1. The railroad right of way and station grounds here in
question, now constituting, with the consent of Congress, parts of
a through line of an extensive interstate system, are not exempt
from state special tax assessments upon the ground that they are
parts of a federal instrumentality, though originally granted by
Congress with a purpose to develop coal lands of the Choctaw
Nation, and though coal mines leased from the tribe are served by
the railroad. P.
256 U. S.
535.
2. A special assessment for a street improvement, levied by a
city under Oklahoma Comp.Laws, 1909, § 724, on railroad property
abutting on the improved street and designated on a map prepared by
the city engineer,
held to have sufficiently identified
the property. P.
256 U. S.
537.
3. The removal of such map from the city files and its
possession meanwhile by purchasers of the improvement bonds did not
invalidate the assessment, the railroad companies not having been
injured or misled by its absence and having had full knowledge of
the assessment proceedings and the improvement. P.
256 U. S.
538.
4. A railroad right of way and station grounds in Oklahoma,
owned by a company in fee but subject to a right of reverter in the
Creek Nation in case they cease to be used for railroad purposes,
are liable to special assessment, under the Oklahoma laws, for a
street improvement enhancing the value of the railroad use. P.
256 U. S.
538.
261 F. 342 affirmed.
This was a suit brought in the district court by the present
appellants to avoid and enjoin enforcement of a special street
improvement tax. The appeal is from a judgment of the circuit court
of appeals reversing a
Page 256 U. S. 532
judgment in their favor. The facts are stated in the opinion,
post, 256 U. S.
534.
Page 256 U. S. 534
MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This suit was brought in the United States District Court for
the Eastern District of Oklahoma by the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific Railway Company to have declared void a special assessment
for street improvement made against part of its right of way and
station grounds in the City of Holdenville, Oklahoma, and to enjoin
the taking of any proceedings to enforce the same. The Choctaw,
Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad Company, the lessor, was joined as
plaintiff. The defendants are the county treasurer, the city, and
the holders of bonds issued to pay for the improvement. The street
improved, called Oklahoma Avenue, runs parallel to the main tracks.
The station grounds abut on the avenue for a distance of 1,641
feet, and the parcel assessed extends back from the avenue 150 feet
to the center of the right of way. Over this street a large part of
the traffic to and from the station necessarily passes, for between
it and the main
Page 256 U. S. 535
tracks lie the passenger depot, the freight houses, the express
office, the cotton platform, an oil warehouse, grain elevators,
coal bins, and the team tracks. The assessment is assailed as
invalid on several grounds. The chief contention is that the
property is immune from assessment by the state because that part
of the railroad was an instrumentality of the federal government.
The other grounds of attack are that, in laying the assessment, the
property was not sufficiently identified, and that the assessment
of a railroad right of way and station grounds is not authorized by
the law of the state. The district court entered a decree for
plaintiffs, which was reversed by the circuit court of appeals,
with directions to dismiss the bill. 261 F. 342. The case comes
here under § 241 of the Judicial Code.
First. The claim of immunity from assessment rests upon
these facts: the right of way and station grounds are on land which
had belonged to the Creek Nation before the town (now city) was
established under direction of the Secretary of the Interior
pursuant to the original Creek Agreement. Act of March 1, 1901, c.
676, § 10, 31 Stat. 861, 864. The Rock Island acquired its interest
on March 24, 1904, under a lease from the Choctaw, Oklahoma &
Gulf, for a period of 999 years, of all of its railroad property.
The lessor company had, in locating its railroad through
Holdenville, taken, besides the right of way 100 feet wide, an
additional strip for station purposes 200 feet wide, with a length
of 3,000 feet, having acquired the power so to do by succeeding to
the powers and franchises of the Choctaw Coal & Railway
Company. To that company Congress had, in 1888, granted the right
to build a railroad in Indian Territory, with a branch line to coal
mines leased from the Choctaw Nation. [
Footnote 1]
Page 256 U. S. 536
The contention is that the railroad is an instrumentality
through which the government undertook to perform its obligation to
develop coal lands belonging to the Indians, and that, if the
railroad's interest in the right of way and station grounds could
be subjected to a special assessment and possible sale thereunder
apart from the railroad franchises, the congressional purpose might
be obstructed.
Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad Co. v.
Harrison, 235 U. S. 292.
See also Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Townsend,
190 U. S. 267;
Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. v. Oklahoma,
240 U. S. 522.
The mere fact that property is used, among others, by the United
States as an instrument for effecting its purpose does not relieve
it from state taxation. The most that can be said here is that
among the public served by this railroad are some mines on land
leased from the Choctaw Nation. The right of way and station
grounds in question, instead of being, as was perhaps originally
contemplated by the Act of February 18, 1888, part of a branch to
leased "coal veins," have become an integral
Page 256 U. S. 537
part of through lines of a great railroad system. [
Footnote 2] Holdenville is on the main line
of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf, which extends from the west
bank of the Mississippi River, through Arkansas and Oklahoma, to
the Texas state line, a distance of nearly 650 miles. By the lease
to the Rock Island, this railroad has become a part of the through
lines of a much larger system. And even though it be granted that
the federal government utilized the railroad as an instrument in
working out its policy toward the Indians, the tax upon the
railroad property would be nonetheless valid.
Railroad Co.
v. Peniston, 18 Wall. 5,
85 U. S. 36;
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Massachusetts, 125 U.
S. 530,
125 U. S.
546-548;
Central Pacific Railroad Co. v.
California, 162 U. S. 91,
162 U. S. 125;
Thomas v. Gay, 169 U. S. 264.
