Hamblin v. Western Land Co

• Decision Date: 06 February 1893
• Docket Number: No. 1,042,1,042
• Parties: HAMBLIN v. WESTERN LAND CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

147 U.S. 531

13 S.Ct. 353

37 L.Ed. 267

HAMBLIN

v WESTERN LAND CO.

No. 1,042.

February 6, 1893.

Petition by the Western Land Company against Howard M. Hamblin in the district court of O'Brien county, Iowa, to recover possession of certain land. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appealed to the supreme court of Iowa, which affirmed the judgment. 44 N. W. Rep. 807. Defendant brings error. Affirmed.

Statement by Mr. Justice BREWER:

This case is submitted on a motion to dismiss or affirm. The facts are these: Defendant in error, the Western Land Company, on August 24, 1887, filed its petition in the district court of O'Brien county, Iowa, to recover from the defendant, Hamblin, now plaintiff in error, the possession of the N. E. 1/4 of section 1, township 95 N., range 41 W., fifth P. M. Defendant appeared and answered. A trial was had, and on April 23, 1888, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, the Western Land Company, for the possession of the property. From this judgment Hamblin appealed to the supreme court of the state, which on February 10, 1890, affirmed the judgment of the district court. Thereupon Hamblin sued out a writ of error from this court.

The land company's record title consisted of a patent from the United States to the state of Iowa, dated June 17, 1873, conveying the land to the state for the use and benefit of the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company; a decree of the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of Iowa, of May 18, 1882, (Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v Sioux City & St. P. R. Co., 10 Fed. Rep. 435,) modified on May 21, 1886, in pursuance of a mandate from this court, (Sioux City & St. P. R. Co. v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 117 U. S. 406, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 790,) by which the title of this land was adjudged held by the state in trust for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company; a patent from the state of Iowa to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, of date September 27, 1886; and a warranty deed from the latter company to the Western Land Company, of date May 26, 1886.

Hamblin's claim to the land rests upon the fact that in February, 1884, nearly 11 years after the issue of the patent, he took possession and made application to enter it under the homestead laws of the United States. This application apparently failed, and he made a second application in September, 1885. The built a house upon the land, and made other improvements, and has resided on it since March, 1884. It does not appear that the land department ever recognized any right in him to enter the land; so that his only claim is based upon the fact of occupation, made, as he says, with a view to entering it as a homestead.

Wm. L. Joy, for plaintiff in error.

John S. Monk, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

It is doubtful whether there is a federal question in this case. A real, and not a fictitious, federal question is essential to the jurisdiction of this court over the judgments of state courts. Millinger v. Hartupee, 6 Wall. 258; New Orleans v. Waterworks Co., 142 U. S. 79, 87, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 142. In the latter case it was said that 'the bare averment of a federal question is not in all cases sufficient. It must not be wholly without foundation. There must be at least color of ground for such averment, otherwise a federal question might be set up in almost any case, and the jurisdiction of this court invoked simply for the purpose of delay.' Now, in ordinary cases, it would not be doubted that a party entering upon vacant land, the title to which had been conveyed from the general government by patent to an individual, could not create a federal question, such as to give this court jurisdiction over the judgment of the highest court of the state, by simply averring that such possession was taken with a view of entering the land under the homestead laws of the United States, and that he went through the form of making application to the local land office for permission to make such entry; for if he could, as is suggested in the foregoing quotation from 142 U. S., 12 Sup. Ct. Rep., almost any case in ejectment could be taken from the supreme court of a state to this. In order that such claim of the party in possession may raise a genuine federal question, there must be some reason to believe that the apparent legal title transferred by the patent from the United States was wrongfully conveyed, and that the real title in fact remains in the government; and whether there be such shadow upon the legal title of the land company that the denial of Hamblin's right to enter the land as a homestead presents a genuine, rather than a fictitious, federal question is a doubtful matter. We must therefore investigate, not merely the instruments by which the legal title passed to the land company, but the legislation and proceedings claimed to give authority therefor.

On May 12, 1864, congress passed an act granting lands to the state of Iowa to aid in the construction of two railroads. 13 St. p. 72. So much of the first section as is material for the question here involved is as follows: 'THAT THERE BE, AND IS HEREBY, GRANTED TO thE state of iowa, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad from Sioux City, in said state, to the south line of the state of Minnesota, at such point as the said state of Iowa may select between the Big Sioux and the west fork of the Des Moines river; also to said state for the use and benefit of the McGregor Western Railroad Company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad from a point at or near the foot of Main street, South McGregor, in said state, in a westerly direction, by the most practicable route, on or near the forty-third parallel of north latitude, until it shall intersect the said road running from Sioux City to the Minnesota state line, in the county of O'Brien, in said state.' It will be noticed that the road of the McGregor Company was to proceed westerly, on or near the forty-third parallel, to an intersection with the Sioux City road, in the county of O'Brien. On August 30, 1864, that company filed in the general land office a map of the definite location of its line. This line extended westwardly to a point in section 19, township 95, range 40, in O'Brien county, where it was then expected that a...