Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Laramie Stock Yards Company

• Decision Date: 01 December 1913
• Docket Number: No. 570,570
• Citation: 34 S.Ct. 101,58 L.Ed. 179,231 U.S. 190
• Parties: UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. LARAMIE STOCK YARDS COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

231 U.S. 190

34 S.Ct. 101

58 L.Ed. 179

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v LARAMIE STOCK YARDS COMPANY.

No. 570.

Submitted October 14, 1913.

Decided December 1, 1913.

Messrs. John W. Lacey, N. H. Loomis, and Herbert V. Lacey for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 191-193 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Roderick N. Matson and T. Blake Kennedy for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 193-196 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

Ejectment to recover certain described lands alleged to constitute part of the right of way of plaintiff (being such in the court below, we will so call it).

The allegations of the complaint are that plaintiff and defendant are corporations, and that plaintiff is engaged in the operation of a railroad from Ogden, in Utah, easterly through certain states to Council Bluffs, lowa, and over the lands in controversy, they being portions of its right of way made by the act of Congress of July 1, 1862 [12 Stat. at L. 489, chap. 120], of the width of 400 feet. The right of way was acquired under said act of Congress, which is entitled, 'An Act to Aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Occan, and to Secure to the Government the Use of the Same for Postal, Military, and Other Purposes.' Section 2 of the act provides as follows: 'That the right of way through the public lands be and the same is hereby granted to said company [the Union Pacific Railroad Company] for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line; and the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turntables, and water stations.'

By virtue of said act of Congress and amendatory acts, certain railroad companies, which are enumerated, theretofore organized and existing in pursuance of said acts, and subject to and enjoying the rights created thereby, were consolidated into a new corporation known as 'The Union Pacific Railway Company,' and the corporation thus created became vested with all the rights of the said constituent corporations, and the plaintiff has become the successor of the Union Pacific Railway Company and is entitled to the possession of the land in controversy, and that defendant wrongfully keeps it out of the possession thereof. The ground of the asserted right of defendant is alleged to be an act of Congress entitled, 'An Act Legalizing Certain Conveyances Heretofore Made by the Union Pacific Railroad Company,' approved June 24, 1912 [37 Stat. at L. 138, chap. 181], which act, it is alleged, is unconstitutional in that it seeks to deprive plaintiff of its vested rights and titles in and to the lands, and to deprive it of its lands and property without due process of law.

The answer of defendant admits all of the allegations of the complaint except the possession of the legal title to the lands in plaintiff, and that they are anlawfully held from it, and alleges that defendant and its immediate grantors have been for more than ten years prior to the filing of the complaint in the adverse possession thereof under the act of Congress of June 24, 1912, and that such possession constitutes a bar to the action.

Plaintiff demurred to the answer as not constituting a defense. The demurrer was overruled, and, plaintiff declining to plead further, judgment was entered that it 'take nothing in said action,' and that the defendant have and recover costs. This appeal was then prosecuted.

The crux of the controversy is the act of June 24, 1912. There is no question of the grant of the right of way and its extent, or that the lands in suit are within it.

The act provides that all conveyances and agreements heretofore made by the enumerated railway or railroad companies 'of certain land forming part of the right of way' under the act of Congress of July 1, 1862, 'and all conveyances or agreements confining the limits of said right of way, or restricting the same, are hereby legalized, validated, and confirmed to the extent that the same would have been legal or valid if the land involved therein had been held by the corporation making such conveyance or agreement under absolute or fee-simple title.

'That in all instances in which title or ownership of any part of said right of way heretofore mentioned is claimed as against said corporations or either of them, or the successors or assigns of any of them, by or through adverse possession of the character and duration prescribed by the laws of the state in which the land is situated, such adverse possession shall have the same effect as though the land embraced within the lines of said right of way had been granted by the United States absolutely or in fee instead of being granted as a right of way.'

Two contentions are made by plaintiff: (1) The act is not retroactive; (2) if it be so construed, it is unconstitutional because it takes plaintiff's vested right and title to the property, and transfers the same to defendant without due process of law.

It is established that the right of way to the several railroads was a present, absolute grant, subject to no conditions except those necessarily implied, such as that the roads should be constructed and used. And it has been decided that the right of way was a very important aid given to the roads (St. Joseph & D. C. R. Co. v. Baldwin, 103 U. S. 426, 26 L. ed. 578; Stuart v. Union P. R. Co. 227 U. S. 342, 57 L. ed. 535, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 338), and that it could not be voluntarily transferred by the companies, nor acquired against them by adverse possession (Northern P. R. Co. v. Townsend, 190 U. S. 267, 47 L. ed. 1044, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 671; Northern P. R. Co. v. Smith, 171 U. S. 260, 275, 43 L. ed. 157, 163, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 794; Northern P. R. Co. v. Ely, 197 U. S. 1, 5, 49 L. ed. 639, 640, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 302). Of this defect of power in the companies and the defect of right in the possessors of the right of way, the act of June 24th was intended to be corrective. But of what time was it intended to speak—to the past or future?—to apply to that which was done, or that which was to be done? There is no doubt as to the answer in the case of agreements or conveyances by the company. The act is explicit that they are those 'heretofore made' by the enumerated companies. There is no such qualifying word of the 'title or ownership' 'claimed as against' the corporation by adverse possession. Construction, therefore, becomes necessary, and the first rule of construction is that legislation must be considered as addressed to the future, not to the past. The rule is one of obvious justice, and prevents the assigning of a quality or effect to acts or conduct which they did not have or did not contemplate when they were performed. The rule has been expressed in varying degrees of strength, but always of one import, that a retrospective operation will not be given to a statute which interferes with antecedent rights, or by which human action is regulated, unless such be 'the unequivocal and inflexible import of the terms, and the manifest intention of the legislature.' United States v. Heth, 3 Granch, 413, 2 L. ed. 483; Reynolds v. M'Arthur, 2 Pet. 417, 7 L. ed. 470; United States v. American Sugar Ref. Co. 202 U. S. 563, 577, 50 L. ed. 1149, 1152, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 717; Winfree v. Northern P. R. Co. 227 U. S. 296, 57 L. ed. 518, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 273. Surely such imperative character cannot be assigned to the words of the act of June 24; and the intention is not so manifest as to strengthen the insufficiency of the words. Indeed, all reasonable considerations determine the other way.

We have seen that the conveyances and agreements which were legalized were those theretofore made; that is, consummated acts of the company deliberately done to transfer its right. Can it be said that the adverse ...