Spokane Falls Ry Co v. Ziegler

• Decision Date: 10 May 1897
• Docket Number: No. 211,211
• Citation: 167 U.S. 65,42 L.Ed. 79,17 S.Ct. 728
• Parties: SPOKANE FALLS & N. RY. CO. v. ZIEGLER
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

167 U.S. 65

17 S.Ct. 728

42 L.Ed. 79

SPOKANE FALLS & N. RY. CO.

v ZIEGLER.

No. 211.

May 10, 1897.

This action was commenced in the superior court of Spokane county, state of Washington, wherein William H. Ziegler, on October 5, 1891, filed his complaint against the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the territory of Washington, seeking to recover the value of a certain piece of land taken by the company for its roadbed and right of way, and also to recover damages for the alleged diminution in value of the tract of land through which the strip extended, caused by the construction of the road and the use of the same as a steam railway. Upon petition of the defendant company, alleging that the suit arose under the laws of the United States, and that the rights of the parties depended upon the construction thereof, the case was removed into the circuit court of the United States for the district of Washington, Eastern division.

In his complaint the plaintiff alleged that on May 1, 1889, he was in possession, as a pre emptor under the laws of the United States, of the E. 1/2 of the S. E. 1/4 of section 4, township 25 N., range 43 E., Willamette meridian, in the said county, containing about 80 acres, and had then made all such improvements, had lived on the land for such length of time, and had done all such acts as were necessary to entitle him to a patent to the land from the United States upon making final proofs and paying the purchase price required by statute, and had then made final proofs and filed the same in the land office of the United States at Spokane Falls, and had tendered the purchase price of the land, or $2 1/2 per acre, to the receiver of that office, and had demanded from the register and receiver of the office a final receipt evidencing the plaintiff's entry of the land and payment therefor; that the defendant company was authorized by its articles of incorporation to build, equip, maintain, and operate a line of steam railway from the city of Spokane Falls (now the city of Spokane) in a northerly direction to the Columbia river; that on the said date the company, acting in pursuance of the laws of the territory of Washington authorizing railway companies to appropriate lands for railway tracks, entered upon and seized, without making compensation to the plaintiff, and without his consent, a strip of land 50 feet wide, extending through the said land, and built thereon its tracks, and had ever since been using the same as a line of steam railway. The plaintiff averred that the said land was in close proximity to the city of Spokane, and at the time of the taking of the same by the company was very valuable for the purpose of being divided into blocks and lots; that the company's road extended diagonally across the land, and prevented the portions of the land abuting on the road from being platted advantageously; that the operating of a line of steam railway through the land largely diminished its value for residence purposes, or for any purpose; that the road was built upon a grade which was higher at some places and lower at others than the natural surface of the land, by reason whereof cuts and fills were made, which diminished the value, for residence purposes, of the land abutting on the road, and made it necessary that all streets laid out across the road should conform to the grade thereof. It was further averred by the plaintiff that since the taking of the said strip of land and the building of the road thereon by the company the final proofs made by him and filed in the land office as aforesaid had been passed upon and accepted as satisfactory by the proper officers; that the money tendered as aforesaid had been accepted, and that a patent to the land had been duly executed and delivered to him by the United States. The plaintiff demanded judgment for $30,000, asserting that the value of the said strip of land taken was $5,000, and that the tract of land through which it extended was damaged by the construction and operation of the road to the extent of $25,000.

The defendant company filed its answer on February 19, 1892, wherein it denied the essential allegations of the complaint as to the damage to the said tract of land caused by the construction and operation of the road through the same, and in defense of the plaintiff's demand of compensation for the strip of land taken alleged that on June 5, 1888, the company filed in the office of the secretary of the interior of the United States a copy of its articles of incorporation and due proof of its organization under the same, which were duly approved by the secretary on that date, and that thereupon the defendant became entitled to survey, locate, construct, and maintain its railroad through and over all lands between the termini of the road which were public lands of the United States at the time of the filing of said copy of the articles of incorporation and proof of organization, and became the owner of a right of way through the public lands to the extent of 100 feet on each side of the central line of the road upon such route as it might select, and also acquired the right to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of the road material, earth, stone, and timber necessary for the construction of the road, as granted by the act of congress entitled 'An act granting to railroads the right of way through the public lands of the United States,' approved March 3, 1875, and that by the filing of the said copy of the articles of incorporation and proof of organization, and the approval thereof as aforesaid, the grant in the said act became operative, and applied to the defendant company to the same extent as if it had been a special grant in the name of that company; that afterwards, and in the month of March, 1889, the company, acting under the provisions of the said act, and as authorized by its articles of incorporation, commenced the construction of its road between the city of Spokane Falls and the Columbia river, and between March 8 and April 8, 1889, surveyed the definite line of its road from a point in that city to a point 20 miles in a northerly direction therefrom, and caused such survey to be marked on the ground in the manner customary in surveying and marking lines for railways, and that the line so surveyed and marked ran through and over the land described in the complaint; that in June, 1889, the defendant had fully constructed and completed its road upon the said line of survey, through the said land, and within the year 1889 had fully completed the road from the city of Spokane Falls to the Columbia river, and had ever since operated the same; that at the time of the filing of a copy of the articles of incorporation and proof of organization with the secretary of the interior, and during all the time thereafter until the completion of the road, the lands described in the complaint were public lands of the United States, and the title thereto was in the United States, and the lands were subject to the grant contained in the said act of congress; that on August 3, 1889, within 12 months after the location of the road over the said land,—the company filed with the register of the land office where the land was located a profile of its road, which profile was duly approved by the secretary of the interior in December, 1889; that the plaintiff's entry of the land was made, and the patent thereto issued, long subsequent to the construction of the road and the approval of the said profile; and that the sale and conveyance of the land by the United States to the...