Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States

• Decision Date: 10 March 2014
• Docket Number: No. 12–1173.,12–1173.
• Citation: 188 L.Ed.2d 272,572 U.S. 93,134 S.Ct. 1257
• Parties: MARVIN M. BRANDT REVOCABLE TRUST, et al., Petitioners v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

572 U.S. 93

134 S.Ct. 1257

188 L.Ed.2d 272

MARVIN M. BRANDT REVOCABLE TRUST, et al., Petitioners

v.UNITED STATES.

No. 12–1173.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued Jan. 14, 2014.

Decided March 10, 2014.

Steven J. Lechner, Denver, CO, for Petitioners.

Anthony A. Yang, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.

Steven J. Lechner, Esq., Counsel of Record, Jeffrey W. McCoy, Esq., Mountain States Legal Foundation, Lakewood, CO, for Petitioners.

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, Robert Dreher, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Edwin S. Kneedler, Deputy Solicitor General, Anthony A. Yang, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Counsel of Record, William B. Lazarus, John L. Smeltzer, Katherine J. Barton, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.

Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

In the mid–19th century, Congress began granting private railroad companies rights of way over public lands to encourage the settlement and development of the West. Many of those same public lands were later conveyed by the Government to homesteaders and other settlers, with the lands continuing to be subject to the railroads' rights of way. The settlers and their successors remained, but many of the railroads did not. This case presents the question of what happens to a railroad's right of way granted under a particular statute—the General Railroad Right–of–Way Act of 1875—when the railroad abandons it: does it go to the Government, or to the private party who acquired the land underlying the right of way?

I

A

In the early to mid–19th century, America looked west. The period from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 saw the acquisition of the western lands that filled out what is now the contiguous United States.

The young country had numerous reasons to encourage settlement and development of this vast new expanse. What it needed was a fast and reliable way to transport people and property to those frontier lands. New technology provided the answer: the railroad. The Civil War spurred the effort to develop a transcontinental railroad, as the Federal Government saw the need to protect its citizens and secure its possessions in the West. Leo Sheep Co. v. United States, 440 U.S. 668, 674–676, 99 S.Ct. 1403, 59 L.Ed.2d 677 (1979). The construction of such a railroad would "furnish a cheap and expeditious mode for the transportation of troops and supplies," help develop " the agricultural and mineral resources of this territory," and foster settlement. United States v. Union Pacific R. Co., 91 U.S. 72, 80, 23 L.Ed. 224 (1875).

The substantial benefits a transcontinental railroad could bring were clear, but building it was no simple matter. The risks were great and the costs were staggering. Popular sentiment grew for the Government to play a role in supporting the massive project. Indeed, in 1860, President Lincoln's winning platform proclaimed: "That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction." J. Ely, Railroads and American Law 51 (2001). But how to do it? Sufficient funds were not at hand (especially with a Civil War to fight), and there were serious reservations about the legal authority for direct financing. "The policy of the country, to say nothing of the supposed want of constitutional power, stood in the way of the United States taking the work into its own hands." Union Pacific R. Co., supra, at 81.

What the country did have, however, was land—lots of it. It could give away vast swaths of public land—which at the time possessed little value without reliable transportation—in hopes that such grants would increase the appeal of a transcontinental railroad to private investors. Ely, supra, at 52–53. In the early 1860s, Congress began granting to railroad companies rights of way through the public domain, accompanied by outright grants of land along those rights of way. P. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development 362–368 (1968). The land was conveyed in checkerboard blocks. For example, under the Union Pacific Act of 1862, odd-numbered lots of one square mile apiece were granted to the railroad, while even-numbered lots were retained by the United States. Leo Sheep Co., supra, at 672–673, 686, n. 23, 99 S.Ct. 1403. Railroads could then either develop their lots or sell them, to finance construction of rail lines and encourage the settlement of future customers. Indeed, railroads became the largest secondary dispenser of public lands, after the States. Gates, supra, at 379.

