Florida Real Estate Records Dispute (1821 Treaty & Havana Archives)
In 1821, Spain and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Washington, which provided for the transfer of ownership of Florida from Spain to the U.S. The express terms of the treaty required Spain to transfer a full and complete inventory of its real estate records for Florida being stored in Havana, Cuba, to the U.S ownership. Over the next decade or so, the U.S. made repeated efforts, with little success, to recover the missing Florida real estate records from the Spanish authorities. Without them, they faced not only the possibility of fraudulent back-dated land grants initiated by Spanish officials, but also the risk of false real estate documents submitted by land speculators and sharp dealers entering the new territory. Without the original real estate records to compare against spurious claims and documents, separating the false from the bona fide would prove to be a formidable task, which contained a variety of twists and turns. There is, however, good evidence that at least some archive documents relating to Florida real estate yet remain in Cuba. An initiative to see and photocopy these records may now be possible. The University of Florida and the Cuban National Archives signed an agreement, allowing researchers the opportunity to travel to Havana and begin copying a vast store of historical documents known as the Notarial Protocols.
The Case of Florida’s Missing Real Estate Records
The Florida Bar Journal Vol. 77, No. 9 October 2003
2. This article traces the history of land ownership in Florida from Spanish rule in 1513, to English rule in 1763, to Spanish rule again in 1783, and finally to U.S. rule in 1821. The article focuses on the question of settling of titles to land after the Territory of Florida was transferred to the U.S. in 1821. This question involved examining the validity of British law grants under the standards of American law, which in turn involved determining what legal status these British land grants were given by the Spanish authorities when Spain reacquired Florida in 1783.
Florida Land Titles and British, Not Just Spanish, Orgins
The Florida Bar Journal Vol. 81, No. 7 July/August 2007
3.This article traces the history of the English Common Law in Florida, and its present-day applicability when there is no Florida caselaw on point.
Florida Common Law Jurisprudence
The Florida Bar Journal Vol. 81, No. 1 January 2007
https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/florida-common-law-jurisprudence/
