Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Miller

Citations

• 20 Wash. 21
• 54 P. 603
• 1898 Wash. LEXIS 461

Syllabus

<p>RAILROADS — LAND GRANTS — FORFEITURES — EJECTMENT — PATENTS — COLLATERAL ATTACK.</p> <p>Ejectment is the proper remedy where a railroad company ■claiming land under a prior grant of the government seeks to ■obtain possession as against parties holding the land under a subsequent patent from the United States; and in such action the validity of a patent is subject to collateral attack.</p> <p>Under the act of congress of September 29, 1890, providing for the forfeiture to the United States of all lands granted to railroads opposite to, and co-terminous with, the portion of the road not completed and in operation, for the construction or benefit of which such lands were granted, and declaring that all such lands are a part of the public domain, an equal undivided moiety of the land within the conflicting overlap of the grants to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company for the-main line down the Columbia river and the branch line across the Cascades reverted to the United States, by reason of the failure to construct the main line.</p>