St. Paul & Pacific Railroad v. Northern Pacific Railroad

Citations

• 139 U.S. 1
• 11 S. Ct. 389
• 35 L. Ed. 77
• 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2358

Syllabus

<p>The grant of public land to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the act of July 2, 1864, 13.Stat. c. 217, p. 365, was a grant inprcesenti, in the nature of a float until the route should be determined, and, after that, attaching to specific sections, capable of identification, except as to sections which were specifically reserved.</p> <p>The force of such grant was in no respect impaired, or its construction affected, by the provision in section four of that act that patents for the land should be issued as sections of-twenty-five miles of the road^should be completed; but the company was not at liberty to dispose of its land not patented, without the consent of Congress.</p> <p>When the' termini of a railroad for whose construction a land grant is made are mentioned, the extent of which is dependent upon the distance between those points, the road should be constructed upon the most direct and practicable line.</p> <p>The line of the Northern Pacific Railroad through the State of Minnesota having been definitely determined in accordance witli law, and the road having been constructed; the company’s right to the-lands in place along the line of its route as So located, and to other, lands to make up deficiencies, cannot be doubted, unless a prior right attached to those lands under an earlier grant from Congress.</p> <p>The several acts granting public lands in aid of the construction of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad being examined and analyzed, it appears that the grants to that company, so far as they form the subject of controversy, were subsequent in date to the act under which the Northern Pacific Railroad Company claims, and come under the well settled rule that, where different grants cover the same premises, the elder takes the title.</p> <p>The operation of the act of March 3, 1857, 11 Stat. c. 99, p. 195, upoú lands previously reserved, was restrained by the act of March 3, 1865, 13 Stat. c. 105, p. 526.</p> <p>The act of March 3, 1871, 16 Sta