1. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company could not acquire a
vested interest in particular lands, within or without place
limits, merely by filing a map of general route and having the same
approved by the Secretary of the Interior, although upon the
definite location of its line of road and the filing and acceptance
of a map thereof in the office of the Commissioner of the General
Land Office, the lands within primary or place limits, not
theretofore reserved, sold, granted or otherwise disposed of and
free from preemption or other claims or rights, become segregated
from the public domain, and no rights in such place lands will
attach in favor of any settler or occupant, after definite
location.
2. No rights to lands within indemnity limits will attach in
favor of the railroad company until after selections made by it
with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
3. Up to the time such approval is given, lands within indemnity
limits, although embraced by the company's list of selections, are
subject to be disposed of by the United States or to be settled
upon and occupied under the preemption and homestead laws of the
United States.
4. The Secretary of the Interior has no authority to withdraw
from sale or settlement lands within the indemnity limits which
have not been previously selected, with his approval, to supply
deficiencies within the place limits of the company's road.
The facts are stated in the opinion.
Page 199 U. S. 565
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case was tried upon a stipulation of facts. It involves the
title to the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section
five, township one hundred thirty-three north, of range forty-two,
west of the fifth principal meridian, Minnesota, which is situated
opposite to and coterminous with a part of the line of the Northern
Pacific Railroad as definitely located on the twenty-first day of
November, 1871, and is within the first indemnity limits of the
grant of public lands made by the act of Congress of July 2, 1864,
in aid of the construction by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company
of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound,
on the Pacific coast. 13 Stat. 365, c. 217.
The state court adjudged that plaintiff, Sjoli, was not entitled
to the land, and that the defendant Dreschel, who asserts title
under the railroad company, was the owner.
From the numerous cases in this Court relating to the above Act
of July 2, 1864, the following propositions are to be deduced:
That the railroad company will not acquire a vested interest in
particular lands, within or without place limits, merely by filing
a map of general route and having the same approved by the
Secretary of the Interior, although, upon the definite location of
its line of road and the filing and acceptance of a map thereof in
the office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the
lands within primary or place limits, not theretofore reserved,
sold, granted, or otherwise disposed of, and free from preemption
or other claims or rights, become segregated from the public
domain, and no rights in such place lands will attach in favor of a
settler or occupant who becomes such after definite location;
That no rights to lands within indemnity limits will attach in
favor of the railroad company until after selections made by it
with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior;
Page 199 U. S. 566
That, up to the time such approval is given, lands within
indemnity limits, although embraced by the company's list of
selections, are subject to be disposed of by the United States, or
to be settled upon and occupied under the preemption and homestead
laws of the United States; and,
That the Secretary of the Interior has no authority to withdraw
from sale or settlement lands that are within indemnity limits
which have not been previously selected, with his approval, to
supply deficiencies within the place limits of the company's road.
*
These principles, it would seem, make it easy to determine the
present case, the controlling facts in which are undisputed. Let us
see.
The plaintiff, Sjoli, a qualified entryman, settled upon the
land in dispute in 1884, with the intention in good faith to
perfect his title under the homestead laws. He grubbed and broke
about two and one-half acres, built a house and stable thereon, and
moved into the house with his family on the fourth day of October,
1884. He has lived upon the premises continuously with his family
ever since that time. At the time of the bringing of this action,
he had broken about twenty-two acres, constructed 220 rods of
fencing, and made improvements of the value of $500. In 1889, he
applied at the proper local land office to make entry of this land
under the homestead laws. That
Page 199 U. S. 567
application was rejected because the land was then erroneously
supposed to be within the granted limits of the St. Paul,
Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad Company. No appeal from that
order seems to have been taken. But Sjoli did not abandon the land
or his claim upon it, for, in 1895, and relying upon his settlement
of 1884, he again applied at the proper land office to enter the
land under the homestead laws. His application was resisted by the
Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and, upon a hearing before the
local land office as between him and that company, in March, 1895,
the case was decided in his favor. Subsequently, Sjoli having made
his final proofs, as required by the homestead laws, a patent was
issued to him under date of June 18, 1901. His title rests upon
that patent.
Dreschel's claim to the land arises out of a contract made by
him April 21, 1900, with the Northern Pacific Railway Company, by
which that corporation agreed to sell to him the land in question.
The parties agree that that company succeeded to whatever rights
belonged to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
If the railway company was not entitled to the land as between
it and Sjoli -- if it had no interest to sell -- then the defendant
Dreschel has no claim as between himself and the plaintiff.
