When a statute extends the time for the completion of a land
grant railroad upon the condition of saving and securing to actual
settlers and their grantees on any of the granted lands their
rights in all respects the same as if said lands had never been
granted to aid in the construction of said lines of railroad, and
the company asserts and continues to assert and exercise ownership
over the road and other property after the expiration of the time
for completing the road to the same extent as previously, it will
be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the
company has accepted the conditions imposed, and that it has
relinquished all claims to the lands thus settled and occupied.
The case is stated in the opinion.
Page 139 U. S. 20
MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff, the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway
Company, is a corporation created under the laws of Minnesota. The
defendants are citizens of that state, and James Greenalgh, the
grantee of his codefendant, Charles W. Greenalgh, who received a
patent of the United States, claims title to the land covered by
that patent. The controversy in the case is over the ownership of
this land, the plaintiff contending that it is a part of the grant
made by Congress to the State of Minnesota on the 3d of March,
1857, to aid in the construction of certain railroads, and by the
state conveyed to the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, to the
rights of which the plaintiff has succeeded. The defendants
controvert this position, contending first that the premises in
controversy were never covered by the grant to the state, and
therefore never passed by its conveyance to the St. Paul and
Pacific Railroad Company, and second that if they were a part of
that grant, and by the conveyance of the state passed to that
railroad company, the extension of the time to complete the road,
which it was authorized to construct , released them from its
claim.
In the case of
St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company v.
Northern Pacific Railroad Company, ante, 139 U. S. 1, we had
occasion to consider somewhat at length the grant of Congress to
the State of Minnesota by the Act of March 3, 1857, and the changes
in it by subsequent legislation, particularly by the joint
resolution of Congress of July 12, 1862, authorizing a change in
the line of one of the branch railroads, and by the Act of March 3,
1865, increasing the alternate sections granted on each side of the
road from six to ten sections, and enlarging the indemnity limits
from fifteen to twenty miles, and the Act of March 3, 1871,
authorizing a change of certain designated lines in consideration
of the relinquishment of lands along them.
In the year 1871, the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company,
Page 139 U. S. 21
under the assumed authority of the Act of March 3, 1871, located
the line of a road from St. Cloud to St. Vincent, passing through
Glyndon and Crookston, differing and distinct from the definite
location made by the predecessor of that company in 1857. On the
7th of November, 1871, a map of this new location, certified by the
officers of the company, was filed with the governor of the state,
and on the 20th of December following, a copy, properly certified
and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, was filed in the
office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Afterwards,
by an Act of Congress passed March 3, 1873, 17 Stat. c. 331, p.
631, this location was recognized and virtually approved by an
extension of time to the company for the completion of the road as
thus located within nine months from the time previously
prescribed. Whatever doubt as to the regularity or validity of the
location might otherwise arise, there can be none of its validity
from the time of this recognition.
On February 15, 1872, after the map of definite location was
filed, the Secretary of the Interior ordered a withdrawal from sale
or other disposition of the odd numbered sections within twenty
miles. On June 18, 1872, the secretary directed the vacation of
this order. On the 26th of June, the defendant Charles W. Greenalgh
settled on the land in controversy, which is within ten miles of
the line of the road, and within its place limits.
See Barney
v. Winona & St. Peter Railroad, 117 U.
S. 228,
117 U. S. 231,
correcting in this particular the decision in
113 U. S. 113 U.S.
618. After the settlement, he resided upon the land and made
improvements thereon. He subsequently filed and proved up his claim
and obtained a patent of the United States. On September 4, 1872,
the order of vacation was duly revoked. As thus seen, the
settlement of this defendant was commenced during the period when
the withdrawal of the lands from sale or other disposition was not
in force.
The Act of Congress of June 22, 1874, 18 Stat. c. 424, p. 203,
in its first section, declares that it extends to the St. Paul and
Pacific Railroad Company the time for the completion of its roads
to March 3, 1876, and
"no longer, upon the following
Page 139 U. S. 22
conditions: that all rights of actual settlers and their
grantees who have heretofore in good faith entered upon and
actually resided on any of said lands prior to the passage of this
act, or who otherwise have legal rights in any of such lands, shall
be saved and secured to such settlers or other such persons in all
respects that same as if said lands had never been granted to aid
in the construction of the said lines of railroad."
In its second section, it required the company, as a condition
of acquiring any rights under the act, to sign a formal acceptance
of its conditions and file such acceptance in the Department of the
Interior for record and preservation. It does not affirmatively
appear that any such acceptance was ever signed, but as the company
continued to assert and exercise ownership over the road and other
property, after the expiration of the time for completing the road,
to the same extent as previously, it will be considered, in the
absence of proof to the contrary, as having in fact accepted the
conditions imposed and relinquished all claim to the lands thus
settled upon and occupied.
It seems also that the State of Minnesota, on the first of
March, 1877, enacted that the railroad company should not
"in any manner, directly or indirectly, acquire or become seised
of any right, title, interest, claim, or demand in or to any piece
or parcel of land . . . upon which any person or persons have in
good faith settled, and made or acquired valuable improvements
thereon, on or before the passage of the act."
The road of the plaintiff under consideration here was not
completed till November, 1878, and consequently the rights granted
to the company were subject to forfeiture, or at least the company
was subject to hostile proceedings, for breach of this condition
attached by law to the grant. A mere breach of condition does not
of itself work a forfeiture of a grant; some other proceeding must
be taken by the grantor to indicate his dissatisfaction with the
breach, and his intention to exercise his rights to revoke the
grant, and take possession of the property in consequence thereof.
While in this case no specific action was taken by Congress to work
a forfeiture of
Page 139 U. S. 23
the grant, or by the state, yet the continued possession and use
of the property by the company were, in fact subject to the
condition that the rights of settlers upon the lands at the time
should not be interfered with where such settlements had been made
in good faith, as was the case in the present instance. And it
would be in the highest degree inequitable to allow the company to
have all the benefits of the extension of time to complete its
road, so as to avoid any forfeiture of its privileges and
franchises, without at the same time holding it to the conditions
affecting the rights of settlers upon the lands of the company, in
consideration of which the extension was made.
We think, therefore, that the defendant James W. Greenalgh,
under the patent issued to his codefendant, Charles, upon proof of
the latter's settlement and subsequent improvements, had the better
right to the land in controversy, and the decree of the court below
is
Affirmed.