County of Nobles v. Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Co.
| Decision Date | 05 December 1879 |
| Citation | 3 N.W. 701,26 Minn. 294 |
| Parties | County of Nobles v. Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Proceeding in the district court for Nobles county, for the collection of taxes for the year 1876, assessed on certain lands of defendant in that county. The defendant interposed an answer, alleging that the lands were not subject to taxation. It appearing that the defendant had paid into the state treasury the per centum of its gross earnings required by the legislation stated in the opinion, the court Dickinson, J., presiding, held that the lands were exempt from taxation, and ordered judgment discharging them from the taxes in question; and thereafter, at the request of the county attorney, reported the case to this court, pursuant to Laws 1878, c. 1, § 80. (Gen. St. 1878, c. 11, § 80.)
Geo. P Wilson, Attorney General, and Daniel Rohrer, for plaintiff.
E. C Palmer, for defendant.
The act of May 22, 1857, of the legislative assembly of the territory of Minnesota, authorized the Root River Valley & Southern Minnesota Railroad Company (afterwards the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company) to construct two lines of railroad, both described in the landgrant act of congress, of March 3, 1857, -- one of them being that from St. Paul, and from St. Anthony via Minneapolis, to a convenient point of junction west of the Mississippi, and thence to the southern boundary of the state, in the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux river, -- and disposed of and conferred to and upon said company all the lands, interests, rights, powers and privileges granted to and conferred upon the territory by said act of congress, applicable to said lines or roads. The act declared that the lands so granted "shall be and are exempt from all taxation until the same shall have been sold and conveyed" by said company, and, in lieu of taxes thereon, provided for the payment by the company, to the territory or state, of three per cent. of the gross earnings of the road. Laws 1857, (Ex. Sess.) c. 1, subch. 3, §§ 2, 3, 9.
Chapter 2 of the act of March 4, 1864, vested in the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company (now the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company) all the rights, benefits, privileges, property, franchises and interests of the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, acquired by the state "by virtue of any acts, deeds, sale, foreclosure, agreement or thing by the said company hereinbefore done or suffered, or by reason of any forfeiture, or by virtue of any law of the state, or any foreclosure by the governor of the state, acting for and in behalf of the state, or by reason of a sale of the same or any part thereof by the governor of the state of Minnesota, and bid in and purchased by the governor of the state of Minnesota, for the benefit of the state of Minnesota, pertaining to the line of road" hereinbefore described.
The particular "acts, deeds, sale, foreclosure," etc., referred to in the act of 1864, are not set forth in the statement of facts by the court below, upon which the case is certified to this court; but we must assume that they were the same as are provided for in the amendment of 1858 to section 10, art. 9 of the constitution, and the subsequent acts of the legislature, designed to make effectual the provisions of that amendment. The act of 1864 passed to the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company all the rights vested by the acts of May 22, 1857, in the Root River Valley & Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, in the lands granted by act of congress March 3, 1857, applicable to the line hereinbefore described, including the exemption from taxation created by said act of May 22, 1857. First Div. St. Paul & Pacific R. Co. v. Parcher, 14 Minn. 297.
However, the exemption of the lands from taxation while in the hands of the Minnesota Valley -- now the St. Paul & Sioux City -- Railroad Company, is not questioned in this case. It is only claimed that they lost the exemption by the arrangement made by the St. Paul & Sioux City Company with the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company, under Sp. Laws 1869, c. 50, and we have referred to the various acts hereinbefore mentioned, merely to show the origin and character of the exemption, and to ascertain the purpose of the legislature in creating it.
Sp Laws 1869, c. 50, enacted "that the Minnesota Valley Railroad Company is hereby authorized to consolidate with the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company of Iowa, so as to form a continuous line and company from St. Paul and Sioux City; or said companies may, for convenience of operation, form two divisions, or be operated under distinct...
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