Title: Oregon Short Line Railroad Company v. Murray City

State: utah

Issuer: Utah Supreme Court

Document:

2 Utah 2d 427 (1954) 277 P.2d 798 OREGON SHORT LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, A CORPORATION, AND UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, A CORPORATION, PLAINTIFFS AND RESPONDENTS, v. MURRAY CITY, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT, STATEWIDE PLUMBING AND HEATING COMPANY, INC., A CORPORATION, DEFENDANT. No. 8122. Supreme Court of Utah. December 10, 1954. Wendell Day, City Atty., Murray, Fabian, Clendinin, Moffat & Mabey, Salt Lake City, for appellant. Marvin J. Bertoch, M.J. Bronson, A.U. Miner, Bryan P. Leverich, Howard F. Coray, Salt Lake City, for respondents. McDONOUGH, Chief Justice. This is a dispute over the ownership of a strip of land eleven city blocks long and approximately four rods wide within the corporate limits of Murray City. Its arrival in this court has been presaged by a series of quarrels between the railroad and the city, dating at least from 1919, usually occasioned by the city's installation of public improvements and apparently settled in a manner unsatisfactory to both parties. When Murray City began laying sewer pipes along this strip, known as Second West Street, some preliminary negotiations for a contract indemnifying the railroad against damage were entered into but they failed and the railroad brought suit, obtaining a temporary injunction against the city and the present appeal is prosecuted from the subsequent trial. After the issuance of the temporary injunction, the railroad discovered that the projected sewer line would be laid some 17 feet beyond its ballast and would not interfere with its signal system and hence acquiesced in the city's operation. Therefore, the real question to be determined here is the rights of the respective parties in the land. The lower court held that, by appropriation of the public domain by construction of trackage thereon in 1871 and by warranty deeds obtained within the decade following, the railroad acquired the fee title to a portion of the contested strip approximately 33 feet east of the center of its tracks and 11 feet west of the center. The trial court also found that Murray City holds fee title to land to the west of the tracks because of appropriation and use by the public when that land was in the public domain. Murray City appealed contending that the entire strip was appropriated as a highway prior to the construction of the railroad and that the railroad tracks ran down the center of the portion so appropriated and that the railroad's deeds were subject to the highway right of way acquired by the public. The railroad cross appealed, contending that the trial court erred in finding that the public acquired a right of way over any portion of the strip while it was public domain and in holding that Murray City had the right to lay sewer lines without permission from the railroad. Inasmuch as there are several points of law involved on this appeal the facts giving rise to each will be discussed in relation to those points. The first question is whether the railroad could acquire property under the Federal Act of 1866 referring to "highways" over public lands, 43 U.S.C.A. § 932, since the Act specifically granting the railroads the right-of-way over public lands, 43 U.S.C.A. § 934, was not passed until March, 1875, nearly four years after the construction of this railroad. R.S. § 2477, 43 U.S.C.A. § 932 reads: Although there is authority for strict interpretation of the word "highways" as used in this statute, Burlington, K. & S.W.R. Co. v. Johnson, 38 Kan. 142, 16 P. 125; Red River, etc., R. Co. v. Sture, 32 Minn. 95, 20 N.W. 229, it has frequently been held in cases following Flint & P.M.R. Co. v. Gordon, 41 Mich. 420, 2 N.W. 648, that a railroad is a highway within the meaning of the statute. 73 C.J.S., Public Lands, § 168, p. 819; Tennessee & C.R. Co. v. Taylor, 102 Ala. 224, 14 So. 379; Sams v. Port Royal, etc., R. Co., 15 S.C. 484; Verdier v. Port Royal R. Co., 15 S.C. 476; Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co. v. Richter, 20 N.M. 278, 148 P. 478, L.R.A. 1916F, 969. In Flint & P.M.R. Co. v. Gordon, supra, the Michigan court considers the indications of the intent of Congress taken from historical circumstances as controlling in the construction of the statute. The predecessor of the statute under consideration, enacted in 1852, 10 Stat. 28, specified that a right of way was granted for "all Rail and Plank Roads and Macadamized Turnpikes passing through the Public Lands" for construction completed within 15 years from the date of passage of the statute. This act, the court reasons, was intended to grant the right