Hanford v. St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 10 June 1889
• Citation: 42 N.W. 596,43 Minn. 104
• Parties: Heber H. Hanford and another v. St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

42 N.W. 596

43 Minn. 104

Heber H. Hanford and another v. St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company

Supreme Court of Minnesota

June 10, 1889

On Reargument, April 3, 1890.

Plaintiffs claiming to be the owners of certain land in St. Louis county, brought this action in the district court for that county to restrain the defendant from constructing a railway track in front of their land and between it and the dock line in the Bay of St. Louis, thus cutting them off from access to navigable water. The action was heard before Stearns, J upon the pleadings and an agreed statement showing the facts to be as follows: In September, 1869, the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Co. (to all of whose franchises, rights and property the defendant has succeeded) filed its petition in the district court for St. Louis county for the condemnation of 35 different tracts of land, belonging to different owners, for the purposes of its railway and pursuant to its charter. The description of the tracts numbered 3, 4, and 5 was by metes and bounds, followed by the words "so as to include riparian rights and privileges" (in the 3d) or "including all riparian rights," in the 4th and 5th. The description of the 6th tract was as follows:

"No 6. Commencing on section line between sections 3 and 4, township 49 north, of range 14 west, at the northeast corner of block one in the town of Rice's Point; thence north on the said section line to a point 950 feet south of the northeast corner of section 4 of said township; thence northwardly by a line parallel to and 200 feet from the centre line of the railroad located through said tract to a point 100 feet south of the centre of the main line in lot 4, section 33, township 50, range 14 west; thence southwesterly on a line parallel to the centre line of said railroad, and distant 100 feet from said line, into the Bay of St. Louis, including all the premises between the lines so described and the said Bay of St. Louis, as designated on said Exhibit A," [which was a map, filed with the petition.] "That so much of said premises as lies within lot 1, section 4, township 49, range 14 west, is owned by the Western Land Association, E. C. Clark, E. F. Ely, John A. Thompson, and North Albert Posey."

Commissioners were thereupon duly appointed, and in their report (duly filed December 27, 1869) they awarded as compensation for the taking of the land above described the sum of $ 800. In each instance the commissioners, in their report, follow the descriptions in the petition, and make no mention of riparian rights except in case of the three above-mentioned tracts numbered 3, 4, and 5. The railway company thereupon entered into possession, and Posey, on January 22, 1870, appealed from the award. On January 16, 1873, Posey, while his appeal was still pending, platted into town lots a tract of 11 acres, calling it "The North Albert Posey Tract on Rice's Point" -- the plat being made and recorded without the company's consent, and at a time when that part of the platted tract which was included in the above described tract No. 6 was actually occupied by the company for railway purposes.

Prior to the beginning of this action the plaintiffs, Heber H. Hanford and Alva W. Bradley, acquired and still hold all Posey's interest in certain of the platted lots and blocks. The land thus conveyed to plaintiffs and described in the complaint lies west of the easterly line of tract No. 6, described in the condemnation proceedings, and borders upon the navigable waters of the Bay of St. Louis. Such of it as is upland or above low-water mark is within the boundary lines of said tract No. 6, and the rest of it is below low-water mark and between the shore line of tract No. 6 and the dock line established in 1883, by the city authorities of Duluth, pursuant to Sp. Laws 1881, p. 62. This dock line in front of tract No. 6 is about 850 feet from the shore, the intervening space being covered with water naturally too shallow to admit of navigation by the class of vessels generally visiting the harbor of Duluth.

In 1877 the defendant acquired all the property, rights, and franchises of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Co., and in 1879, pursuant to Laws 1879, c. 82, and before Posey's death, paid into court the amount of the award for tract No. 6, with interest. Afterwards, in 1886, these plaintiffs and one Edward L. Bradley, brought ejectment against this defendant and the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. for the lands described in the complaint, in which action judgment was rendered for the defendants. (See Bradley v. Nor. Pac. R. Co., 38 Minn. 234.) Upon these facts the court ordered judgment for the plaintiffs; a new trial was refused, and the defendant appealed. The case was first argued at the April term, 1889, when the first of the following opinions was filed.

Order reversed.

Ensign, Cash & Williams, for appellant.

Wm. W. Billson, for respondents.

OPINION

Gilfillan, C. J.

In 1869 the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Company, to whose rights this defendant succeeded, commenced proceedings in the county of St. Louis to condemn for its use for railroad purposes lands in that county, some of them lying near to or touching upon the Bay of St. Louis, or on Superior Bay, or on Lake Superior. The petition by which the proceedings were instituted described the land more particularly involved here by describing certain lines and then continuing "Including all the premises between the lines so described and the said...