Second. Equally unfounded is the contention that the
assessment did not sufficiently identify the property, and was
hence a denial of due process of law. The Oklahoma statute under
which the assessment was made (Comp.Laws 1909, § 724), provides
that:
"If any portion of the property abutting upon such improvement
shall not be platted into lots and blocks, the mayor and council
shall include such property in proper quarter block district for
the purpose of appraisement and assessment, as herein
provided."
The railroad premises not having been platted; the mayor and
council adopted a map of the city engineer on which the right of
way and station grounds were set forth in proper quarter block
districts. The premises
Page 256 U. S. 538
assessed were those quarter blocks thereon designated as
abutting on that portion of Oklahoma Avenue which was improved, and
the designation was clear. Sometime after the passage of the
ordinance providing for the assessment, this map was inadvertently
removed from the city files, sent to the purchasers of the bonds
issued for the improvement, and not returned until after the lapse
of a considerable time. But the railroad companies had full
knowledge of the proceedings relating to the assessment, and of the
commencement, the progress, and the completion of the improvement.
There is not even a suggestion that they were injured or misled by
the temporary absence of the map from the city files. Such removal
did not invalidate the assessment. Furthermore, mere insufficiency
of description or other irregularity in the proceeding would not
entitle abutting landowners to the relief sought here. Their right
would be limited to having the mayor and council make a
reassessment conforming to the regulations prescribed by the
statute.
See Laws Okl.1907-08, p. 176, §§ 7, 8;
Oklahoma Railway Co. v. Severns Paving Co., 251 U.
S. 104.
Third. The remaining contention is that the statutes of
the state do not authorize assessment for betterments upon a
railroad right of way and station grounds. The mere fact that there
is a possible right of reverter in the Creek Nation does not
preclude the railroad's interest from being subject to general
taxation.
See Baltimore Shipbuilding Co. v. Baltimore,
195 U. S. 375;
Maricopa & Phoenix Railroad v. Arizona, 156 U.
S. 347,
156 U. S. 352.
The railroad's interest, as stated in
Rio Grande Railway Co. v.
Stringham, 239 U. S. 44,
239 U. S. 47,
is
"neither a mere easement nor a fee simple absolute, but a
limited fee, made on an implied condition of reversion in the event
that the company ceases to use or retain the land for the purposes
for which it is granted, and carries with it the incidents and
remedies usually attending the fee."
In
Page 256 U. S. 539
effect, the railroad is the absolute owner of the land. Its use
is, and necessarily must be, exclusive. The betterment for which
the assessment was levied is of a nature to enhance the value of
that use. And it is the railroad, as distinguished from the Creek
Nation, owner of a possible reversionary interest, to which the
benefit from the improvement enures. For the railroad's use will
continue indefinitely, while the specific improvement to be paid
for can have but a short life.
Street paving is a class of betterment to which the railroad
right of way and station property is generally held to be subject.
See Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Barber Asphalt
Co., 197 U. S. 430;
Branson v. Bush, 251 U. S. 182. The
rule appears to have been accepted in Oklahoma.
Compare
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Tulsa, 45 Okl.
382;
Oklahoma Railway Co. v. Severns Paving Co.,
251 U. S. 104. It
is urged that, if the assessment is left unpaid, a sale to enforce
the lien would sever an integral part of the railway. The same
objection might be urged against the validity of a lien for general
taxes locally assessed upon railroad property or a mechanic's lien
upon the same. The objection is clearly unsound.
Compare Kansas
City Southern Railway Co. v. Tansey, 41 Okl. 543;
Kansas
City Southern Railway Co. v. Rosier, 38 Okl. 231;
Kansas
City Southern Railway Co. v. Wallace, 38 Okl. 233. If the
validity of the assessment is established, it may be assumed that
due payment will follow. At all events, we have no occasion to deal
with the method and means to be pursued in enforcing it.
Affirmed.
[
Footnote 1]
Act Cong. Feb. 18, 1888, c. 13, 25 Stat. 35. Section 2
provides:
"That said corporation is authorized to take and use for all
purposes of railway, and for no other purpose, a right of way one
hundred feet in width through said Indian Territory for said main
line and branch of the Choctaw Coal & Railway Company, and to
take and use a strip of land two hundred feet in width, with a
length of three thousand feet, in addition to right of way, for
stations, for every ten miles of road. . . ."
"
Provided further, that no part of the lands herein
authorized to be taken shall be leased or sold by the company, and
they shall not be used except in such manner and for such purposes
only as shall be necessary for the construction and convenient
operation of said railroad, telegraph, and telephone lines, and
when any portion thereof shall cease to be so used, such portion
shall revert to the nation or tribe of Indians from which the same
shall be taken."
See also Act Feb. 13, 1889, c. 152, 25 Stat. 668: Act
Oct. 1, 1890, c. 1252, 26 Stat. 640; Act Feb. 21, 1891, c. 249, 26
Stat. 765; Act Jan. 22, 1894, c. 14, 28 Stat. 27; Act Aug. 24,
1894, c. 330, 28 Stat. 502; Act April 24, 1896, c. 122, 29 Stat.
98; Act March 28, 1900, c. 111, 31 Stat. 52.
[
Footnote 2]
When Congress authorized the purchases of the property and
franchises of the insolvent Choctaw Coal & Railway Company to
reorganize as the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf, it conferred upon
the latter "perpetual succession." Act Aug. 24, 1904, c. 330, § 5,
28 Stat. 502, 503. Later, it greatly enlarged its powers,
conferring authority without limit to construct its railroad over
any Indian reservation and to acquire and consolidate with
practically any connecting line. Act April 24, 1896, c. 122, 29
Stat. 98; Act March 28, 1900, c. 11, 31 Stat. 52.