of way to roads constructed by private companies because the states and territories already had the tacit acquiescence of the United States for construction of public-sponsored highways across the public domain, and it was allowed to expire because Congress deemed it best to make a general provision in the Act of 1866 both to continue the building of these roads by private industry and to give sanction of law to the custom of taking public lands for common wagon roads. In view of the known policy of encouragement of the settlement of the uninhabited lands in the West, the court concludes that the legislative intent in suffering the Act of 1852 to expire and in not providing specifically for railroads again until 1875 could only be explained as an expression that Congress intended the Act of 1866 to cover such private construction: Inasmuch as the railroad here has acquired warranty deeds from patentees of the land in dispute to all but approximately 758 feet of the area covered by its tracks and appurtenances, whether it did take land for right of way purposes under the Act of 1866 is important only as to this small section. Naturally, if Murray City has proven that the public had already accepted the Congressional grant for a highway prior to the time the railroad was built, then the land was segregated from the public domain and the land taken by the railroad in warranty deeds would be subject to the highway. Ball v. Stephens, 68 Cal. App. 2d 843, 158 P.2d 207; Leach v. Manhart, 102 Colo. 129, 77 P.2d 652. Appellant Murray City could produce no direct evidence that there was a public road in existence prior to 1871, the date of the railroad construction, and relied upon inferences arising from this evidence: (1) the 24th District School was built sometime after 1874 east of the railroad track, when the only means of ingress and egress was the street now known as Second West, (2) two witnesses testified that they could remember the road's being used, both east and west of the tracks, as early as 1899, (3) four early deeds from contiguous landowners described among the courses "a county road" (the earliest of these deeds is dated December 16, 1874), (4) one of the four deeds refers to Second West Street as "a four rod street" (however, Second West Street does not extend at the present time as far south as the property conveyed by this deed), (5) an official highway plat of Salt Lake County adopted in 1898, (6) houses have stood beyond the east side of the tracks for as long as the witnesses above mentioned can remember (1899) and (7) dates of patents issued to the land over which the railroad runs cover a period from 1872 to 1875. It is true that the railroad could not validly claim under the Act of 1866 an acceptance of the Congressional grant of a right of way if that land had been withdrawn from the public domain. When a valid entry has been made by a citizen, that portion of the public land covered by the entry is segregated from the public domain, is appropriated to the private use of the entryman, and is not included in subsequent grants made by Congress. Holt v. Murphy, 207 U.S. 407, 28 S. Ct. 212, 52 L. Ed. 271; McMichael v. Murphy, 197 U.S. 304, 25 S. Ct. 460, 49 L. Ed. 766; Hastings & D.R. Co. v. Whitney, 132 U.S. 357, 10 S. Ct. 112, 33 L. Ed. 363, Kansas Pac. R. Co. v. Dunmeyer, 113 U.S. 629, 5 S. Ct. 566, 28 L. Ed. 1122. However, the present case does not involve a protest by a patentee or his successor, for, indeed, the railroad here owns by deed the fee title to all but 758 feet of land under its tracks by deed. It is said in Enid & Anadarko R. Co. v. Kephart, 19 Okl. 1, 91 P. 1049, that a railroad company appropriating land for its right of way across land covered by homestead entry is an unlawful trespasser, and obtains no right either in law or equity. However, even assuming that an inference could be drawn that the patentees were in occupation as homesteaders five years prior to receiving their patents (there is nothing in evidence to indicate whether their rights were thus obtained or whether their occupation was for a shorter time under preemption laws), the railroad's right of way is not being here contested by the landowner. Where a company has been permitted, by the owner of land, to take possession of it, for the purposes of its railroad, and to occupy it accordingly, and with the necessary expenditure of money, adapt it to such uses, and the owner has permitted it so to occupy and use it for a long time, the facts are presumptive evidence of an agreement that the company shall have the property upon making proper compensation. Paterson N. & N.Y.R. Co. v. Kamlah, 42 N.J. Eq. 93, 98, 6 A. 444. And, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, taking