Talk:Horn Island (Mississippi)

The assemblage of all portions of the island into single ownership was marked by protracted litigation between the family of Clark Beggerly, Sr., and the federal government. Mr. Beggerly purchased 20% of the island at a tax sale for $70.00 in 1971, but in 1978, the government contended there was no chain of title to any individual from the government and as a result the island was the property of the government. After a series of rulings and appeals that reached as high as the United States Supreme Court during the Clinton Administration, it was established that the property was not part of the Louisiana Purchase and was part of Spanish Florida. Due to the Boudreau Grant of 1781 a chain of title was established that indicated that fee simple interest in the property had indeed been in private hands. The Department of the Interior, it turns out, had documents which proved this to be the case the entire time. The case involved a number of significant issues including land patents (the original conveyance of land owned by a government to a private citizen) as well as sovereign immunity. Because a statute of limitations of twelve years had run since a previous sale agreement for $208,000 between the Beggerly heirs and the government, the Supreme Court ruled that this was all that was due to the Beggerly family for their interests in the property, valid though those interests were. The family had been seeking compensations of $40 million for the 729 acres in question.