Alexander Stalker v. Oregon Short Line Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 27 May 1912
• Docket Number: No. 225,225
• Citation: 32 S.Ct. 636,56 L.Ed. 1027,225 U.S. 142
• Parties: ALEXANDER R. STALKER and Emaline Stalker, Plffs. in Err., v. OREGON SHORT LINE RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

225 U.S. 142

32 S.Ct. 636

56 L.Ed. 1027

ALEXANDER R. STALKER and Emaline Stalker, Plffs. in Err.,

v OREGON SHORT LINE RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 225.

Argued and submitted April 24, 1912.

Decided May 27, 1912.

Mr. Carl A. Davis for plaintiffs in error.

Messrs. Maxwell Evarts, P. L. Williams, and A. A. Hoehling, Jr., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Lurton delivered the opinion of the court:

This was an action brought by the railroad company under a statute of the state of Idaho to quiet title to four certain lots in the town of Meridian, Idaho. The judgment in the trial court for the railroad company was affirmed in the supreme court of the state.

The defendant in error, as successor in title to the Idaho Central Railway Company, claims that the property in question is a part of the station grounds granted to its predecessor under the act of Congress of March 3, 1875 [18 Stat. at L. 482, chap. 152, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1568], which grant in part conflicts with the pre-emption entry made by one Joseph G. Reed, under whom the plaintiffs in error claim. The lands in question had been surveyed and were open for entry long prior to the initiation of either of the claims here involved. The conflicting rights arose in this way: The Idaho Central Railway was duly qualified under the act of Congress of 1875 to acquire a right of way and station grounds. In June, 1887, its directors formerly adopted a route between Nampa and Boise City which corresponded precisely with the route upon which the railroad was later constructed. This adoption was followed up by the filing of the profile maps, which were approved by the Secretary of the Interior on February 17, 1888, and sent back to the proper land office at Boise City. These maps did not include grounds for station purposes. By September 1, 1888, the railroad was constructed along the route first adopted, and at that date was in actual operation. On September 12, 1888, the company filed in duplicate with the register of the land office at Boise City, a plat of ground adjacent to its right of way, desired for station purposes, which selection included the lots here in controversy. This plat was received by the Secretary of the Interior on September 20, 1888, and approved on December 15, 1888. A copy was then transmitted to the register at Boise City. That official received it, but failed and neglected to 'note the same upon the plats in the said land office,' as it was his duty to do, and it is now stipulated that it has since been lost or mislaid and cannot be found. A blue print of the original map of the station grounds as selected by the plaintiff, with its certificates and indorsements, was stipulated into the record.

The plaintiffs in error claim through Joseph G. Reed, a qualified entryman, who, on October 18, 1888, filed a pre-emption claim upon a quarter section adjacent to the railroad right of way. Later he made final proofs, and, on August 4, 1891, a patent issued. This pre-emption included about 12 acres of the ground which the railroad company had theretofore selected for station purposes. There is no evidence of occupation of the portion here involved, and no plea of innocent purchaser, for value, without notice. The question was decided by the state court upon the rights resulting from the facts stated.

The case must turn upon the interpretation of the act of Congress of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. at L. p. 482, chap. 152, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1568. The relevant sections are the 1st and 4th, which are as follows:

'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the right of way through the public lands of the United States is hereby granted to any railroad company duly organized under the laws of any state or territory, except the District of Columbia, or by the Congress of the United States, which shall have filed with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under the same, to the extent of one hundred feet on each side of the central line of said road; also the right to take, from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, material, earth, stone, and timber necessary for the construction of said railroad; also ground adjacent to such right of way for station buildings, depots, machine shops, side tracks, turn-outs, and water stations, not to exceed in amount twenty acres for each station, to the extent of one station for each ten miles of its road.

* * * * *

'Sec. 4. That any railroad company desiring to secure the benefits of this act shall, within twelve months after the location of any section of twenty miles of its road, if the same be upon surveyed lands, and, if upon unsurveyed lands, within twelve months after the survey thereof by the United States, file with the register of the land office for the district where such land is located a profile of its road; and upon approval thereof by the Secretary of the Interior the same shall be noted upon the plats in said office; and thereafter all such lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way: Provided, That if any section of said road shall not be completed within five years after the location of said section, the rights herein granted shall be forfeited as to any such uncompleted section of said road.'

The uniform construction of this act has been that it is a grant 'in proesenti of lands to be thereafter identified.' Jamestown & N. R. Co. v. Jones, 177 U. S. 125, 44 L. ed. 698, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 568. In that case the question was whether the right of way became definitely located by the actual construction of the railroad, or only upon the filing of a map of location, which was much later. The conclusion was that, by the actual construction of the railroad, the boundaries of the grant were fixed by the rule of the statute, which granted a strip 100 feet wide on each side of the center of the track. That had been the construction of the act by the Interior Department, and was followed by the court below. Mr. Justice McKenna, for this court, said: 'The ruling gives a practical operation to the statute, and we think is correct. It enables the railroad company to secure the grant by an actual construction of its road, or, in advance of construction, by filing a map [of its road] as provided in § 4. Actual construction of the road is certainly unmistakable evidence and notice of appropriation.' It was therefore held that an entry made after construction, but before filing a map of location, was subject to the prior right of the railroad.

Possibly station grounds might also have been secured by the actual marking of the boundaries and the construction of station houses, side tracks, etc. This we need not decide. But the 4th section of the act provides a method for securing the benefits of the act in advance of actual construction.

Prior to the initiation of any right here involved, the Land Department put in force certain regulations to be followed by railroad companies desiring to secure the benefits of a grant in advance of actual construction, as provided by the 4th section of the act. One of these required that upon the location of any section, not exceeding 20 miles in length, the company should file with the register of the land district in which the land lay 'a map for the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, showing the termini of such portion and its route over the public lands,' etc. Another of these departmental regulations provided that 'if the company desires to avail itself of the provisions of the law which grants the use of ground adjacent to the right of way for station buildings . . . it must file for approval, in each separate instance, a plat showing, in connection with the public surveys, the surveyed limits and area of the ground desired.' These regulations require that 'a copy' of the approved map of 'definite location,' and of the 'approved plat of ground selected by a company, under the act in question, for station purposes,' shall be transmitted to the register of the land office where the land lies. Upon the receipt of the map of alignment, the land office is required 'to mark upon the township plats the line of the route of the road as laid down on the map,' and to note in pencil on the tract books opposite the tract of public land cut by said lines of railroad, 'that the same is disposed of subject to the right of way,' etc., and to write upon the face of any certificate disposing of said lands, after the filing of such approved map of location, 'that it is allowed subject to the right of way.' A like duty is put upon the register when an approved station ground plat is received.

The plat of the station grounds selected by the railroad company in this case was filed in the local land office on September 12, 1888, and reached the Secretary of the Interior on September 20, 1888. Both dates are antecedent to the filing of the pre-emption claim. But the selection pended in the office of the...