Roberts v. Northern Pacific Railroad

Citations

• 158 U.S. 1
• 15 S. Ct. 756
• 39 L. Ed. 873
• 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2225

Syllabus

<p>Where a railroad company, having the power of eminent domain, has entered into actual possession of lands necessary for its corporate purposes, whether with or without the consent of their owner, a subsequent vendee of the latter takes the land subject to the burthen of the railroad, and the right to payment from the railroad company', if it entered by virtue of an agreement to pay, or to damages if the entry was unauthorized, belongs to the owner at the time the railroad company took possession.</p> <p>If a land owner, knowing that a railroad company has entered upon his land, and is engaged in constructing its road without having complied ivith a statute' requiring either payment by agreement or proceedings to condemn, remains inactive and permits it to go on and expend large ■ sums in the work, he is estopped from maintaining either trespass or ejectment for the entry, and will be regarded as having acquiesced therein, and Will be restricted to a- suit for damages.</p> <p>So far as it was within the power of the State of Wiseonsin, through and by its legislature, to authorize the county of Douglas, in that State, to contract with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company for the construc- ■ tion of. its road within that county on a designated line, and to establish a lake terminus within the same, and upon the fulfilment of those conditions to convey to it certain of its unsettled public lands, that power was conferred and the contract between the county and the railroad company in respect thereof was ratified by the act of March 23, 1883; and, if-there was any want of regularity in the proceedings of the county, it was thereby waived and corrected.</p> <p>Said grant was made on .a valuable consideration, which was fully performed when the railroad company had constructed its road and had established the lake terminus in the county as it had contracted to do; and the company then became entitled to a conveyance of the lands, and so far as the Supreme Court of Wisc