Jamestown Northern Railroad Company v. Theodore Jones
Decision Date | 26 March 1900 |
Docket Number | No. 142,142 |
Citation | 177 U.S. 125,20 S.Ct. 568,44 L.Ed. 698 |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Parties | JAMESTOWN & NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. THEODORE J. JONES |
This suit was brought by plaintiff in error to have itself adjudged the owner of a right 8, in township 141, of range 64, in the county of Stutsman, state of North Dakota.
Its title rests upon the act of Congress of March 3, 1875, entitled, 'An Act Granting to Railroads the Right of Way through the Public Lands of the United States.'
The plaintiff was organized September 17, 1881, under the laws of the territory of Dakota. After its organization it surveyed a line of route for its railroad from a point near Jamestown in a northwesterly direction through the county of Stutsman and over the land in controversy. The survey was finished the 30th of October, 1881. A map representing the survey was made by a resolution of the board of directors, and was adopted as the definite route of the railroad.
In 1882 the road was constructed upon the line surveyed, and since that time trains have been continuously run over it by the plaintiff.
On the 26th of January, 1883, the plaintiff filed with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under the same. On the 13th of March, 1883, plaintiff's map of definite location was filed and approved by the Secretary of the Interior. There was some uncertainty in the evidence whether such map was ever filed in the office of the register of the local land office, but it probably was.
On the 12th of February, 1881, the land then being public land of the United States, duly surveyed, one Sherman Jones filed a declaratory statement upon it, alleging settlement the 8th of February, 1881. On the 13th of March, 1883, it had not been canceled or vacated.
On the 26th of May, 1882, one William S. King filed a declaratory statement on the land, which on the 13th of March, 1883, had not been canceled.
In addition to the above the trial court found the following facts:
'The plaintiff has not at any time instituted proceedings or resorted to any process whatever under state or Federal laws to condemn a right of way across said land, or to devest defendant of his title or any possessory right that he might have to said land.
'Defendant has not at any time consented to the taking or use of said land by plaintiff, and has not received any compensation for said taking or for the injury and damage inflicted thereby.'
As conclusions of law the court found that no right of way accrued until the 13th of March, 1883, the date of the filing of the pro- file map of the road; that prior to that time the land had ceased to be public land by reason of the pre-emption and homestead entries which had been filed upon it; that the defendant, T. J. Jones, was the owner in fee of said land without reservation of any kind, and that his title related back to February 23, 1883, the date of his settlement thereon.
Judgment was entered dismissing plaintiff's cause of action, awarding the defendant $300 and costs taxed at $24.65, and that 'upon the payment to the defendant of the sum of $300 and the costs of this action there shall vest in the plaintiff, Jamestown & Northern Railroad Company, and its successors and assigns, the full legal title to that portion of the northeast quarter of section 8, township 141, range 64, used by it as a right of way, to wit, 50 feet on each side of the center line of said railroad, as the same has been heretofore constructed and is now located and operated through said land by said plaintiff.'
Upon appeal to the supreme court of the state the judgment was affirmed (7 N. D. 619, 76 N. W. 227), and this writ of error was then sued out.
Messrs.A. B. Browne, C. W. Bunn, and James B. Kerr for plaintiff in error.
No counsel for defendant in error.
In the summer of 1882 the plaintiff in error constructed its railroad across the land in controversy, and the finding of the court is that 'at the time defendant settled upon said land plaintiff was and ever since has been engaged in operating a line of railroad thereover.'
The defendant nevertheless was awarded $300 damages, and the plaintiff adjudged to have acquired no...
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