United States v. Coos Bay Wagon-Road Co.

• Citation: 89 F. 151
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. COOS BAY WAGON-ROAD CO.
• Decision Date: 25 August 1898
• Court: United States District Courts. 9th Circuit. United States District Court (Oregon)

89 F. 151

UNITED STATES v. COOS BAY WAGON-ROAD CO.

United States Circuit Court, D. Oregon.

August 25, 1898

John H Hall, U.S. Atty.

E. B Watson, for defendant.

BELLINGER District Judge.

This is a suit to cancel certain patents to lands under a grant by the United States, and for other relief. The facts in the case, as appears from the bill of complaint, are as follows On the 3d day of March, 1869, the congress of the United States passed an act granting to the state of Oregon, to aid in the construction of a military wagon road from the navigable waters of Coos Bay to Roseburg, in the state of Oregon, the alternate sections of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the extent of three sections in width, on each side of said road; and said act provided for the right of indemnity for losses sustained within the original grant to the extent of six miles on either side of the line of said road; and said act further provided that the lands granted should not exceed three sections per mile for each mile of rad actually constructed, and that said grant should not embrace any mineral lands of the United States, or any lands to which homestead or pre-emption rights had attached, and that all lands reserved or appropriated should be reserved from the operation of the act. On the 22d day of October 1870, the legislature of Oregon granted all the lands and rights inuring to it under this grant to the defendant company, upon the conditions prescribed in the act of congress. On June 18, 1874, congress passed an act by which it was provided:

'That in all cases when the roads, in aid of the construction of which said lands were granted, are shown by the certificate of the governor of the state of Oregon as in said acts provided to have been constructed and completed, patents for said land shall issue in due form to the state of Oregon as fast as the same shall, under said grants, be selected and certified, unless the state of Oregon shall, by public act, have transferred its interest in said land to any corporation or corporations, in which case the patents shall issue from the general land office to such corporation or corporations, upon the payment of the necessary expenses thereof.'

On September 19, 1872, the governor of the state of Oregon certified to the construction by the Coos Bay Wagon-Road Company of its road in accordance with the land grant act. It further appears that on March 26, 1873, there was certified to the wagon-road company, under its grant, the N.W. 1/4 of the S.W. 1/4 of section 25, township 27 S., range 12 W. of the Willamette meridian. But prior to this, and in January 1869, one Samuel C. Braden, a qualified homestead entryman, settled upon this land, with the intention of homesteading it. Braden has continued to reside upon the land, and has cultivated it and improved it, from the date of his settlement to the present time; and within 90 days from the date of the filing of the township plat of the...