Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-06-10
Supreme Court of the United States
Reverses the Decision of the
Circuit Court Of Appeals.
Case Involving Possession of Valuable
Business Property in the City
of Bismarck.
Case Has Been in Court for a Num-
Der of Years and is Finally
Decided Wednesday.
Smith Case Reversed.

The United States supreme court has
reversed the decision of the United
States circuit court of appeals in the
case of Patrick r. Smith vs.. the North.
ern Pacific railway company and ordered
a judgment entered for the defendant
railroad company in the lower court.
P. E. Byrne received a telegram to this
effect from the clerk of the United
States supreme court last evening. a
report of the decision of the court says:
The supreme court, in an opinion de-
livered today by Justice Shiras, reversed
the judgment of the Eighth circuit
court of appeals in the case of the North
ern Pacific ct al, plaintiffs in error, VS..
Patrick Il. Smith, and remanded the
cause to the circuit court of appeals,
with a direction to enter a judgment in
favor of the defendants. The case in.
wolves North Dakota lands over which
the railroads grant of way was pro-
tested.
The court concludes that neither the
city Of Bismarck, as owner of the town.
site, nor the grantee, Smith, can, under
the facts shown, disturb the possession
of the railroad company in it's rights of
way, extending 200 feet on each side of
its road. Justice Brewer, though con-
curing in the reversal of Judgment, does
not concur in all the conclusions reached
nor in the direction to enter judgment
for the defendant. He holds that the
estoppel relied on goes only to the ground
actually used exclusively for railroad
purposes and does not extend to the en-
tire 400 feet of right of way under the
congressional grant. Justice Harlan dis
sented from the courts opinion.
The Smith case has been 10 the courts
for several years, and involves the pos
session of lots on the Northern Pacific
right of way from Third street to within
a short distance of Fourth street on the
south side of Main. Smith was the
grantee of the city to the title Of these
lots under deeds given by Mayor George
Peoples a number of years ago.. He
contested the title of the railroad o
pany upon the ground that the railroad
company had no title to the right of way
for the reason that when the right of
way through the city was filed at Wash
ington, it comprised a tract of land pass.
ing through the Missouri river bottoms
and several miles south of the present
right of way. The road afterward
changed its course and selected aud
builded upon a right of way through
the city as at present located.
Smiths attorneys held that the right
of way of the road was determined. not
by the location of the road and the ac-
tual th%oroughfare occupied by them,
but by the location of the right of way
as originally filed by them at Washing.
ton. Upon this claim suit was brought
for the possession of the lots on the
present right Of way and for rentals and
damages for the use of the property by
the railroad company. The case came
originally before Judge Thomas of the
United States circuit court, who first
dismissed the case on a point of law,
but was reversed in his ruling by the
United States circuit court of appeals.
Thereupon he ordered judgment entered
in favor of Smith for the property and
damages of something like $50, 600.
The case was again appealed to the
circuit court of appeals this time by the
Northern Pacific, where a decision was