Northern Pacific Railway Company v. Jacob Slaght

• Decision Date: 11 March 1907
• Docket Number: No. 152,152
• Citation: 27 S.Ct. 442,205 U.S. 122,51 L.Ed. 738
• Parties: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, John A. Miller and Anna Miller, His Wife, and Washington Grain & Milling Company, Plffs. in Err., v. JACOB SLAGHT
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

205 U.S. 122

27 S.Ct. 442

51 L.Ed. 738

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, John A. Miller and Anna Miller, His Wife, and Washington Grain & Milling Company, Plffs. in Err.,

v JACOB SLAGHT.

No. 152.

Argued and submitted January 11, 1907.

Decided March 11, 1907.

Messrs. Charles W. Bunn and James B. Kerr for plaintiffs in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 122-124 intentionally omitted] Messrs. U. L. Ettinger, Thomas Neill, and W. E. McCroskey for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an action of ejectment brought by defendant in error against plaintiffs in error in the superior court in and for the county of Whitman, state of Washington, for land situate in the town of Palouse.

The trial court adjudged defendant in error the owner in fee simple of the land sued for, and that the plaintiffs in error were in the possession and occupation of the portions thereof described in their answers against the will and consent of the plaintiff (defendant in error), and were occupying and in possession thereof without right, except that the Northern Pacific Railway Company, as a public carrier, had a right to hold the possession of a strip of land 25 feet wide, 'being 12 1/2 feet on each side of the center line between the rails of its main track over and across said land, and also a tract 100 feet square.' This tract was described. Defendant in error was adjudged entitled to recover 'all the rest of the land described in the amended complaint.' And that a writ issue to put him in possession thereof, but not until ninety days from the date of the judgment, and, if an appeal should be taken and proceedings stayed, then not until ninety days from the time the remittitur from the supreme court affirming the judgment should be filed; and if, in the meantime, the railway company should commence proceeding in the proper court to condemn the land claimed by it and described in its answer, for railroad purposes, then said writ should not be issued as to such land as it might seek to condemn, unless the company should afterwards dismiss such proceedings or fail to prosecute the same to final judgment and pay the award that might be made therein. The supreme court affirmed the judgment. 39 Wash. 576, 81 Pac. 1062.

The facts, as far as necessary to be stated, are that after proceedings in the land office, to which the railway company was a party, a homestead patent was issued to defendant in error April 20, 1897, to lots 10, 11, 14, and 15 of section 1, township 16 N., range 45 E., Willamette meridian. Defendant in error established his residence upon the land in 1883.

In 1886 and the first half of 1887 the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company constructed and completed, at great expense, a railroad over lots 10 and 11, conforming to the survey previously made and staked out, and from and after its completion it was operated daily and continuously in the carrying of freight, passengers, and mail. The right of way claimed was 100 feet wide on either side of the main line of railroad. It would be possible for plaintiff in error, who is the successor of the Spokane company, to carry freight, passengers, and mail over a right of way not exceeding 25 feet in width, and a space of 100 feet square would permit of the erection of a depot at the town of Palouse. But great inconvenience would result to the citizens of that town and vicinity and the railway company. For the convenient, prompt, and expeditious handling of freight and the erection of elevators for storing grain and wheat a right of way of 200 feet is necessary. At the time the railroad was surveyed and constructed defendant in error resided upon said lands and knew of its construction and the expenditure of large sums of money therefor. About the time of the survey he published a notice in the Palouse News, a newspaper published in the vicinity of the land, forbidding all persons from trespassing thereon. This is the only objection he made. In the month of August, 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, claiming to be the owner of lots 10 and 11, conveyed the same to William S. Powers, and he, on the 14th of September of the same year, conveyed to the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company a right of way 200 feet wide over lots 10 and 11, being the same then claimed by that company and now claimed by plaintiff in error, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. On the 12th of May, 1897, the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company, Powers, and others, as successors in interest of Powers under the above deed of conveyance from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, brought a suit against the defendant in error which will hereafter be referred to and described. The complaint was amended. The date of its filing as amended does not appear. It was sworn to February 19, 1898. A demurrer to the amended complaint was sustained and, the plaintiffs declining to plead further, a judgment was entered June 24, 1898, dismissing the suit. The judgment was affirmed successively by the supreme court of the state and by this court. No suit of any kind was commenced by defendant in error enjoin the construction of, or the maintenance of, said railroad over said right of way, except the suit at bar, which was brought shortly after the decision of this court above mentioned. The summons was served on the Northern Pacific Railway Company on the 9th of October, 1901, and the complaint was filed on the 4th of June, 1902.