possession of a right of way and building and operating a transcontinental railroad over it support a legitimate inference of the acquisition of a valid right of way, although the right did not ripen into a conveyance until some time thereafter. Oregon Short Line R. Co. v. City of Caldwell, 39 Idaho 71, 226 P. 175. It is obvious that the evidence outlined above, though it is some evidence that a public highway existed perhaps as early as 1874, does not prove that the highway was already located when the railroad was built in 1871. As to the deed describing the county road as "a four rod highway," it cannot be taken as conclusive as to the width of the highway for the road section described by it is not now in existence nor is there any evidence that it has at any time existed. Likewise, the evidence is equally persuasive of the theory that the road was superimposed upon the existing railroad right of way as it is of the theory that the railroad was built down the center of the highway. A question then arises as to what estate the railroad received by accepting the grant of a right of way. Of course, the trial court's findings that the railroad held a fee simple as to that portion of the area included in warranty deeds is correct regardless of the estate granted by the Act of 1866; however, as to the 758 feet, covering which the railroad has no deed, we must determine what rights were given. An analysis is given in 73 C.J.S., Public Lands, § 168(d.), p. 824: The case of Great Northern Railway Co. v. United States, 315 U.S. 262, 62 S. Ct. 529, 86 L. Ed. 836, was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1942 and has been regarded as a complete reversal of its former position as evidenced by Rio Grande Western R. Co. v. Stringham, Utah, 239 U.S. 44, 36 S. Ct. 5, 60 L. Ed. 136. It is to be noted that the decision was apparently based upon the interpretation of the wording of the Act of March 3, 1875, which specifically granted a right of way to the railroads, buttressed by evidence of a change in congressional policy towards the railroads occurring in 1871. After 1871 outright grants of public lands to private railroad companies were discontinued because of public sentiment, but in order to encourage development of the West, Congress continued to grant rights of way. In prior cases, the court characterized grants of right of way to specific railroad companies as "a present beneficial easement," Denver & Rio Grande Railway Co. v. Alling, 99 U.S. 463, 25 L. Ed. 438, and "simply as an easement, not a fee," Smith v. Townsend, 148 U.S. 490, 43 S. Ct. 634, 636, 37 L. Ed. 533. Because the Great Northern Railway Co. case was an interpretation of the Act of 1875, rather than the Act of 1866, with which we are here concerned, we recognize that it is not strictly controlling in this instance, but hold that the Act of 1866 was intended likewise to grant merely an easement under the view that grants by the sovereign for which no compensation is made will be strictly construed against the grantee and pass nothing but what is conveyed in clear and explicit language. U.S. v. City and County of San Francisco, Cal., 310 U.S. 16, 60 S. Ct. 749, 84 L. Ed. 1050; Dubuque & P.R. Co. v. Litchfield, Iowa, 23 How. 66, 16 L. Ed. 500. Therefore, until the railroad bought the land from the patentees to this strip, it held nothing more than an easement which, of course, extended to all the purposes incident to the operation of the railroad. And, as to the 758 feet which it does not own, the railroad still has merely an easement. The judgment of the lower court should be modified in this respect. The trial court found that Murray City was the owner in fee of the strip to the west of the railroad tracks, as present surfaced and used as Second West Street. There is no need to determine the extent of the railroad's right of way taken under the Federal Act, for whether the highway was located as an acceptance of a grant from the public domain at a location immediately west of the tracks before the railroad received deeds to the fee, or established under state statutes similar to U.C.A. 1953, 27-1-2,[1] or obtained by prescription, the estate acquired would be but an easement, with the fee remaining in the abutting landowners. The case of White v. Salt Lake City, Utah, 239 P.2d 210, partially resolved the apparent conflict in our statutes regarding the estate taken by the municipality in holding that, in accordance with U.C.A. 1943, 78-5-4, U.C.A. 1953, 57-5-4, a statutory dedication by the filing of plats of a subdivision vests a fee title in the municipality or county to the streets shown therein. It is apparent that as to streets so platted the legislature intended to change the common law, but