I know you’re having a little fun, but there is a serious question inside your remark.
Generally speaking, all land in Canada that is in private hands is held in fee simple. Without going into an absurd amount of historical detail, this means that, for all intents and purposes, the title-holder owns the land–the only other person who has a superior claim to the title is the King or Queen (usually just called the Crown). There are no Dukes, Counts, Earls, or Barons or others from whom the fee simple title-holder received the land; and more importantly, to whom the title-holder owes allegiance or to whom the title-holder has ceded any rights based on his or her occupancy of the land. Nobody stands between the fee simple title-holder and the Crown–the ultimate title-holder. Again, bypassing a large amount of detail, this means that the fee simple title-holder has full rights to the land, and nobody except the Crown can defeat the fee simple title-holder’s title. Note that this rarely happens; and when it does (as in the case of an expropriation for public purposes), full and fair market value is paid by the Crown.
Now, in the case of the Klondike Big Inch company (let’s abbreviate that as “KBI”), the fee simple title-holder was KBI. It, in turn, severed its land holdings into inch-square parcels–6,272,640 of them, as has been said. Then it drew up title deeds to the parcels, and distributed them. But it never registered the individual parcels as fee simple holdings; and just as importantly, never told those who received the title deeds that they had to register their parcels to be regarded as fee simple title-holders. This put KBI in the position of being a feudal Duke, Count, Earl, or Baron: it owned the land and had a bunch of tenants who only had rights as far as KBI granted them. Which did not extend to fee simple ownership.
When the Crown seized the land for non-payment of taxes, it seized KBI’s land–it did not seize (for example) the land Chronos’ father held, because Chronos’ father never really held it at all. He was not the fee simple title-holder; KBI was. As a result, Chronos’ father was at best a tenant, paying nothing except the price of a box of cereal for the privilege, in return for which he received rights only until KBI (the fee simple title holder) lost the land. Which it did. At that point, any rights Chronos’ father held to the land disappeared–or, if you prefer, Chronos’ father’s title was defeated by KBI’s action (or inaction). Much as feudal serfs lost their land when their lord (Duke, Count, etc.) lost his landholdings.
Canadian legal Dopers, comments? Have I got the right idea?
