Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-01-25
U. s. DISTRICT COURT.
=. l.. Bachelor Found Guilty of Tim.
Der Trespass-COurt'sD Definition
of"Adjacent"-Bigg Case
Called.


afternoon about 8 o'clock, Judge Laugh
lin presiding, the jury brought in ver
dict of guilty against Samuel L. Bachelor,
charged with timber trespass, and as
sesseG the damages against said Bachelor
at $40 and costs, being l cent each for
1000 ties unlawfully cut by him near Ell
Rlto and hoated down the river to the
Denver Il Rio Grande railroad at Cha
mita.
Under the law the sentence of'the court
against Mr.. Bachelor will be to pay a
fine of $12O, or three times the amount of
the damages assessed, and Imprisonment
in the U. s. prison for term not exceed
ing twelve months.
The controversy over this case in the
TRIAL arose over the construction OF the
clause in the grant made by congress to
pauy on June s, 1872, which is as follows,
to wit:
"And the right to take from the public
lands adjacent to the rightofway stone,
timber, earth, water and other material
necessary for the X repair of its
railway and telegraph lines"
The proofs showed that the public
lands upon which the railroad ties in
question we're cut we're, on direct line
of survey, twenty-one ana half miles
from the line and right-of.way of said
railroad.
The prosecution commended that the
public lands, from which the ties we're
taken, were not within the limit prescribed
by the word adjacent"
The defense commended that it was in
cluded within that limit, and that the de-
PENDANT, as the agent of the railroad COM
pany, had the right to cut and remove the
ties in question.
On this point the court instructed the
jury as follows:
"The court further instructs you as a
matter of law, that the word or term 'ad-
jacent' as used and applied in the act of
congress herein above quoted to you
means the tiers of townships lying ad join
ing on either side of the townships upon,
through or over which the line and right
of-way of the said Denver & Rio Grande
railroad runs, and that where the public
lands are unsurveyed the word or term
adjacent means relatively the same thing
as to the limit of distance from the
line and right-of-waY of the said Denver
d Rio Grande railroad. It does not
mean that the public lands, from which
said railroad company may take timber
required for repairs on its line of rail-
road, shall lie adjoining its right-of-waY,
but that such right is limited by the word
or term adjacent to the boundaries
as herelnbefore given you in these in
structions; that is, the law does not give
the said Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
company, or its agents, the right to 20 at
will upon any of the public lands of the
United States for the purpose of taking
timber req uired for repairs on it's line of
railroad completed prior to June 8, 1872.
"The court further instructs you that
the word township as in the instructions
used means an area of land six miles in
extent, north, south, east and west, and is
legal subdivision according to the Off
cial surveys under the laws of the United
States, and that, if the defendant has
failed to show by preponderance of the
testimony in this case, that the public
lands upon and from which the timber
was cut or removed, if you find beyond a
reasonable doubt that the timber az
charged was unlawfully cut or removed,
were lying adjacent to the line and right
of-way OF said Denver & Rio Grande rail-
road, according to the limits and bound
aries as heretofore in these instructions
defined and given you, then any defense
interposed by the defendant under any
license or contract with the said Denver
d Rio Grande Railroad company must
fail and will not avail him as defense in
his favor on that ground in this CASE"
1t was admitted by counsel on both
sides that, after much research, they had
been unable to find any decision where
this issue had been directly raised and
passed upon by any court as to the word
adjacent" as used in this statute. 1t has
been before several of the federal judges
as an indirect or collateral issue, and
each time each judge has taken differ
emit view and put different construction
on the meaning as to the limitations of
the word adjacent" as applied to the
grant to the said railroad company's
right to cut and take timber from the