United States v. Oregon Co
Decision Date | 14 December 1896 |
Docket Number | No. 318,318 |
Parties | UNITED STATES v. OREGON & C. R. CO. et al |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This was a bill brought by the United States against the Oregon Central Railroad Company and the Oregon & California Railroad Company in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Oregon, to quiet title to about 90,000 acres of land in the state of Oregon, and a cross bill filed by the defendants to quiet title to the same land in the Oregon & California Railroad Company. The cause was heard on the pleadings and a stipulation as to the facts, with accompanying maps and documents.
On May 4, 1870, an act of congress was approved, which is as follows (16 Stat. 94):
'Chap. LXIX.—An act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria and McMinville, in the state of Oregon.
Within one year from the passage of this act, the Oregon Central Railroad Company filed with the secretary of the interior its assent to the act, and prior to July 31, 1871, and February 2, 1872, filed in that department maps of survey and definite location of its line of railroad, being a location from Portland to the Yamhill river near McMinnville via a point near Forest Grove, and from that point to Castor Creek, a point 20 miles towards Astoria, and from Castor Creek to Astoria; the distances being about 26 miles from Portland to Forest Grove, about 22 3/4 miles from there to the Yamhill river, and about 102 1/2 miles from Forest Grove to Astoria. The lands adjacent to and coterminous with the entire line of definite location were segregated and withdrawn from the pub- lic lands. Twenty miles of road from Portland, running due west, and terminating at a point near the town of Hillsboro, in Washington county, Or., were constructed, and about 6 miles more to a point near Forest Grove; and from that point something over 21 miles, running almost directly south to a point near McMinnville in Yamhill county. The line was constructed on a curve as it approached Forest Grove.
The secretary of the interior, on February 16, 1872, accepted the first 20 miles as completed under the act, and on June 23, 1876, he accepted another 27 1/2 miles as so completed, being the distance from Hillsboro to a point near Forest Grove, and from that point to McMinnville.
On October 6, 1880, the Oregon Central Railroad Company, for value, sold and conveyed to the Oregon & California Railroad Company all the title and interest which it had acquired in and to the lands granted under the act, and all its road, franchises, and privileges; but it was not admitted by the United States that the Oregon Central Railroad Company had a legal right to make said sale and conveyance. On that day the Oregon Central Railroad Company was insolvent, and went into liquidation, and the conveyance was made to settle its business and dispose of its property. Neither of these railroad companies, nor any one else, has ever constructed or equipped any portion or part of any railroad from the point near Forest Grove to Astoria.
January 31, 1885, congress passed an act (23 Stat. 296, c. 46), the first section of which is as follows:
'That so much of the lands granted by an act of congress entitled 'An act granting land to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria and McMinnville, in the state of Oregon,' approved May fourth, eighteen hundred and seventy, as are adjacent to and coterminous with the uncompleted portions of said road, and not embraced within the limits of said grant for the completed portions of said road, be, and the same are hereby, declared to be forfeited to the United States and restored to the public domain, and made subject to disposal under the general land laws of the United States as though said grant had never been made.'
July 8, 1885, the commissioner of the general land office issued to the local land office at Oregon City instructions for its guidance under the act of January 31, 1885, and a diagram showing the limits of the forfeited lands, and that portion of the grant which was not affected by the act. 4 Land Dec. 15. These instructions were approved by the acting secretary of the interior. The diagram showed that the road ran from Portland west to a point near Forest Grove, where it turned almost at a right angle, and ran south to McMinnville. From that point two lines were drawn, one due north and the other due west, both terminating at the 20-mile limits. The granted lands lying within the quadrant formed by these lines and the 20-mile limits, and also the...
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