Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Miller

54 P. 603, 20 Wash. 21, 1898 Wash. LEXIS 461
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 4, 1898
DocketNo 2912
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 54 P. 603 (Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Miller, 54 P. 603, 20 Wash. 21, 1898 Wash. LEXIS 461 (Wash. 1898).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Reavis, J.

Action in ejectment commenced in the superior court of Klickitat county by Uorthern Pacific Railroad Company and Burleigh, its receiver, against defendants (respondents) to recover possession of section 15 in township 6 3ST., of range 20 E. of the W. M. in Klickitat county. The complaint avers ownership and possession of the premises in the plaintiff (appellant) about December, 1892, and that at that date the respondents wrongfully and unlawfully entered into possession of the premises and ousted and ejected the railroad company therefrom and continue withholding possession from the plaintiff. Defendants deny plaintiff’s title and allege ownership in themselves. Before the trial in the superior court by stipulation of all the parties to the record and order of the court entered thereon the northern Pacific Railway Company was substituted in place of the original plaintiff, the Morthern Pacific Railroad Company. The facts were all stipulated between the plaintiff and defendants and findings made by the court in accordance therewith and the cause tried without the intervention of a jury. Substantially the facts are, that by the act of congress of July 2, 1864 (13 U. S. Stat. 365), the northern Pacific Railroad Company was created a body corporate and authorized to construct

[23]*23“ A continuous railroad and telegraph, line, with the appurtenances, namely, beginning at a point on Lake Superior, in the state of Minnesota or Wisconsin; thence westerly by the most eligible railroad route, as shall be determined by said company, within the territory of the United States, on a line north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude to some point on Puget Sound, with a branch via the valley of the Columbia river to a point at or near Portland, in the state of Oregon, leaving the main trunk line at the most suitable place, not more than three hundred miles from its western terminus.”
And by § 3 of the same act it is declared:
“ That there be, and hereby is, granted to the ‘Northern Pacific Pailroad Company,’ its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state, and whenever on the line thereof, the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from preemption 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; and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or pre-empted or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the secretary of the interior, in alternate sections and designated by odd numbers, not more than ten miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections.”
Anri the sixth section of the act provided as follows:
[24]*24That the president of the United States shall cause the lands to be surveyed for forty miles in width on both sides of the entire line of said road, after the general route shall be fixed, and as fast as may be required by the construction of said railroad; and the odd sections of land hereby granted shall not be liable to sale, or entry, or preemption before or after they are surveyed, except by said company as provided in this act.”

On May 31, 1870 (16 U .S. Stat. 378), by joint resolution of congress it was provided that the said company was authorized, among other things, to

Locate and construct under the provisions and with the privileges, grants, and duties provided for in its act of incorporation, 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; and in the event of there not being in any state or territory in which said main line or branch may be located, at the time of the final location thereof, the amount of lands per mile granted by congress to said company, within the limits prescribed by its charter, then said company shall be entitled, under the directions of the secretary of the interior, to receive so many sections of land belonging to the United States, and designated by odd numbers, in such state or territory, within ten miles on each side of the said road beyond the limits prescribed in said charter, as will make up such deficiency, on said main line or branch, except mineral and other lands as excepted in the charter of said company of eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to the amount of the lands that have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, pre-empted, or otherwise disposed of subsequent to the passage of the act of July two, eighteen hundred and sixty-four.”

On the 26th of July, 1870, the railroad company transmitted to the secretary of the interior a map showing the line of general route of the main line of the northern [25]*25Pacific railroad extending from a point on the Columbia river opposite tbe mouth of the Walla Walla river in Washington Territory, thence westerly along the northern bank of the river, via Vancouver, to Kalama, thence northerly to Puget Sound in Washington Territory. The map was received by the secretary July 30,- 1870, and on August 13, 1870, the secretary transmitted the map to the ■commissioner of the general land office with instructions to direct the proper local officers to withhold from sale, pre-emption, homestead or other disposal the odd numbered sections not theretofore reserved or sold, and to which prior rights had not attached for twenty miles in width on each side of said line of general route, and on the same day the map of general route was filed in the .general land office. On the 20th day of September, 1870, tbe commissioner of the general land office transmitted to the register and receiver of the district land office for the district of Vancouver, Washington Territory, a diagram ■showing the portion of the line of general route of the railroad designated upon the map filed August 13, 1870, and ■extending through the said land district, with instructions to the register and receiver to withhold from sale or location, homestead or pre-emption entry, all the odd numbered sections of public lands falling within the limits of ■twenty miles on each side of said line, as designated on the map. Thereafter, on October 27, 1870, the secretary of the interior further instructed the commissioner to inurease the withdrawal of lands on each side of said road to forty miles on each side thereof, and the commissioner transmitted directions to the district land office at Van■couver to withhold from sale, location, homestead or preemption entry the odd numbered sections of land in the •additional limits of twenty miles as designated on the diagram.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 P. 603, 20 Wash. 21, 1898 Wash. LEXIS 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northern-pacific-railway-co-v-miller-wash-1898.