St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-20
MILLIONS lNVOL we'd.
A Big Railroad Case Argued
Before the Appellate
Court.
Validity and Priority Of Sew
eral Big Grants Are at
Stake.
The Kill Murder Case Is a
Last on Trial in the
Courts.
insanity Is About All That
the Defense Now Can
Claim.

The most important case upon the
calendar of the supreme court tor thu
present term came up for argument
Yesterday. The title of the case is The
Minneapolis & st. Cloud Railroad Com
pany, appellant, VS.. The Duluth Il Win
niueg Railroad Company. defendent
and appellant. the Duluth Il Iron Range
Railroad Company, intervenOr and re
m0ndent. The papers FLED in the case
are most vOluminUuS. and number OF
prominent lawyers are engaged in the
case. The arguments made yesterday
occupied the whole day. A perusal OF
she various briefs shows that the con-
test is triangular one, and, though
only forty acres of land are involved,
the dispute really involves the titles
TO the various land grants
made to the railroad companies,
which amount 10 125.9l7,027 acres.
The brief for the plaintiff appellant
shows that the contest is between the
three rival claimants TO swamp lands,
each holding deed from the governor
o. the State to the 1 Orty-acre tract iii
controversy. and each claiming title ul-
der legislative acts purporting TO grant
to it swamp lands in 4 d OF its railway.
The case involves not merely the queS-
ton of title 10 the torty-ac tract de-
scrIbed in the pleadingS, but the rela-
tive priority and the construction of the
various granting acts, and the rOnStitu-
tionaI validity OF the act under which
the defendant CLAIMS TO have grant of
swamp lands.
This forty acre tract is in st. Louis
county, ami liz the Duluth land district.
1t lies within ten miles of defendants
line. and more than ten miles from the
nterYenor'S line. 1t has been selected
by and deed has been m ide to each of
the parties. The dates OF selection and
conveyance are as follows, all being IN
The year 1889:
Jan. s. Deed to defendant, record ITO.
folio 32S.
Jan. IA. Selection by interyenor, record
ll5. folio 34--4.
May > Selection by plaintiff. record 1O4,
June l. Deed to plaintiff, record 1o4,
Dec. 20. Deed to intervenor, record 1856.
folio 3424.
The plaintiff claims under the granting act
of March }. 1869. special laws 1879 CHI. SO,
amending the act OF Feb. II, 1860, special
laws 1860. ch. ).
The defendant and intervenor both claim
under the grant 10 the intervenor by act or
March 9, 1879, special laws SO. Oh. 81.
The intervenor claims also under the act of
March 4, 1888, and the act of March 10,
1888.
The intervenor claims that it still holds the
grant made to it by the act of March 8, 1879.
The defendant claims that the grant to the
inteHenor by The act of March 9, 1875. was
transferred to itself by the act of March 8,
1879.
And the defendant also claims that
whether the iDterven0r's grant was or
was not taken from it and bestowed on
the defendant by the act of March 8.
1878, in any case the latter act makes to
the defendant grant of ten sections
per mile for its entire length, i. g., for a
line more than 800 miles long.
Ii will be noticed that the plaintiff has
the eldest grant. And as between
plaintiff and intervenor the plaintiff
has the earlier deed. while the inter-
VenOr made the earlier selection. The
answer of the defendant put in issue
the plaintiffs incorporation, alleging
failure seasonably to accept the terri
tOrial charter. This allegation of
the defendant the court finds to be
untrue, and the court expressly
finds plaintiff to be a corporation :.
The case was tried at great length in
the district court of st. Louis county
before Judges o. p Stearps and j. f.
Ensign. who gave judgment for the in
terVenOr, the Duluth & Iron Range
Railroad company, declaring that COM
pany to be the owner of the lands in
dispute, with all right, title and in
terest.
All the issues of fact are determined
by the findings, so that the case turns
wholly OH questions of law arising upon
the Legislative acts. The attorneys in
the case are NJ. ID. Grover, George B..
Young for the minneapolis q st. Cloud
road; Warner, Richardson and Law
renee for the Duluth u Winnipeg:
Draper & Davis, Ii. G. Stone, Davis,
Kellogg and Severance for the Duluth
q Iron Range road.