Noble v. Union River Logging Co

• Decision Date: 09 January 1893
• Citation: 13 S.Ct. 271,147 U.S. 165,37 L.Ed. 123
• Parties: NOBLE et al. v. UNION RIVER LOGGING R. CO. No. ____
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

147 U.S. 165

13 S.Ct. 271

37 L.Ed. 123

NOBLE et al.

v UNION RIVER LOGGING R. CO.

No. ____.

January 9, 1893.

January 9, 1893.

Statement by Mr. Justice BROWN:

This was a bill in equity by the Union River Logging Railroad Company to enjoin the secretary of the interior and the commissioner of the general land office from executing a certain order revoking the approval of the plaintiff's maps for a right of way over the public lands, and also from molesting plaintiff in the enjoyment of such right of way secured to it under an act of congress.

The bill averred, in substance, that the Union River Logging Railroad Company was organized March 20, 1883, under chapter 185 of the Territorial Code of Washington, authorizing the formation of 'corporations for * * * the purpose of building, equipping, and running railroads,' etc. The articles declared the business and objects of the corporation to be 'the building, equipping, running, maintaining, and operating of a railroad for the transportation of saw logs, piles, and other timber, and wood and lumber, and to charge and receive compensation and tolls therefor, * * * from tide water in Lynch's cove, at the head of Hood's canal, in said Mason county, and running thence in a general northeasterly direction, by the most practicable route, a distance of about ten miles, more or less,' etc. The capital stock of the company being subscribed, the company proceeded by degrees to con- struct and equip a road extending from tide water in Lynch's cove, about four miles along the line above mentioned, to transport saw logs and other lumber and timber. On August 17, 1888, amended articles of incorporation were filed, 'to construct and equip a railroad and telegraph line' over a much longer route, with branches, and 'to maintain and operate said railroad and branches, and carry freight and passengers thereon, and receive tolls therefor.' Also 'to engage and carry on a general logging business, and provide for the cutting, hauling, transportation, buying, owning, acquiring, and selling of all kinds of logs, piles, poles, lumber, and timber.'

In the spring of 1889, plaintiff proceeded to extend its line of road for three miles beyond the point to which it had previously extended it. It located at intervals a better line of road; made and ballasted a new roadbed of standard gauge; and substituted steel rails and another locomotive in place of those rails and equipments which had been sufficient for its limited purposes, as specified in the original articles. In January, 1889, the company desiring to avail itself of an act of congress of March 3, 1875, (18 St. p. 482,) granting to railroads a right of way through the public lands of the United States, filed with the register of the land office at Seattle a copy of its articles of incorporation, a copy of the territorial law under which the company was organized, and the other documents required by the act, together with a map showing the termini of the road, its length, and its route through the public lands according to the public surveys. These papers were transmitted to the commissioner of the land office, and by him to the secretary of the interior, by whom they were approved in writing. and ordered to be filed. They were accordingly filed at once, and the plaintiff notified thereof.

On June 13, 1890, a copy of an order by the appellant, successor in office to the secretary of the interior by whom the maps were approved, was served upon the plaintiff, requiring it to show cause why said approval should not be revoked and annulled.

This was followed by an order of the acting secretary of the interior, annulling and canceling such maps, and directing the commissioner of the land office to carry out the order.

The answer admitted all the allegations of fact in the bill, and averred that it became known to the defendants that the plaintiff was not engaged in the business of a common carrier of passengers and freight at the time of its application, but in the transportation of logs for the private use and benefit of the several persons composing the said company, and that, being advised that a railroad company carrying on a merely private business was not such a railroad company as was contemplated by the act of congress, deemed it their duty to vacate and annul the action of Mr. Vilas, then secretary of the interior, approving plaintiff's maps of definite location, and to that end caused the notice complained of in the bill to be served. They further claimed it to be their duty to revoke and annul the action of the former secretary of the interior as having been made improvidently, and on false suggestions, and without authority under the statute.

