St Paul Co v. Northern Pac Co

• Decision Date: 02 March 1891
• Citation: 35 L.Ed. 77,11 S.Ct. 389,139 U.S. 1
• Parties: ST. PAUL & P. R. CO. et al. v. NORTHERN PAC. R. CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

139 U.S. 1

11 S.Ct. 389

35 L.Ed. 77

ST. PAUL & P. R. CO. et al. v. NORTHERN PAC. R. CO.

March 2, 1891.

S. U. Pinney and G. B. Young, for appellants.

A. H. Garland, Heber J. May, and James McNaught, for appellee.

FIELD, J.

The bill in this case was filed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to establish its right to land in oddnumbered sections, amounting to many thousand acres, situated in the neighborhood of Glyndon, in Minnesota, which it claims under a grant of the United States, made by the act of congress of >>July 2, 1864, to 'aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on the Pacific coast, by the northern route.' 13 St. c. 217, p. 365. By the first section of that act the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated, and authorized to lay out, construct, and maintain a continuous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurtenances, from a point on Lake Superior, in the state of Minnesota or Wisconsin, and thence westerly by the most eligible route, as should be determined by the company, within the territory of the United States, on a line north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to some point on Puget Sound, with a branch by the valley of the Columbia river, to a point at or near Portland, in the state of Oregon. By its third section, a grant of land was made to the company. Its language is: 'That there be, and hereby is, granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores over the route of said line of railway every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state, and whenever on the line thereof the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwiseapp ropriated, and free from pre-emption, or other claims or rights, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the commissioner of the general land-office; and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or pre-empted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the secretary of the interior in alternate sections, and designated by odd numbers, not more than ten miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections: pro- vided, that if said route shall be found upon the line of any other railroad route to aid in the construction of which lands have been heretofore granted by the United States, as far as the routes are upon the same general line, the amount of land heretofore granted shall be deducted from the amount granted by this act.' By the fourth section it was enacted: 'That whenever said Northern Pacific Railroad Company shall have twenty-five consecutive miles of any portion of said railroad and telegraph line ready for the service contemplated, the president of the United States shall appoint three commissioners to examine the same, and if it shall appear that twenty-five consecutive miles of said road and telegraph line have been completed in a good, substantial, and workman-like manner, as in all other respects required by this act, the commissioners shall so report to the president of the United States, and patents of lands, as aforesaid, shall be issued to said company, confirming to said company the right and title to said lands situated opposite to and coterminous with said completed section of said road; and, from time to time, whenever twenty-five additional consecutive miles shall have been constructed, completed, and in readiness as aforesaid, and verified by said commissioners to the president of the United States, then patents shall be issued to said company conveying the additional sections of land as aforesaid.' By the sixth section it was enacted: 'That the president of the United States shall cause the lands to be surveyed for forty miles in width on both sides of the entire line of said road, after the general route shall be fixed, and as fast as may be required by the construction of said railroad: and the odd sections of land hereby granted shall not be liable to sale, or entry, or pre-emption before or after they are surveyed, except by said company, as provided in this act; but the provisions of the act of September, eighteen hundred and forty-one, granting pre-emption rights, and the acts amendatory thereof, and of the act entitled 'An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain,' approved May 20, 1862, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended to all other lands on the line of said road, when surveyed, excepting those hereby granted to said company.' By the express declaration of the act the grants were made and the rights and privileges were conferred upon and accepted by the company on the condition that it should commence work on the road within two years from the approval of the act by the president, and complete and equip the whole road by the 4th of July, 1876; and the further condition that, if the company should make any breach of the conditions of the grants, and allow the same to continue for upwards of one year, then at any time thereafter the United States might 'do any and all acts and things' needful and necessary to insure a speedy completion of the road. (See 8 and 9.) Subsequently a joint resolution was passed by congress extending the time for the commencement of the road to July 2, 1868, and for its completion to July 4, 1878. 14 St. 355.

As seen by the terms of the third section of the act, the grant is one in praesenti; that is, it parports to pass a present title to the lands designated by alternate sections, subject to such exceptions and reservations as may arise from sale, grant, pre-emption, or other disposition previous to the time the definite route of the road is fixed. The language of the statute is 'that there be, and hereby is, granted' to the company every alternate section of the lands designated, which implies that the property itself is passed, not any special or limited interest in it. The words also import a transfer of a present title, not a promise to transfer one in the future. The route not being at the time determined, the grant was in the nature of a float, and the title did not attach to any specific sections until they were capable of identification; but, when once identified, the title attached to them as of the date of the grant, except as to such sections as were specifically reserved. It is in this sense that the grant is termed one in praesenti; that is to say, it is of that character as to all lands within the terms of the grant, and not reserved from it at the time of the definite location of the route. This is the construction given to similar grants by this court, where the question has been often considered; indeed it is so well settled as to be no longer open to discussion. Schulenberg v. Harriman, 21 Wall. 44, 60; Railroad Co. v. U. S., 92 U. S. 733; Missouri, K. & T. RY. Co. v. Kansas Pac. Ry. Co., 97 U. S. 491; Railroad Co. v. Baldwin, 103 U. S. 426. The terms of present grant are in some cases qualified by other portions of the granting act, as in the case of Rice v. Railroad Co., 1 Black, 358, but, unless qualified, they are to receive the interpretation mentioned. It is contended that they are qualified, and restricted by the provision of the fourth section, that whenever 25 miles of the road are completed in a good, substantial, and workman-like manner, and the commissioners appointed to examine the same have made a report to that effect to the president, patents shall be issued 'confirming to said company the right and title to said lands, situated opposite to and coterminous with said completed section of said road.' This provision, it is urged, is inconsistent with the theory that a title to the lands had previously vested in the company. We do not think so. There are many reasons why patents should be issued upon the completion of each section of the road. They would not only identify the lands as coterminous with the completed section, but they would be evidence that, as to that portion of the road, the conditions of the grant had been complied with, and that it was thus freed from any liability to forfeiture for a disregard of them. They would also obviate the necessity of any further evidence of the grantee's title. As deeds of further assurance they would thus be of great value in giving quiet and peace to the grantee's possession. There are many instances in the legislation of congress where patents are authorized to be issued to parties in further assurance of their title, notwithstanding a previous legislative grant to them, or a legislative confirmation of a previously existing claim. The previous grant or confirmation is in no respect impaired thereby, or its construction affected. See, on this point, Langdeau v. Hanes, 21 Wall. 521; and Wright v. Roseberry, 121 U. S. 488, 497, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 985.

Although the restraints in the act against the sale or aliena- tion of the lands when once identified are not the subject of consideration in the present case, it may be well, to obviate misapprehension, to observe that the company, notwithstanding its possession of the title, was not at liberty to dispose of the lands without the consent of congress, except as each 25-mile section was completed, and accepted by the president, so as to deprive the United States of the right to compel their...