Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway Co. v. Ferrell

119 P. 703, 20 Idaho 680, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 134
Idaho Supreme Court·Decided November 28, 1911·Published

Opinion

SULLIVAN, J.

This is an appeal from an order granting a temporary injunction pendente lite. The plaintiff, the railway company, by its complaint claims title to the land in dispute by virtue of an agreement with one who had settled upon said land as a part- of the public domain, and also by virtue of its predecessor having complied with the act of Congress of March 3, 1875, entitled, “An Act Granting to Railroads the Right of Way Through Public Lands of the United States.” The appellants claim right to the possession of said land by reason of their having located the same as a mining claim. It appears from the record that the predecessor of plaintiff had constructed a line of railroad over the land in dispute and was operating its trains over the same prior to the time that appellants located the land in dispute as a mining claim. The railway company had also erected tenement houses thereon for its employees, and alleges that the appellants wrongfully entered upon and took possession of a portion of said right of wa-y and have placed or are placing a building thereon and storing and using dynamite in excavating a mining tunnel thereon; that the use of such dynamite [683] upon said land is dangerous to the operation of said railroad and to persons employed by said company and to passengers carried on said railroad, and is a menace to the safety of the passengers and employees of the railroad company and to its property and business, and prays that the defendants be enjoined and restrained from occupying said strip of land and from in any manner interfering with the plaintiff’s possession thereof.

Filed with the complaint was the affidavit of the station agent of said road, setting forth the facts that he is well acquainted with the land in dispute and that the plaintiff maintains thereon main, side, spur and other tracks connected with its railroad, also depot and other buildings and other structures, all of which are used in the transaction of the business of the plaintiff as a common carrier; that the plaintiff has also constructed thereon three tenement houses for use as living quarters for the employees of the plaintiff engaged in the operation of said railroad, and plaintiff intends to construct additional tenement houses for the same purpose; that said tenement houses are located about 1200 feet easterly of the depot building at the station of Avery; that defendant Ferrell on December 4, 1910, began the construction of a wooden shack or building upon the right of way of plaintiff a few feet easterly of the tenement houses before mentioned, and has completed the erection of said shack and that the same is occupied by the defendants; that the defendants or their agents or servants are now engaged in excavating a hole or tunnel on said right of way just northerly of said tenement houses of the plaintiff, and are using dynamite in making such excavation; that said hole or tunnel has been excavated to a depth of about sixty feet on the right of way of plaintiff and that defendants are continuing such work; that the effect of the use of said dynamite is to throw out quantities of rock and earth from said hole or tunnel upon said right of way and in the vicinity and around said tenement houses; that during the month of December, 1910, the time when said affidavit was made, the defendants were continuing the work on [684] said tunnel and had taken possession of said right of way ' northerly of the depot building and had begun clearing the ground and grading for the erection of another building upon said right of way.

Upon the filing of the complaint and said affidavit the district judge issued an order to show cause and also a temporary restraining order enjoining the defendants from using or occupying the premises in dispute. Thereafter the defendants appeared specially and moved to modify the temporary restraining order so as to retain possession of the ground that was then in their actual possession. Said motion was made upon the complaint and said affidavit upon the ground that the court had no jurisdiction to oust and eject the defendants from premises in their actual possession. The court thereafter modified said restraining order.

On January 3, 1911, defendants filed their answer and cross-complaint. The answer denied many of the material allegations of the complaint and alleged the death of the settler mentioned in plaintiff’s complaint, and denied that the plaintiff had obtained any title through him, and alleged that the premises in dispute were a part of a forest reserve specially reserved from sale by the government of the United States and that the plaintiff never acquired any right thereto, and by their cross-complaint set up title to the ground in controversy as a part of a lode mining claim located by them in accordance with the mining laws of the United States and on which they had expended, it is alleged, $1,000 in driving a tunnel over seventy feet in depth; that in the month of May, 1910, plaintiff wrongfully entered upon and ousted defendants from a portion of their lode mining claim and still wrongfully holds the same; and claim damages in the sum of $2,000, and pray for a restoration of their possession and for damages.

On January 4, 1911, the hearing on the order to show cause was had, whereupon the judge made an order granting an injunction pendente lite, which injunction ousted and ejected the defendants from a right of way 200 feet wide and re[685] strained, them from in any manner interfering with said land. The appeal is from that order.

But one error is assigned and that is that the court erred in granting the injunction pendente lite which ousted and ejected the defendants from land in their actual possession and to which they claim title adverse to the plaintiff, prior to the final determination of the issues raised by the pleadings.

The question then directly presented is: Did the court err in granting said injunction which ousted and ejected the defendants from the land in dispute?

■That part of the writ of injunction involved here is as follows :

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Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway Co. v. Ferrell, 119 P. 703, 20 Idaho 680, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 134 (Idaho 1911).

119 P. 703 (Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway Co. v. Ferrell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.