We have seen that Sjoli's settlement upon the land was in 1884,
and his original application to enter it was in 1889, whereas the
railroad company made and filed its list of selections of lands
within indemnity limits to supply alleged deficiencies in place
limits in 1885, Sjoli being still in occupancy of the land. But, as
already stated, the result of the cases in this Court is that the
railroad company did not acquire an interest in any particular
lands within the indemnity limits merely by filing its lists of
selections, nor until its selections were approved by the Secretary
of the Interior.
In
Musser v. McRae, 38 Minn. 409, 411, the Supreme
Court of Minnesota had occasion to construe the act of Congress
granting lands in aid of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis
Page 199 U. S. 568
& Omaha Railway Company. That act provided, among other
things, that if, when the line of railroad should be definitely
fixed, the United States have sold, or rights of preemption should
have attached to any such granted sections or parts thereof, then,
in lieu thereof, any agent to be appointed by the governor might
select, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior,
from the lands of the United States so much land as should be equal
to those sold or preempted, etc. Chief Justice Gilfillan, speaking
for that court, said:
"As to the lands in place, the title attached upon the definite
location of the line of road. As soon as that was done, the acts
pointed out the lands. As to those to be taken for deficiencies, it
was necessary that something more than fixing the line of the road
should be done; it was necessary that there should be a selection,
and an approval of such selection by the Secretary of the Interior.
Until that was done, the title granted did not attach to any lands
outside of the 10-section [place] limit."
In the later case of
Resser v. Carney, 52 Minn. 397,
400, referring to the grant of 1864 to the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company, the same court said:
"The selection of indemnity lands, which was to be made 'under
the direction of the Secretary of the Interior' (13 Stat. 367, c.
217, ยง 3) did not become effectual, nor did the title pass from the
United States at least until the selection was approved, or in some
way sanctioned by the Secretary of the Interior,"
etc. These cases are in accord with the decisions of this Court
above cited.
Now, it is stipulated in this case that the Secretary of the
Interior has never approved the selection by the railroad company
of the land here in question to supply deficiencies in place
limits. So that, when Sjoli settled upon the land, it was, so far
as the railroad company was concerned, part of the unappropriated
public lands open to settlement under the homestead laws. The
railroad company had no direct legal interest in it. The company's
unapproved selections did not, therefore, stand in the way of the
lands' being occupied and entered under the homestead laws. The
mere filing of its lists of selections of indemnity
Page 199 U. S. 569
lands did not have the effect to exclude them from occupancy
under the preemption or homestead laws. On the contrary,
notwithstanding the filing of such lists, they remained open, as
before, to settlement or occupancy under those laws until the
selections were formally approved by the Secretary of the Interior
and the lands withdrawn from settlement or sale. No such approval
ever occurred.
It results that the patent issued to Sjoli is evidence of the
better title, and must prevail. His settlement upon the land, with
the intention to perfect his title under the homestead laws, was
not a violation of the act of 1864. On the contrary, he thereby
acquired, within the meaning of the act of 1864, a claim upon the
land which was perfected by the patent issued to him by the United
States. The learned state court erred in not so holding, and in
adjudging that the Northern Pacific Railway Company acquired an
interest in the land immediately upon filing its list of
selections, and that the defendant in error was the owner of it.
The relief asked by the plaintiff should have been granted.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota is reversed, and
the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with
this opinion.
Reversed.
MR. JUSTICE BREWER did not participate in the decision of this
case.
*
Hewitt v. Schultz, 180 U. S. 139;
Nelson v. Northern Pacific Railway, 188
U. S. 109;
United States v. Northern Pacific
Railroad Co., 152 U. S. 284,
152 U. S. 296;
Northern Pacific Railroad v. Sanders, 166 U.
S. 620,
166 U. S.
634-635;
Menotti v. Dillon, 167 U.
S. 703;
United States v. Oregon & California
Railroad, 176 U. S. 28;
St. Paul Railroad v. Northern Pacific Railroad,
139 U. S. 1,
139 U. S. 5;
St. Paul, Sioux City &c. Railroad v. Winona &c.
Railroad, 112 U. S. 720,
112 U. S. 726;
M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Kansas Pacific Ry.,
97 U. S. 491,
97 U. S. 501;
Cedar Rapids & M. R. R. Co. v. Herring,, 110 U. S.
27;
Grinnell v. Railroad Co., 103 U.
S. 739;
Kansas Pacific R. Co. v. Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe, 112 U. S. 414;
Wilcox v. Eastern Oregon Land Co., 176 U. S.
51; Northern Pacific Railroad v. Miller, 7 L.D. 109,
120; Northern Pacific R. Co. v. Davis, 19 L.D. 87, 90; Spicer v.
Northern Pacific R. Co., 10 L.D. 440, 443; Northern Pacific R. Co.
v. McCrimmon, 12 L.D. 554; Northern Pacific R. Co. v. Plumb, 16
L.D. 80.