United States v. Union Pac Ry Co
| Citation | 18 S.Ct. 167,168 U.S. 505,42 L.Ed. 559 |
| Decision Date | 13 December 1897 |
| Docket Number | No. 133,133 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. UNION PAC. RY. CO |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
This was a suit brought by the United States, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Kansas, against the Union Pacific Railway Company and its receivers, as directed by the act of July 13, 1892 (27 Stat. 126, c. 164), to recover certain amounts 'found by the department of the interior to be due from said railroad company, its successors or assigns, under the last paragraph of the second article of the treaty with the Delaware tribe of Indians, of May 30, 1860, and under the concluding clause of the third article of said treaty, and for damage done the said Indians in the taking and destruction of the property by said railroad company, which sums, when recovered, shall be used to reimburse the United States for the sum appropriated in the foregoing paragraph.'
That sum was $39,675.16, of which $10,715.75 was to be paid to individual members of the Delaware tribe for improvements on lands sold to the Leavenworth Company, and $28,959.41 was to be paid to individual members of the tribe for right of way through their allotted lands.
The first count of the petition alleged that in the year 1831, and for a long time prior thereto, the United States were the owners in fee simple of all the lands lying north of the Kansas and west of the Missouri rivers, in the then territory of Kansas, and that by the terms of the treaty made between the United States and the Delaware Indians, procaimed March 24, 1831, the United States conveyed and secured to that Nation, as a permanent home, a certain tract (describing it), with an outlet; that afterwards, in the year 1854, by the terms of another treaty, the Nation ceded to the United States all their right, tit e, and interest in and to their country lying west of the state of Missouri, and situate in the fork of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, and also their right and interest in the outlet, with certain designated exceptions.
It was further averred that articles 11 and 12 of the latter treaty provided that the country reserved for the permanent home of the Delawares might, on request, be surveyed and allotted, and that roads and highways laid out by authority of law should have a right of way through the reservation, 'and railroad companies, when the lines of their roads necessarily pass trough the said reservation, shall have the right of way, on payment of a just compensation therefor in money'; that afterwards the Delawares signified their wish that a portion of the lands reserved for their home might be divided and allotted, and thereupon, by the terms of a treaty entered into May 30, 1860, it was provided, among other things, that a portion of the reservation should be surveyed and allotted as stated, and, by the last clause of article 2 thereof, that 'the improvements of the Indians residing on the lands to be sold shall be valued by the United States, and the individual owners thereof shall receive the amount realized from the sale of the same, to be expended in building other improvements for them on the lands retained.' By article 3 it was provided: That as to the remaining lands, after the tracts in severalty and those for special objects named in the treaty had been selected and set apart, the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railroad Company, a Kansas corporation, should have the prior right of purchase, upon the payment into the United States treasury (which payment should be made within six months after the quantity of said land was ascertained), in gold or silver coin, of such a sum as three commissioners, to be appointed by the secretary of the interior, should appraise to be the value, and providing that such value should not be placed below the value of $1.25 per acre, exclusive of the cost of survey.
That upon payment a patent should be issued directly to the company. That the United States would accept the trust imposed on them, and apply the money resulting from such disposition of the lands in the manner prescribed by the treaty of 1854; and it was 'also agreed that said railroad company shall have the perpetual right of way over any por- tion of the lands allotted to the Delawares in severalty, on the payment of a just compensation therefor, in money, to the respective parties whose lands are crossed by the line of railroad.'
It was then alleged that by the terms of the treaty the United States became and were the trustees of the Delawares for the purposes provided for therein; that the Leavenworth Company, prior to 1867, accepted the terms of the treaty, and agreed to purchase the unallotted lands of the Delawares, and to pay for them and the improvements thereon in accordance therewith, and that all the rights of the company in and to the lands, and its liability for the lands and improvements, and all the rights and liabilities of its grantee, successor, and assignee, the Union Pacific Railway Company, were fixed by the terms of said treaties, and that the Leavenworth Company, and its grantee, successor, and assignee, the Union Pacific Railway Company, took the lands 'subject to the conditions set forth in said treaties as to the payment therefor, and as to the payment for said improvements thereon'; that the United States on October 20, 1860, appointed three commissioners to inspect and appraise the value of the land and improvements which the Leavenworth Company had become entitled to purchase, and they appraised the improvements at the value of $9,534.25, and returned the appraisement, a schedule of which was made part of the petition. But at the time of that appraisement, and of the purchase of the lands by the Leavenworth Company, there were other improvements, not included, which were afterwards appraised at the sum of $1,181.50, and an itemiz d statement of these improvements was attached.
The United States further averred that the Leavenworth Company was unable to carry out the terms of the purchase of the lands and improvements, and pay for the same, as provided for in the treaty, and that afterwards a further treaty was made and entered into, on or about July 2, 1861, ratified August 6, 1861, which in terms referred to the provisions for the sale of the lands and improvements in the prior treaties, by which last-mentioned treaty it was provided that the Leavenworth Company might execute its bonds, with interest coupons attached (the principal sum to be...
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