United States v. Northern Pacific Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 23 February 1904
• Docket Number: No. 145,145
• Citation: 24 S.Ct. 330,48 L.Ed. 593,193 U.S. 1
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner , v. NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY and the Northern Pacific Railway Company
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

193 U.S. 1

24 S.Ct. 330

48 L.Ed. 593

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY and the Northern Pacific Railway Company.

No. 145.

Argued January 5, 1904.

Decided February 23, 1904.

Mr. Charles W. Russell for petitioner.

This was a suit brought by the United States against the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Company to cancel patents issued in May, 1895, by the United States to the railroad company, to whose rights the railway company had succeeded. The lands are situated in the state of Washington, north of Portland, in the state of Oregon. The case was heard in the circuit court on facts stipulated, and the bill dismissed, whereupon it was carried to the circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit, and that court certified to this court certain questions on which it desired instructions. The whole record and cause were then required to be sent up for consideration.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 2-4 intentionally omitted] Messrs. C. W. Bunn and James B. Kerr for respondents.

Statement by Mr. Chief Justice Fuller:

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

By the act of Congress of July 2, 1864 (13 Stat. at L. 365, chap. 217), a grant was made to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in aid of the construction of a railway from Lake Superior to some point on Puget sound, with a branch via the Columbia river to a point at or near Portland, Oregon, of lands to which 'the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from pre-emption, or other claims or rights, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.'

On May 31, 1870, Congress passed a joint resolution making an additional grant to the same company for the location and construction of 'its main road to some point on Puget sound via the valley of the Columbia river, with the right to locate and construct its branch from some convenient point on its main trunk line across the Cascade mountains to Puget sound.' 16 Stat. at L. 378.

The line east of Portland provided for in the act of 1864 formed nearly a right angle at Portland with the line from there to Puget sound provided for in the joint resolution, and thus the two grants overlapped, and the lands in suit fell within the overlap.

But the line down the Columbia from Wallula to Portland was never built, and the grant was forfeited September 29, 1890 (26 Stat. at L. 496, chap. 1040, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1598), while the line from Portland to Puget sound and east across the Cascade mountains was built and the grants earned.

Holding that the lands in the overlap passed to the company under the resolution of 1870, the Interior Department patented those in question to the railroad company; but afterwards, and on July 18, 1895, it was held that the lands did not pass under that grant, because at its date they were reserved or appropriated under the grant of 1864 to the same company. 21 Land Dec. 57.

That grant did not in terms reserve the lands, and the question would seem to be whether the line down the Columbia from Wallula to Portland had been definitely located May 31, 1870, since it is settled that the act of 1864 did not take any lands out of the power of disposition of Congress until the line of road was definitely located by maps duly filed as required. Northern P. R. Co. v. Sanders, 166 U. S. 620, 41 L. ed. 1139, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 671; United States v. Oregon & C. R. Co. 176 U. S. 28, 44 L. ed. 358, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 261. The argument that the topography of the country between Wallula and Portland was such that the lands necessarily fell within the boundaries of that grant is without merit, for it cannot be assumed that Congress intended itself to definitely locate that part of the line, in view of the language used and the settled law on the subject.

And it does not appear that any portion of the line from Wallula to Portland was ever definitely located, but it does appear that the line from Portland to Puget sound was definitely located under the resolution of May 31, 1870, in part September 13, 1873, and the remainder September 22, 1882; that the road was completed as located, and was accepted by the government.

It is true that, March 6, 1865, Josiah Perham, then president of the Northern Pacific Company, transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior a map of the general line of the road, which the Secretary transmitted to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the recommendation that the lands along the line indicated be withdrawn. But the Commissioner protested against the acceptance of the map, and his letter to the Secretary, giving his reasons, bears an indorsement in pencil to the effect that the refusal to accept was sustained by the Secretary.

The by-laws of the company showed no authority in its president to locate the line, and its records, up to May 18, 1865, showed no action conferring such authority. No withdrawals were made under the alleged map.

In United States v. Oregon & C. R. Co. 176 U. S. 28, 44 L. ed. 358, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 261, it was held that if the Perham map were valid as a map of general route, it did not operate as a reservation, and in Doherty v. Northern P. R. Co. 177 U. S. 421, 44 L. ed. 830, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 677, it was referred to as if not constituting a location even of the general route. It was not authorized by the company, was not accepted by the Department, and was practically worthless.

It is...