Thomas Stuart v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 24 February 1913
• Docket Number: No. 135,135
• Citation: 227 U.S. 342,57 L.Ed. 535,33 S.Ct. 338
• Parties: THOMAS B. STUART and Charles A. Murray, Petitioners, v. UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

227 U.S. 342

33 S.Ct. 338

57 L.Ed. 535

THOMAS B. STUART and Charles A. Murray, Petitioners,

v UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 135.

Argued January 22, 1913.

Decided February 24, 1913.

Messrs. Charles A. Murray, Thomas B. Stuart, Louis T. Michener, Perry G. Michener, and Joseph C. Helm for petitioners.

Mr. Clayton C. Dorsey for respondent.

Mr. Joseph C. Ewing as amicus curioe.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

Suit to quiet title to the E. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4 and the N. E. 1/4 of the S. W. 1/4 and the N. W. 1/4 of the S. E. 1/4 of section 20, township 38, range 67 west, situated in the city and county of Denver (formerly in Arapahoe county), state of Colorado.

The suit was brought in the district court of the city and county of Denver, against the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, the Colorado Eastern Railroad Company, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and removed on the petition of the latter company to the United States circuit court for the district of Colorado, on the ground of a separable controversy. A motion to remand was made and denied. The railroad company answered, joining issue as to so much of the lands as constituted a tract 200 feet in width on each side of its road. It asserted title as successor of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, which had been granted the tract as a right of way, it was alleged, by the acts of Congress generally denominated the Pacific Railroad acts.

The discussion in the case will turn upon the title of the railroad rather than upon the title of petitioners. There is no question of their title if that of the respondent company be not good. The circuit court held that the title of the company was good, and dismissed the bill. The circuit court of appeals decided that the dismissal of the bill was error; that the court should have recognized the company's title to the right of way, and have quieted petitioners' title to the remainder. The decree of the circuit court was modified accordingly. 103 C. C. A. 89 178 Fed. 753.

The Pacific Railroad acts have been before this court so many times that it seems unnecessary to make further quotation from them. The first of them was passed July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. at L. 489, chap. 120); the second one, July 28 1864 (13 Stat. at L. 356, chap. 216); and two others respectively on July 3, 1866 (14 Stat. at L 79, chap. 159), and March 3, 1869 (15 Stat. at L. 324, chap. 127). Their relation constitutes the controversy in the case, and simply stated, it is whether the right of way granted to the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western Railroad Company, the name of which was changed in 1863 to Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, and in 1864 to the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, terminated at the 100th meridian or extended westward of that point to Denver. The petitioners contend for the former; the railroad company, for the latter.

The explicit contention of petitioners is that the right of way granted to the Kansas Pacific Railway Company (we use the latest name) does not extend to the lands in question, for that company, under its first name of Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western Railroad Company, and all other eastern branches of the main line, were authorized to build only to the 100th meridian, and no farther.

The main line was, under the act of July 1, 1862, authorized to be constructed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company westward through Cheyenne to the western boundary of Nevada, and possibly farther, to meet the Central Pacific Railroad, which was authorized to build from the coast eastward. To the main line so constituted grants of land and bonds were made and a right of way was granted through all public lands '200 feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass over public lands.' The initial point of the Union Pacific was to the '100th meridian . . . between the south margin of the valley of the Republican and the north margin of the valley of the Platte, in the territory of Nebraska.'

Section 9 of the act authorized the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western Railroad to construct a road from the Missouri river at the mouth of the Kansas 'to the aforesaid point on the 100th meridian . . . upon the same terms and conditions in all respects' as provided for the main line. The road was required to be so located through Kansas as to be between the mouth of the Kansas river and the designated point on the 100th meridian, and it was provided that the several roads from Missouri and Iowa authorized by the act to connect with the same could make the connection within the limits prescribed in the act, providing it could be done without deviating from the general direction of the whole line to the Pacific coast.

