Nelson v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 188 U.S. 108
• 23 S. Ct. 302
• 47 L. Ed. 406
• 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1272

Syllabus

<p>The.grant of public lands made by the act of July 2, 1864, c. 217, to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, embraced only the odd-numbered alternate sections of which the United States had at the time of definite • location “ full title, not reserved, sold, granted or otherwise appropriated, and free from preemption or other claims or rights,” provided that whenever prior to such definite location any sections or parts of sections had been granted, sold, reserved, “occupied by homestead settlers” or preempted or otherwise disposed of, other lands should be selected by the company “ in lieu thereof ” not more than ten miles beyond the limits of the alternate sections. By the same act the president was directed to cause th,e lands to be surveyed forty miles in width on both sides of the entire line of road after the general route was fixed and as fast as might be required by the construction of the road; and it was provided that the odd sections of laud “ hereby granted ” should not be liable to sale or entry or. preemption before or after they were surveyed, except by the company as provided in the act. The general route of the road was fixed in 1873, and in the same year the land office directed the local officers to withhold from “ sale or entry ” all odd-numbered sections falling within the forty-mile limits of the grant along the line of road,</p> <p>lii 1880 Congress passed an act for the relief of settlers on the public lands. In 1881 Nelson, qualified to enter public lands under the homestead acts, went upon the tract, in question and thereafter continuously occupied it as his residence with the intention in good faith to avail himself of the benefit of the homestead acts. In 1884 the railroad company definitely located its line of road, and by November 18, 188(3', had completed a section of forty miles coterminous with the land here in controversy.</p> <p>The land, when occupied by Nelson as a residence, was unsurveyed, and was not surveyed until 1898; bu