Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company v. St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 12 February 1877
• Citation: 23 Minn. 359
• Parties: Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company v. St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

23 Minn. 359

Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company v. St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company

Supreme Court of Minnesota

February 12, 1877

This action was brought in the district court for Watonwan county to restrain the defendant from applying for or receiving from the governor of the state any deed or conveyance of certain lands described in the complaint; the complaint also praying that plaintiff be adjudged to be the owner of the lands. The lands in question are claimed by each of the parties to this suit as a part of its land grant, and the complaint sets forth the legislation and other proceedings by which plaintiff became a corporation, and on which it founds its claim to the lands.

By order of the court, the original complaint was amended in respect of a charge of fraudulent representations, made by defendant's officers, in presence of plaintiff's agents and of the secretary of the interior, pending a contest before that officer between these parties, in respect of the same lands now in suit, whereby plaintiff's agents and the secretary were deceived and misled, and the contest was decided by the latter in favor of defendant. The defendant thereupon served an amended answer, containing the matter set forth in the opinion. The plaintiff obtained an order for defendant to show cause why such matter should not be stricken from the amended answer, and, after hearing both parties, that order was made absolute by Dickinson, J., and defendant appealed.

Order affirmed.

E. C Palmer, for appellant.

Wilson & Taylor, for respondent.

OPINION

Cornell J.

The portion of the amended answer stricken out by the order appealed from, of which defendant complains, is as follows "That in the year 1867 the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, a corporation organized and acting under and by virtue of the laws of Illinois, became the owner and seized and possessed of the sole beneficial interest in the rights, property, and immunities of said plaintiff, and has ever since that time controlled and operated the same for its sole use and benefit; that said portion of said line, extending from the west side of said range 31 to the western terminus, was constructed and equipped by said Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, through its own officers and agents, with its own means, and in the mode and manner by it deemed best; and that since said year 1867 the corporate name of said plaintiff has been used by said railway company in the premises but colorably, and with...