There is no uncertainty in the act of 1862. The initial point of the main line was the 100th meridian, and at that point the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western Railroad Company (now the Kansas Pacific Railway) and other eastern branches were to connect with the main line.

The next act is that of July 2, 1864, and on its provisions arise the principal controversy in the case. It is contended by the respondent railroad company that the act authorized the Kansas Pacific Road (then, as we shall see, the Union Pacific Railroad, Eastern Division) to build westward of the 100th meridian, and granted it, besides certain sections of the public lands, a right of way 400 feet wide, 200 feet either side of the center of its track. Petitioners oppose the contention, and insist that the act only aimed to provide for the convenient connection of certain branch roads with the main trunk line at or near the 100th meridian, and did not extend a right of way to any branch beyond the 100th meridian. Comparing the two acts, petitioners say that the act of 1862 referred solely to the right of way through public lands. The act of 1864 referred solely to condemnation of right of way through private lands and to granting facilities of connection with the Union Pacific through ferries and bridges over navigable rivers. The permission to build westwardly, it is further urged, was not given to all branches, but only to such as were made branches by the act of 1864. The contentions are earnestly argued and are made to rest mainly on § 9 of the act.

The act of 1864 was entitled, 'An Act to Amend' the act of 1862, and it was provided by § 9 that '. . . any company authorized by this act to construct its road and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the initial point aforesaid [100th meridian] may construct its road and telegraph line so as to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad at any point westwardly of such initial point, in case such company shall deem such westward connection more practicable or desirable; and in aid of the construction of so much of its road and telegraph line as shall be a departure from the route hereinbefore provided for its road, such company shall be entitled to all the benefits and be subject to all the conditions and restrictions of this act: Provided further, however, that the bonds of the United States shall not be issued to such company for a greater amount than is hereinbefore provided, if the same had united with the Union Pacific Railroad on the 100th degree of longitude; not shall such company be entitled to receive any greater amount of alternate sections of public lands than are also herein provided.' (Italics ours.)

At the time of the passage of that act, the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western Railroad Company (now the Kansas Pacific Railway Company) was known as the Union Pacific Railroad Company, Eastern Division, in accordance with lawful authority given in 1863. The time for the completion of its line was extended, and by the act of July 3, 1866, it was given until December 1, 1866, to file the map of general route. Upon filing the map the lands along the entire line of the general route were to be reserved by the Secretary of the Interior. It was provided that the company should be entitled only to the same amount of bonds 'as they would have been entitled to if they had connected their said line with the Union Pacific Railroad on the 100th degree of longitude, as now required by law. And, provided further, that said company shall connect their line of railroad and telegraph with the Union Pacific Railroad, but not at a point more than fifty miles westward from the meridian of Denver in Colorado.'

By applying very simple rules of construction to these acts, and from a consideration of their purpose and the means which were deemed necessary to accomplish that purpose, we should have to reject the contention of plaintiffs. We are relieved, however, of the necessity of a lengthy discussion, and one which we might consider necessary, in deference to the earnestness of counsel, by the previous decisions of this court, and may rest our judgment on their authority.

The acts of Congress came up for consideration and construction in Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Kansas P. R. Co. 97 U. S. 491, 494, 24 L. ed. 1095, 1096, upon the very points now involved. The contest was between the two railroad companies as to which was entitled to certain lands; whether the Kansas Pacific Railway Company took them under the act of 1862, as amended in 1864, or whether the Missouri, etc. Railway Company was entitled to them under a grant to it made July 26, 1866. It is mani- fest that the issue presented was an important one and had important consequences. The court intimated that principles and considerations upon which it should be decided affected other rights as well as those contested, and necessarily gave them a proportional consideration. The opinion demonstrated it. It was decided that the act of 1862 and that of 1864 practically constituted one act, and the enlargement by the latter of the grant made by the former took effect at the date of the former; and 'this was done,' it was said, 'not by words of a new and an additional grant, but by a change of words in the original act,...