U.C.A. 1953, 27-1-7, codifies the common law as regards other streets: The finding of the lower court that Murray City had a fee title to the strip west of the railroad tracks should be thus modified. As to the land east of the tracks, although there is some evidence of travel from a point three to four hundred yards North of the school located at 6100 South on Second West Street until 1930, the trial court apparently found that there was not sufficient evidence of public user to support the city's assertion that a highway existed there. In addition to the recitations in the old deeds above mentioned, Mayor Hansen testified that within his recollection the school children used to walk down the railroad tracks or the east section beyond at least until the intersecting street, 61st South Street, was cut through in 1905. There are nine homes on the east side and their only means of ingress and egress is by means of Second West Street and the city has maintained a power line down the east side. There is no evidence that the city ever surfaced this section although the west side has been maintained as an oil-surfaced road. There was evidence that this area was used by the Pioneer Nursery Company and its customers. While we do not attempt to here define what evidence is necessary to establish a highway by virtue of an acceptance from the public domain or by dedication from the owner, we agree with the trial court that the evidence of such limited use for such a small section is not sufficient. See Jeremy v. Bertagnole, 101 Utah 1, 116 P.2d 420; Lindsay Land & Livestock Co. v. Churnos, 75 Utah 384, 285 P. 646. The findings and conclusions of the lower court with respect to the width of the road are generally accepted where the court fixed the width in accordance with what is reasonable and necessary considering all the facts and circumstances. Lindsay Land & Livestock Co. v. Churnos, supra. Since the railroad is at present the owner of the fee of most of the land over which Murray City has an easement, and since the difficulties between the two parties have constantly arisen over the city's using the west side of the street for its public works, we now consider the nature of the rights acquired by the city under U.C.A. 1953, 27-1-2 and 27-1-7, supra. The problem is stated in American Law of Property, Vol. II, sec. 9.51, p. 486: It is obvious that this general statement covers the usual situation where an abutting owner, having no practical use for the subsoil, attempts to demand additional compensation for the public's use of that subsoil after having received payment for the condemnation of a highway right of way. Carpenter v. City of Lancaster, 250 Pa. 541, 95 A. 702. An equitable determination must necessarily favor the public need. In the present case, both parties serve the public and both parties are given the power of condemnation by our statutes, U.C.A. 1953, 56-1-5, and U.C.A. 1953, 78-34-1(3), to implement their work. The equities in such a case are not so clearly defined. The railroad contends that, although the placing of water pipes in the land owned by it did not seriously disturb the use to which it puts the property, other projects might interfere with a proposed underground communications system. We have no evidence on this matter and therefore cannot presently determine the rights of the parties in such instances which might conceivably arise. The legislature has provided for the procedure to be used in eminent domain proceedings, if the parties are unable to agree in contract, stating: U.C.A. 1953, 78-34-8: "The court or judge thereof shall have power: U.C.A. 1953, 78-34-3: "The private property which may be taken under this chapter includes: Although we are inclined toward the modern view, as expressed in the quotation from American Law of Property, supra, that an easement in the public for right of passage carries with it every reasonable means for public transportation, communication, and service, we recognize it as an equitable doctrine of public policy which cannot be applied in all instances. Where the owner of the subsoil devotes that subsoil to a public use, the city, in the absence of an agreement with the owner of the fee, must use its powers of eminent domain so that the issues may be determined in particular under the facts of each case. The judgment of the lower court is affirmed as modified. Each party to bear its own costs. CROCKETT, WADE, HENRIOD and WORTHEN, JJ., concur. [1] U.C.A. 1953, 27-1-2. A highway shall be deemed to have been dedicated and abandoned to the use of the public when it has been continuously used as a public thoroughfare for a period of ten years. R.S. 1898 & C.L. 1907, § 1115; C.L. 1917, § 2801; R.S. 1933 & U.C.A. 1943, 36-1-2.