But public resentment against such generous land grants to railroads began to grow in the late 1860s. Western settlers, initially some of the staunchest supporters of governmental railroad subsidization, complained that the railroads moved too slowly in placing their lands on the market and into the hands of farmers and settlers. Citizens and Members of Congress argued that the grants conflicted with the goal of the Homestead Act of 1862 to encourage individual citizens to settle and develop the frontier lands. By the 1870s, legislators across the political spectrum had embraced a policy of reserving public lands for settlers rather than granting them to railroads. Id., at 380, 454–456.

A House resolution adopted in 1872 summed up the change in national policy, stating:

"That in the judgment of this House the policy of granting subsidies in public lands to railroads and other corporations ought to be discontinued, and that every consideration of public policy and equal justice to the whole people requires that the public lands should be held for the purpose of securing homesteads to actual settlers, and for educational purposes, as may be provided by law." Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., 1585.

Congress enacted the last checkerboard land-grant statute for railroads in 1871. Gates, supra, at 380. Still wishing to encourage railroad construction, however, Congress passed at least 15 special acts between 1871 and 1875 granting to designated railroads "the right of way" through public lands, without any accompanying land subsidy. Great Northern R. Co. v. United States, 315 U.S. 262, 274, and n. 9, 62 S.Ct. 529, 86 L.Ed. 836 (1942).

Rather than continue to enact special legislation for each such right of way, Congress passed the General Railroad Right–of–Way Act of 1875, 18 Stat. 482, 43 U.S.C. §§ 934 – 939. The 1875 Act provided that "[t]he right of way through the public lands of the United States is granted to any railroad company" meeting certain requirements, "to the extent of one hundred feet on each side of the central line of said road." § 934. A railroad company could obtain a right of way by the "actual construction of its road" or "in advance of construction by filing a map as provided in section four" of the Act. Jamestown & Northern R. Co. v. Jones, 177 U.S. 125, 130–131, 20 S.Ct. 568, 44 L.Ed. 698 (1900). Section 4 in turn provided that a company could "secure" its right of way by filing a proposed map of its rail corridor with a local Department of the Interior office within 12 months after survey or location of the road. § 937. Upon approval by the Interior Department, the right of way would be noted on the land plats held at the local office, and from that day forward "all such lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to the right of way." Ibid.

The 1875 Act remained in effect until 1976, when its provisions governing the issuance of new rights of way were repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, § 706(a), 90 Stat. 2793. This case requires us to define the nature of the interest granted by the 1875 Act, in order to determine what happens when a railroad abandons its right of way.

B

Melvin M. Brandt began working at a sawmill in Fox Park, Wyoming, in 1939. He later purchased the sawmill and, in 1946, moved his family to Fox Park. Melvin's son Marvin started working at the sawmill in 1958 and came to own and operate it in 1976 until it closed, 15 years later.

In 1976, the United States patented an 83–acre parcel of land in Fox Park, surrounded by the Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest, to Melvin and Lulu Brandt. (A land patent is an official document reflecting a grant by a sovereign that is made public, or "patent.") The patent conveyed to the Brandts fee simple title to the land "with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances, of whatsoever nature, thereunto belonging, unto said claimants, their successors and assigns, forever." App. to Pet. for Cert. 76. But the patent did include limited exceptions and reservations. For example, the patent "except[s] and reserv[es] to the United States from the land granted a right-of-way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States"; "reserv[es] to the United States ... a right-of-way for the existing Platte Access Road No. 512"; and "reserv[es] to the United States ... a right-of-way for the existing Dry Park Road No. 517." Id., at 76–77 (capitalization omitted). But if those roads cease to be used by the United States or its assigns for a period of five years, the patent provides that "the easement traversed thereby shall terminate." Id., at 78.

Most relevant to this case, the patent concludes by stating that the land was granted "subject to those rights for railroad purposes as have been granted to the Laramie[,] Hahn's Peak & Pacific Railway Company, its successors or assigns." Ibid. (capitalization omitted). The patent did not specify what would occur if the railroad abandoned this right of way.

The right of way referred to in the patent was obtained by the Laramie, Hahn's Peak and Pacific Railroad (LHP & P) in 1908, pursuant to the 1875 Act.¹ The right of way is 66 miles long and 200 feet wide, and it meanders south from Laramie, Wyoming, through the Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest, to the Wyoming–Colorado border. Nearly a...