John Humbird v. Waldo Avery

• Decision Date: 12 December 1904
• Docket Number: No. 7,7
• Citation: 49 L.Ed. 286,25 S.Ct. 123,195 U.S. 480
• Parties: JOHN A. HUMBIRD and Frederick Weyerhaeuser v. WALDO A. AVERY et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

195 U.S. 480

25 S.Ct. 123

49 L.Ed. 286

JOHN A. HUMBIRD and Frederick Weyerhaeuser

v WALDO A. AVERY et al.

No. 7.

Argued October 23, 26, 1903.

Decided December 12, 1904.

This case was brought before us upon questions certified by the circuit court of appeals. Subsequently, the United States was allowed to intervene upon the general ground that the case involved important questions affecting the administration of the public land laws, including the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company then in process of adjustment. And on motion of the government, the plaintiffs and defendants concurring, the whole record was ordered to be sent up for our consideration.

The case involves the title to numerous tracts of land situated on the line of the Northern Pacific Railway between Duluth and Ashland. The lands are described in an exhibit attached to the bill.

The plaintiffs, Humbird and Weyerhaeuser, sue as grantees of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, a Wisconsin corporation, which, it is claimed, succeeded, in respect of the lands in dispute, to all the rights, interests, and ownership of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, created by the act of Congress of July 2d, 1864 (13 Stat. at L. 365, chap. 217). They allege that the claims of the defendants constitute clouds upon their title.

The defendants assert title under the land laws as settlers and purchasers from the United States, or grantees of such settlers and purchasers. But the bill alleges that the lands here in dispute are part of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and that the Land Department wrongfully and unlawfully permitted the entries under which the defendants severally claim. The circuit court dismissed the bill, but without prejudice, except as to all lands here involved for which patents had been issued. 110 Fed. 465.

It seems both appropriate and necessary that the facts be fully stated. That statement we now proceed to make, premising that the present controversy had its origin, as will be presently shown, in conflicting orders or rulings in the Land Department as to what was the eastern terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

By the above act of July 2d, 1864, chap. 217, Congress made a grant of lands to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in aid of the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from some point on Lake Superior, in Minnesota or Wisconsin, to some point on Puget sound, with a branch, via Columbia river, to a point at or near Portland. The act established indemnity limits not more than 10 miles beyond the limits of the alternate sections granted. 13 Stat. at L. 365.

By a joint resolution approved May 31st, 1870, second indemnity limits were established within 10 miles on each side of the road, beyond the limits prescribed in the company's charter. 16 Stat. at L. 378, Resolution 67. The effect of this resolution was to allow the company, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to go into second indemnity limits in order to supply any deficiency in lands on its main line or branch.

On the 3d day of July, 1882, the company transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior a map of definite location covering the proposed line from Thompson Junction, on the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad, near Duluth, Minnesota, to Ashland, in Wisconsin. That map was duly approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and the lands embraced by it were withdrawn from sale or entry.

By resolution of the board of directors of the company, adopted August 28th, 1884, Ashland was declared to be the eastern terminus of the road; and that resolution was accepted by the Secretary on December 3d, 1884, as establishing such terminus.

The part of the road delineated on the map of definite location was constructed and was duly accepted; and in conformity with the directions of the Secretary the company, the circuit court states, filed lists of selections of lands, some in the first and others in the second indemnity limits, in lieu of lands lost to it in its place limits,—such lists including all the lands in controversy in this suit. But the bill avers that no final action has ever been taken by the Land Department upon such lists; and they have not yet been approved by the Department.

Subsequently, on August 12th, 1896, the Secretary of the Interior ruled that Duluth, not Ashland, was the eastern terminus of the railroad, and therefore that the land grant of 1864 did not embrace any lands between Duluth and Ashland. The company's lists of selections were thereupon canceled by order of the Secretary, and the lands covered by them were thereafter treated by the Department as unappropriated public lands, and were opened for sale and entry.

This appears from an official communication addressed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to the register and receiver at Duluth. In that communication the Commissioner said: 'On August 27th, 1896, the Secretary of the Interior rendered a decision wherein he held that the initial point on Lake Superior, or the eastern terminus of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, was at Duluth, Minnesota, and on December 24th, 1896, he approved a diagram prepared by this office showing the eastern terminal of the grant. On January 23d, 1897, a copy of so much of said diagram as related to or affected lands within your district was transmitted to you for the use and guidance of your office. The decision of the Secretary aforesaid had the effect of restoring to the public domain all lands lying east of said terminal, which had theretofore been withdrawn on account of the grant to said railroad company. Therefore to the end that all persons interested may have an opportunity to present any claims they may have to any of these lands, you will cause to be published for the period of thirty days, in some newspaper of general circulation in their vicinity, a notice referring to said Secretary's decision, which in effect declared that all lands previously withdrawn on account of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and lying east of the terminal established at Duluth, are restored to the public domain and are subject to disposal at your office.'

Under the above ruling of the Secretary as to the eastern terminus, the defendants were allowed to make entries and purchases on the line of the railroad between Duluth and Ashland, despite the company's map of definite location and the lists of selections filed by it with the Secretary. In reference to the action of the Interior Department, the circuit court said: 'By reason of the erroneous ruling of the Secretary of the Interior as to the location of the eastern terminus of said railroad, and his revocation of his prior approval of lawful selections by the railroad company of indemnity lands, and permitting sales and entries of such selected lands, as unappropriated, he had introduced confusion and conflict in respect to the right to such lands, which was beginning to be litigated in the courts. . . . The fact that patents had issued in a few instances would not end such disputes as to the lands so patented, as courts would adjudge the patentee in any case to hold the title in trust for the other party, wherever the other party had clearly the right to the land.' 110 Fed. 465, 469.

Such was the situation when Congress incorporated into the body of the sundry civil appropriation act of July 1st, 1898 (30 Stat. at L. 597, 620, chap. 546), subdivision, Surveying the Public Lands, certain provisions relating to the Northern Pacific land grant. As these provisions disclose a scheme or plan for the settlement of the disputes arising out of the conflicting rulings in the Land Department in reference to the eastern terminus of the railroad, and its action in reference to the public lands between Duluth and Ashland, they should all be examined in order to ascertain the intention of Congress. They are therefore here given in full.

By that act—dividing it, for convenience, into paragraphs—it was provided:

'That where, prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the whole or any part of an odd-numbered section, in either the granted or the indemnity limits of the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, to which the right of the grantee or its lawful successor is claimed to have attached by definite location or selection, has been purchased directly from the United States, or settled upon or claimed in good faith by any qualified settler under color of title or claim of right under any law of the United States or any ruling of the Interior Department, and where purchaser, settler, or claimant refuses to transfer his entry as hereinafter provided, the railroad grantee or its successor in interest, upon a proper relinquishment thereof, shall be entitled to select in lieu of the land relinquished an equal quantity of public lands, surveyed or unsurveyed, not mineral or reserved, and not valuable for stone, iron, or coal, and free from valid adverse claim, or not occupied by settlers at the time of such selection, situated within any state or territory into which such railroad grant extends, and patents shall issue for the land so selected as though it had been originally granted; but all selections of unsurveyed lands shall be of odd-numbered sections, to be identified by the survey when made, and patent therefor shall issue to and in the name of the corporation surrendering the lands before mentioned, and such patents shall not issue until after the survey:

2. 'Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Interior shall from time to time ascertain, and, as soon as conveniently may be done, cause to be prepared and delivered to the said railroad grantee or its successor in interest a list or lists of the several tracts which have been purchased or settled upon or occupied as aforesaid, and are now claimed by said purchasers or occupants, their...