Winona & St. Peter Railroad v. United States

Citations

• 165 U.S. 483
• 17 S. Ct. 381
• 41 L. Ed. 798
• 1897 U.S. LEXIS 1989

Syllabus

<p>.Anterior to any claim-of right under its grant by the Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company, by virtue either of filing its map of definite location or of surveying and staking itsdine upon the ground, a preemption-filing was placed upon the land. This filing was never cancelled. The claimant entered into possession and-continued so either personally or through a tenant until after the construction of the railroad, and until after the railroad company had .conveyed thé land to a land company, and until an action of ejectment was brought by the land company. The court below was of opinion, in which this court concurs, that'the land company could not be considered a purchaser in good faith from the railroad company; that it took its conveyance with notice, from possession, of all the rights and the claims of the party so in possession; that it therefore did not bi-ing itself within the protecting clauses of the act of March 3, 1887,</p> <p>. c. 376,' 24 Stat. 556; and that there was nothing to stay the right of the Government.to have the certification, so erroneously issued, cancelled. 'This case distinguished from United States v.- Winona & St. Peter Bailroad Company, ante, 463. ■ '</p>