Spokane Falls & Northern Railway Co. v. Ziegler

Citations

• 167 U.S. 65
• 17 S. Ct. 728
• 42 L. Ed. 79
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 2081

Syllabus

<p>A complaint which alleges that the plaintiff was preemptor of public land in Washington Territory under the laws of the United States, on which he had lived sufficient time to entitle him to a patent, and that the defendant railroad company, a corporation organized under the laws of that- Territory entered upon and seized a strip of said land and appropriated it for railroad purposes without plaintiff’s consent and without having compensated him therefor, discloses a case of a contest between a settler claiming title under the laws of the United States, arid a railroad company claiming title under an act of Congress, and makes a case of which the Circuit Court of the United States for that Circuit had jurisdiction.</p> <p>A railroad company whose road is laid out so as to cross public lands cannot take a part thereof in possession and occupation of a settler who is entitled to .claim a preemption right thereto, and who has made improvements thereon, without making him proper compensation.</p> <p>Such a preemption settler, who has paid to the United States the price of the preempted land is entitled to recover damages as owner of the fee, although the patent may not be acquired till after the seizure.</p> <p>This case arose under § 2456 of the code of Washington Territory which required compensation to be made to the owner of the land irrespective of any increased value by reason of the proposed improvement.</p>