Minnesota C. R. Co. v. Melvin

• Decision Date: 01 March 1875
• Citation: 21 Minn. 339
• Parties: Minnesota Central Railway Company v. B. F. Melvin, County Treasurer, and another
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

21 Minn. 339

Minnesota Central Railway Company v. B. F. Melvin, County Treasurer, and another

Supreme Court of Minnesota

March 1, 1875

Appeal by defendants from an order of the district court for Steele county, Lord, J., presiding, refusing to dissolve an injunction.

The order denying the defendants' motion to dissolve the temporary injunction allowed in this case, affirmed.

Amos Coggswell and J. M. Burlingame, for appellants.

Gordon E. Cole, for respondent.

OPINION

Berry J. ^[1]

This is an action in which it is sought to enjoin the collection of certain taxes, and to set aside the assessments of the same. Without entering into details, it will be sufficient to refer to First Division St. P. & P. R. Co. v Parcher, 14 Minn. 297, and to Huff v Winona & St. P. R Co., 11 Minn. 180, and to add that, mutatis mutandis, proceedings similar to those of which a history is given in the opinions of the court in those cases, were taken in the case of the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley R. Co., the result being that the plaintiff, The Minnesota Central Railway Co., under the congressional Land Grant Act of March 3, 1857, (11 Stat. at Large, ch. 99,) and other acts of congress, under the Five Million Loan Amendment to our state constitution, and under the following acts of the legislature of the Territory or State of Minnesota, viz., ch. 1, Laws 1857, Extra Sess.; ch. 17, Sp. Laws 1862; ch. 2, Sp. Laws 1864; ch. 5, Sp. Laws 1865, succeeded to the rights, benefits, privileges, property, franchises and interests of the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Railroad Co., and among other things, to the lands upon which the taxes in question are assessed, and to the immunity of said lands from taxation, as provided in § 9, sub-ch. 3, ch. 1, Laws 1857, Ex. Sess. Said § 9 enacts that the lands aforesaid, with others, "shall be and are exempt from all taxation, until the same shall have been sold and conveyed by the said company," (the M. & C. V. R. Co.) By § 6, ch. 17, Sp. Laws 1862, it is further enacted that the same "shall be and hereby are exempted from all assessments and from all taxation whatsoever, until the same shall have been sold and conveyed by the said company, or until said company shall contract to sell the said lands."

Defendants contend that the taxes in question should be sustained, because the plaintiff has sold and conveyed the lands upon which the same were assessed. Whether such sale and conveyance have been made, is the only question necessary to be considered in this case. The facts bearing upon the question are as follows: On June 22, 1867, the plaintiff, by deed (Exhibit A) duly executed, granted and conveyed to the McGregor Western Railway Co. "all of their (the Minnesota Central Railway Company's) roadway, rolling stock, equipments and supplies, embracing and including all their railroad from the state line to Austin, thence in a northerly direction to Minneapolis, and embracing the branch from near Mendota at Fort Snelling to the city of St. Paul, and including the bridge across the Mississippi river at St. Paul, and all further extensions of the railroad of the Minnesota Central Railway Company, as now authorized by law or which shall hereafter be authorized, including the right of way and land occupied by said road, and all the appurtenances thereunto belonging; also embracing all the depots, station houses, engine houses, car houses, warehouses, elevators, machine shops, workshops, superstructures, erections and fixtures, and all lands used for railroad purposes, and all buildings erected and in process of erection thereon, and all appurtenances, rights and privileges thereunto belonging, and also all and singular the locomotives, tenders, passenger cars, carriages, tools, machinery, wood, coal, rents, tolls, profits, benefits and advantages of said Minnesota Central Railway Company. To have and to hold the above granted and bargained premises, with the appurtenances thereof, and all the right, title, interest and property of the said Minnesota Central Railway Company in and to the premises above described, unto the McGregor Western Railway Company, their successors and assigns, to their own proper use forever. And the said Minnesota Central Railway Company, for itself and for its successors and assigns, doth covenant with the McGregor Western Railway Company, its successors and assigns, that it hath a good and indefeasible estate in fee simple, and hath good right to bargain and sell the same, and that it will, and that its successors and assigns shall warrant and forever defend the same to the said McGregor Western Railway Company, its successors and assigns, against all claims and demands whatsoever; excepting and reserving to the grantors all lands that have heretofore been or shall hereafter be donated or granted by the United States or by the State of...