Upon a hearing upon the bill, answer, and accompanying exhibits, the court ordered a decree for the plaintiff, and an injunction as prayed for in the bill. Defendants appealed to this court.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Maury, for appellants.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 167-170 intentionally omitted] Fredric D. McKenney and Saml. F. Phillips, for appellee.

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

This case involves not only the power of this court to enjoin the head of a department, but the power of a secretary of the interior to annul the action of his predecessor, when such action operates to give effect to a grant of public lands to a railroad corporation.

1. With regard to the judicial power in cases of this kind, it was held by this court as early as 1803, in the great case of Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 137, that there was a distinction between acts involving the exercise of judgment or discretion and those which are purely ministerial; that, with respect to the former, there exists, and can exist, no power to control the executive discretion, however erroneous its exercise may seem to have been; but with respect to ministerial duties, an act or refusal to act is, or may become, the subject of review by the courts. The principle of this case was applied in Kendall v. U. S., 12 Pet. 524, and the action of the circuit court sustained in a proceeding where it had commanded the postmaster general to credit the relator with a certain sum awarded to him by the solicitor of the treasury under an act of congress authorizing the latter to adjust the claim, this being regarded as purely a ministerial duty. In Decatur v. Paulding, 14 Pet. 497, a mandamus was refused upon the same principle, to compel the secretary of the navy to allow to the widow of Commodore Decatur a certain pension and arrearages. Indeed, the reports of this court abound with authorities to the same effect. Kendall v. Stokes, 3 How. 87; Brashear v. Mason, 6 How. 92; Reeside v. Walker, 11 How. 272; Commissioner v. Whiteley, 4 Wall. 522; U. S. v. Seaman, 17 How. 231; U. S. v. Guthrie, Id. 284; U. S. v. Commissioner, 5 Wall. 563; Gaines v. Thompson, 7 Wall. 347; Secretary v. McGarrahan, 9 Wall. 298; U. S. v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378; Butterworth v. Hoe, 112 U. S. 50, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 25; U. S. v. Black, 128 U. S. 40, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 12. In all these cases the distinction between judicial and ministerial acts is commented upon and enforced.

We have no doubt the principle of these decisions applies to a case wherein it is contended that the act of the head of a department, under any view that could be taken of the facts that were laid before him, was ultra vires, and beyond the scope of his authority. If he has no power at all to do the act complained of, he is as much subject to an injunction as he would be to a mandamus if he refused to do an act which the law plainly required him to do. As observed by Mr. Justice Bradley in Board v. McComb, 92 U. S. 531, 541: 'But it has been well settled that when a plain, official duty, requiring no exercise of discretion, is to be performed, and performance is refused, any person who will sustain personal injury by such refusal may have a mandamus to compel its performance; and when such duty is threatened to be violated by some positive official act, any person who will sustain personal injury thereby, for which adequate compensation cannot be had at law, may have an injunction to prevent it. In such cases the writs of mandamus and injunction are somewhat correlative to each other.'

2. At the time the documents required by the act of 1875 were laid before Mr. Vilas, then secretary of the interior, it became his duty to examine them, and to determine, among other things, whether the railroad authorized by the articles of incorporation was such a one as was contemplated by the act of congress. Upon being satisfied of this fact, and that all the other requirements of the act had been observed, he was authorized to approve the profile of the road, and to cause such approval to be noted upon the plats in the land office for the district where such land was located. When this was done, the granting section of the act became operative, and vested in the railroad company a right of way through the public lands to the extent of 100 feet on each side of the central line of the road. Frasher v. O'Connor, 115 U. S. 102, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1141.

The position of the defendants in this connection is that the existence of a railroad, with the duties and liabilities of a common carrier of freight and passengers, was a jurisdictional fact, without which the secretary had no power to act, and that in this case he was imposed upon by the fraudulent representations of the plaintiff, and that it was competent for his successor to revoke the approval thus obtained; in other words, that the proceedings were a nullity, and that his want of jurisdiction to approve the map may be set up as a defense to this suit.

It is true that, in every proceeding of a judicial nature, there are one or more facts which are strictly jurisdictional, the existence of which is necessary to the validity of the proceedings, and without which the act of the court is...