The Spokane & Palouse Railway Company conveyed the right of way in controversy and all of its property on the 21st of February, 1899, to the Northern Pacific Railway Company, which has ever since maintained and operated said road from Spokane, Washington, to Lewiston, Idaho, and intervening points.

The Northern Pacific Railway Company (we shall follow counsel's example and treat the Northern Pacific Railway Company as the sole plaintiff in error, the individuals named being its lessees) assigns as error in its brief the ruling of the supreme court of the state, that the company 'had no right of way under the act of Congress of March 3, 1875' (18 Stat. at L. 482, chap. 152, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1568), and the ruling, 'that the statute of limitations of Washington could not, because the laws of the United States forbade, commence to run until patent issued.' The limitation of the statute is ten years.

The defendant in error opposes as a bar to these defenses the judgment in his favor in the suit brought by the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company and William S. Powers and others, which judgment was affirmed by this court. 180 U. S. 173, 45 L. ed. 479, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 319. Plaintiff in error is the successor in interest of the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company, and is estopped by the judgment if that company would be.

The object of the suit in which the judgment was rendered, as appears from the findings of fact of the trial court, was to have Slaght, defendant in error, 'declared a trustee, and as holding the land in trust' for the plaintiffs in the suit, and to require a conveyance from him to them, and to enjoin him from bringing any action to oust them. The amended complaint, which is made part of the findings, averred that the patent to Slaght was 'issued under a misconstruction and misinterpretation of the law,' and that, at the date of the issuance of said patent, the land was not, nor was it at the time he applied to enter the same, public land, subject to settlement or entry under the land laws of the United States, other than the act of Congress approved July 2, 1864 [13 Stat. at L. 365, chap. 217], granting land to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The facts and circumstances from which these conclusions were deduced and justified were set forth with great particularity. It was averred that the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company and other plaintiffs asserted and claimed title to certain portions of the land under and by virtue of certain instruments duly made and delivered by Powers and his grantees. And it was also averred that the questions involved were of common and general interest to many persons whom it was impracticable to make parties, and that such persons and the plaintiffs were the owners in fee simple and had an indefeasible title, and were in possession of lots 10, 11, 14, and 15 of section 1, township 16 N., range 45 E., Willamette meridian, and that Slaght claimed an interest or estate therein adverse to the plaintiffs, which claim was without any right whatever and that he had no estate, right, title, or interest whatever in the land or any part thereof. And it was averred that he threatened to commence suits in ejectment, and, without suit, forcibly to dispossess and eject plaintiffs from said premises or a portion thereof unless enjoined. An injunction was prayed restraining him from selling the land and doing the acts described; that he be required to set forth the nature of his claim, and that his claim be determined; that he be adjudged to have no title or interest whatever to the land or any part thereof, and be enjoined from ever asserting any; 'that the title of plaintiffs be decreed good, valid, indefeasible fee simple, and free from all claims of said defendant;' that the patent be declared to have issued under a misconstruction of law, that he be held to be a trustee for the plaintiff, William L. Powers, and his grantees, both direct and through mesne conveyance, and that Slaght be required to convey the land to Powers and his grantees. Slaght demurred to the complaint and the demurrer was sustained. The plaintiffs electing to stand on the demurrer, judgment was entered dismissing the suit. This judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of the state and by this court, as we have seen.

The complaint in the suit did not show what land or interest Powers deeded to the ...