and fraudulent contrivance brought about by him to whom the patent was awarded, that the jurisdiction of the courts of justice was not ousted by the regulations of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. "The general rule is," says Mr. Justice Catron, "that where several parties set up conflicting claims to property, with which a special tribunal may deal, as between one party and the government, regardless of the rights of others, the latter may come into the ordinary courts of justice and litigate the conflicting claim." Such was the case of Comegys v. Vasse, 1 Pet. 193, Counsel for Appellees. 212, and the case before us belongs to the same class of ex parte proceedings; nor do the regulations of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, whereby a party may be held to prove his better claim to enter, oust the jurisdiction of the courts of justice. We announce this to be the settled doctrine of this court. See also Monroe Cattle Co. v. Becker, 147 U. S. 47, 57, and cases cited. The judgment of the court below was right, and it is, therefore, Affirmed. BELKNAP v. UNITED STATES. APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS. No. 90. Argued November 20, 21, 1893. - Decided December 11, 1893. Ordinarily a court has no power to grant a new trial at a term subsequent to that at which the original judgment was rendered. The Court of Claims, however, under Rev. Stat. § 1088, has power to grant a new trial in such case on a motion on behalf of the United States, and a mandate from this court does not affect that power. When such a motion is made on behalf of the government on the ground that its officers understood that there was an agreement that a case which had been appealed to this court by the United States, and had been remanded to that court by this court, on the ground that the appellants had not entered it here, was to abide the result in another case appealed from the Court of Claims by the United States and decided here in their favor, the granting of the motion by the Court of Claims must be taken by this court as conclusive on the question whether the evidence warranted the action of that court, as that evidence is not preserved. The payment to an Indian agent of the amount appropriated by Congress for the payment of his salary being less than the amount fixed by general law as the salary of the office, and his receipt of the sum paid “in full of my pay for services for the period herein expressed," is a full satisfaction of the claim. United States v. Langston, 118 U. S. 389, explained and limited. Mr. George A. King, (with whom was Mr. Harvey Spalding on the brief,) for appellant. Mr. Assistant Attorney General Dodge, (with whom was Mr. Charles C. Binney on the brief,) for appellees. Opinion of the Court. MR. JUSTICE BREWER delivered the opinion of the court. The history of this case is as follows: In 1882 the appellant filed his petition in the Court of Claims, alleging that as a duly appointed and commissioned United States Indian agent for a series of years, he was entitled to a salary of $1800 per annum; that he had only received a certain portion of that amount, and praying judgment for the balance. A trial was had before the court, which, on March 19, 1883, filed its findings of fact, and rendered judgment in his favor for the sum of $3400. At the same time was tried the case of Charles Mitchell v. United States, and they were both argued as presenting the same question of law, to wit, whether a public officer could "recover the difference between the salary established by law for the office which he held and the amount paid to him in accordance with the appropriations made by Congress." An appeal was taken in each case by the United States. That in the Mitchell case was duly entered in this court, and was submitted on briefs on March 30, 1883. On November 5 of that year this court rendered its decision in favor of the United States, reversing the judgment of the court below. 109 U. S. 146. The appeal in the present case was taken on June 14, 1883, but was not entered by the appellant at the October term following, as required by the rules of this court. Thereupon the appellee caused the appeal to be docketed and dismissed; and on May 12, 1884, filed with the Court of Claims the mandate, in which the following orders were set out: "And whereas, in the present term of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, the said cause came on to be heard before the Supreme Court, and it appearing that the appellant has failed to have its appeal filed and docketed in conformity with the rules of this court: It is now here ordered and adjudged by this court that their appeal from the Court of Claims be, and the same is hereby, docketed and dismissed. "And it is further ordered that this cause be, and the same is hereby, remanded to the said Court of Claims. (May 5, 1884.) "You, therefore, are hereby commanded that such proceed Opinion of the Court. ings be had in said cause as, according to right and justice and the laws of the United States, ought to be had, the said appeal notwithstanding." On the 13th of May the United States, by the Attorney General, filed a motion in the Court of Claims for a new trial on the ground that wrong and injustice in the premises had been done to the United States. The reasons therefor, as stated, were that the two cases were heard together; that in both the judgment was for the plaintiff, and both cases were appealed to the Supreme Court; that the same questions of law were involved in each case, and that the defendants understood that the appeal in this case was to abide the decision in the case of Mitchell; that, relying upon this understanding, they took no further action in this case, and it was only in consequence of such reliance that the transcript was not filed by them in the Supreme Court, and the opportunity thus given to the appellant to have the case docketed and dismissed; that by the Mitchell case the law has been decided adversely to the claim of petitioner, and, therefore, that wrong and injustice would under the circumstances be done by permitting the judg ment to stand. On the 2d of June, 1884, the Court of Claims sustained the motion, and granted a new trial. Of this appellant complains. As the new trial was granted at a term subsequent to that at which the original judgment was rendered, (the terms of the Court of Claims beginning on the first Monday in December in each year, Rev. Stat. § 1052,) there would ordinarily be no power in the court to grant such new trial. Coughlin v. District of Columbia, 106 U. S. 7; Brooks v. Railroad Company, 102 U. S. 107. But there is in the. Revised Statutes a peculiar provision, applicable only to the Court of Claims, which is as follows: "SEC. 1088. The Court of Claims, at any time while any claim is pending before it, or on appeal from it, or within two years next after the final disposition of such claim, may, on motion on behalf of the United States, grant a new trial and stay the payment of any judgment therein, upon such evidence, cumulative or otherwise, as shall satisfy the court |