Southern Pacific Railroad Company v. Bell/Opinion of the Court

United States Supreme Court

183 U.S. 675

Southern Pacific Railroad Company  v.  Bell

 Argued: and Submitted December 5, 6, 1901. --- Decided: January 13, 1902

'The plaintiff in error insists that the map of its line of road was filed in 1859. The court of original jurisdiction finds that, up to the time of the trial in October, 1878, a period of nearly twenty years, no selection of these lands had ever been made by that company, or anyone for it. Was there a vested right in this company, during all this time, to have, not only these lands, but all the other odd sections within the 20-mile limits on each side of the line of the road, await its pleasure? Had the settlers in that populous region no right to buy of the government because the company might choose to take them, or might, after all this delay, find out that they were necessary to make up deficiencies in other quarters? How long were such lands to be withheld from market and withdrawn from taxation, and forbidden to cultivation? 'It is true that in some cases the statute requires the Land Department to withdraw the lands within these secondary limits from market, and in others, the officers do so voluntarily. This, however, is to give the company a reasonable time to ascertain their deficiencies and make their selections.

'It by no means implies a vested right in said company, inconsistent with the right of the government to sell, or of any other company to select, which has the same right of selection within those limits. Each company having this right of selection in such case, and having no other right, is bound to exercise that right with reasonable diligence; and when it is exercised in accordance with the statute, it becomes entitled to the lands as selected.'

If the command of the statute were to withdraw from the market, instead of survey, all odd-numbered sections within the 40-mile strip, the position of the railroad company in this case would be impregnable; but as the withdrawal only extends to the lands 'hereby granted,' we must look elsewhere to ascertain the meaning of those precise words. There is good reason for withdrawing lands within the place limits, since these lands already belong to the railroad company, as soon as they are identified by the location of the line, while lands within the indemnity limits may never be required at all, and in most cases are required only to a limited extent. Undoubtedly the company acquires title to both classes of lands by the 3d section of the granting act; but it acquires a title to lands within the place limits by a present grant; but to land within the indemnity limits, only by a future power of selection. In both cases the statute is the origin of the title; but in the one case it gives instantaneously; in the other it is a mere promise to give in the future, and requires the action of the railroad to perfect it. The words 'hereby granted' evidently refer to the former.

Treating this case as a reargument of the question involved in Hewitt v. Schultz, and it practically comes to that, we still adhere to the principle there announced. It seems to us the more reasonable, if not the necessary, inference to be deduced from the language of §§ 3 and 6. By the former there is 'hereby granted . . . every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state.' These words terminate the grant, the remainder of the clause being immaterial in this connection, and if the whole clause had been followed by a period, instead of a semicolon, the meaning, perhaps, would have been clearer. But there follows another clause, that 'whenever, prior to said time, any of said section, or parts of sections, shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or pre-empted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in alternate sections, and designated by odd numbers, not more than 10 miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections,' etc. There is here a clear distinction between the lands granted in procsenti in the first clause, and lands to be thereafter selected by the company, whenever the deficiency in the granted lands shall be ascertained.

The 6th section carries out the same idea. It requires a survey of 40 miles in width on both sides of the entire line, whether passing through states or territories. This would include only the granted or place limits within a territory, but within a state would cover the indemnity limits as well. There was no order in the act to withdraw any lands from settlement or sale, but such withdrawal seems to have been made in pursuance of the practice of the Interior Department, and for the purpose of preventing lands granted to the railroad company from being taken up by settlers, before the completion of the line and the final issue of patents. As was said by Mr. Secretary Lamar in the Atlantic & P. R. Co. 6 Land Dec. 84: 'Waiving all questions as to whether or not said granting act took from the Secretary all authority to withdraw said indemnity limits from settlement, it is manifest that the said act gave no special authority or direction to the executive to withdraw said lands; and when such withdrawal was made it was done by virtue of the general authority over such matters possessed by the Secretary of the Interior, and in the exercise of his discretion; so that, were the withdrawal to be revoked, no law would be violated, no contract broken.' But as the power to withdraw extends only to the lands hereby granted and all other lands, except those hereby granted, remain open to settlement, we are thrown back upon § 3 to determine what are the lands 'hereby granted.'

Now, as already observed, there is a clear distinction in § 3 between granted lands and lands to be selected after the deficiency in the granted lands has been ascertained. It is true that, prior to this selection being made, many of these indemnity lands may be taken up, and an insufficient amount left for the railroad (and we do not deny the force of the dissenting opinion in Hewitt v. Schultz in that connection), but we think this possibility serves rather as a basis for a further action by Congress, such as was made in the Northern Pacific case by the joint resolution of May 31, 1870 (16 Stat. at L. 378), than as a reason for withdrawing from settlement a vast amount of land which the railroad may never have occasion to require. It was said by Secretary Lamar in the case of the Atlantic & P. R. Co. 6 Land Dec. 84, 87: 'As to the lands within the indemnity limits, the contract was based upon two contingencies; that of losing lands within the granted limits, and being able to find sufficient to indemnify the company among the odd-numbered sections within a further limit of 10 miles. Here the interest of the company was so remote and contingent, being a mere potentiality, and not a grant, that Congress declined to order a withdrawal for the benefit of the same, or even a survey within the territories.' In view of the constant trend of population toward the western territories, it is a serious matter to withdraw these enormous tracts from settlement and hold them, as it were, in mortmain against the protest of those who stand ready to enter upon and possess them.

It becomes still more serious when, as in this case, there was a delay of twenty-seven years between the granting act and the act of selection. It seems intolerable that a settler, who had entered and paid for lands in good faith, should be liable to an ouster after a possible lapse of twenty-seven years, when the very improvements he may have put upon the lands might be the reason for their selection by the company.

We are therefore of opinion that the act of July 27, 1866, did not authorize the withdrawal by the Secretary of the Interior of the indemnity lands, that such lands remained open to homestead and pre-emption entry, and that patents issued to settlers within such indemnity limits, based upon the entries made prior to the selection by the railroad company, approved by the Interior Department, were valid as conveyances of the land as against the selection by the railroad company.

The judgment of the Supreme Court of California is therefore affirmed.

Notes