St. Paul & Chicago Ry. Co. v. Brown

Citation24 Minn. 517
PartiesST. PAUL & CHICAGO RAILWAY COMPANY <I>vs.</I> CHARLES T. BROWN and others
Decision Date14 April 1877
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota (US)

of the state. And if, when and as often as twenty continuous miles of said branch road shall have been completed with the cars running thereon, it shall be found that any portion of the said swamp-lands within the said seven miles have been sold or otherwise disposed of by the United States or this state, the amount shall be made up and supplied to said company out of the swamp-lands belonging to the state, to be selected by said company outside of said limits. And if, upon the completion of any twenty continuous miles of said road, as aforesaid, it shall be found that within the said seven miles of said line there shall not be an amount of swamp-lands on each side of said line, belonging to the state, equal to at least seven full sections per mile of said road so completed, then the said company shall have the right to and may select from the swamp-lands belonging to this state, outside of said seven-mile limits, other swamp-lands in an amount equal to such deficiency, and the said lands so selected by said company outside of said seven-mile limits shall be certified and conveyed to said company by the governor of the state. And the said lands shall not be subject to taxation until the same shall have been sold and conveyed by the said company: provided, that if the said company shall not within three years construct and equip for business, with the cars running thereon, at least twenty miles of said road, and the residue thereof within five years from the passage of this act, then and in that case all the lands hereby granted, appertaining to the unbuilt portion of the said branch road, shall be forfeited to the state."

By an act approved March 1, 1861, (Sp. Laws 1861, c. 1, § 18,) it was provided that the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Company, on compliance with certain conditions, should be entitled to have and to own in fee all the swamplands for seven miles on either line of its road, and that if it should be found that within those limits there should not be an amount of swamp-lands belonging to the state equal to at least seven full sections per mile, then the company should have the right to select from the swamp-lands belonging to the state outside of those limits, and between the Mississippi river, Lake Superior and Rainy Lake, enough swamp-lands to make up the deficiency.

By an act approved March 12, 1861, (Laws 1861, c. 65,) all the swamp-lands then owned or which thereafter might be owned by or come into possession of the state within the then boundaries of the county of McLeod are donated to the agricultural college of the state.

By an act approved March 7, 1862, (Sp. Laws 1862, c. 56,) to aid the construction of a state road from Madelia in Watonwan county to the western boundary of the state, 10,000 acres of swamp-lands are appropriated, to be selected within six miles on either side of the road as located.

By an act approved February 16, 1865, (Sp. Laws 1865, c. 1,) for the purpose of aiding the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company in the construction of its railroad, all the swamp-lands in the odd-numbered sections in the Root river land-district, and also all the swamp-lands in the odd-numbered sections lying north of the Root river land-district, west of range 29, and south of the Minnesota river are set apart and granted to the railroad company.

By an act approved February 13, 1865, entitled "An act to appropriate swamp-lands to certain educational and charitable institutions therein named, and for the purpose of erecting a state prison," (Laws 1865, c. 5,) it is enacted as follows:

"Section 1. That as soon as the title to the swamp-lands donated by congress to the state of Minnesota shall become vested in this state, the commissioner of the state land-office shall, from the even-numbered sections of any such lands not otherwise disposed of prior to the passage of this act,...

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31 cases
  • State ex rel. Hahn v. Young
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)
    • September 9, 1881
    ...... Those of the Minnesota & Pacific Company were granted to the. St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Co.; those of the Transit Company. to the Winona & St. Peter Railroad Co.; ... F. M. Crosby of the 1st district, H. R. Brill of the 2d. district, John H. Brown of the 12th district, and M. J. Severance of the 6th district. The tribunal thus constituted. met ... it reached. The other case is St. Paul & Chicago Ry. Co. v. Brown , 24 Minn. 517. There the state of. Minnesota had granted or contracted to ......
  • Nieting v. Blondell, 45361
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)
    • October 31, 1975
    ...authority of 'Men of Devon.' 3 We recognized the sovereign immunity of the State of Minnesota as early as 1877 in St. Paul & Chicago Ry. Co. v. Brown, 24 Minn. 517 (1877). 4 That case involved an action 'virtually against the state' to determine the title to certain land. We noted without c......
  • N. Pac. R. Co. v. Barnes
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Dakota
    • January 21, 1892
    ...to the lands to be selected outside the 10-mile limits, upon their identification, equally with those within those limits. In Railway Co. v. Brown, 24 Minn. 517, a similar construction was placed upon another grant analogous to that of plaintiff in its provisions. As we have seen, when the ......
  • St. Paul & Chicago Railway Company v. Brown
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)
    • April 14, 1877
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