Imperial Valley press., 1919-01-16
ESPEE WINS
T|TGE SUIT ON
VALLEY LANDS
Supreme Court Decision,
Ending Five Years Lit
CATION, in Favor of Rail-
way Company.

One of the most notorious land
cases ever tried in western courts
came to an end yesterday after five
years of litigation, when the United
States Suprems court handed down
an opinion upholding the ruling of
the United States Circuit Court of
Appeals and Judge Bledsoe of the
United States District Court and es
tabEshing for all time the validity
of title to lands ownad by the Impe-
Tial Valley Farm Lands Association
and the Southern Pacific Railway Co.
The decision clears up titles to
land valued at approximately SlO,-
100000. The Imperial Valley Farm
Lands Association alone owns 47,000
acres of Imperial Valley land, valued
at s5,0O0,000, and Southern Pacific
owns lands reaching all the way
from tie Tehachepi to Yuma, and IL
tie to all these far-flung acres was
for years made the object of bitter
court fights, which involved appeals
reaching TO the highest court in the
United States.
Several years ago, after the South
ern Pacific company disposed OF
large tract Of imperial Valley land t6
the Imperial Valley Farm Lands AS
sociation, Edmund Burke, Reuben
Erickson and George A. Fullinwider
who were then located in the valley
attacked the legality of title 10 th<
lands by bringing suit against the
Imperial Valley Farm Lands Associ
alton and the Southern Pacific Cons
rany to compel the Southern Pacific
TO sell to them certain lands in the
Imperial Valley at $3.50 per acre, i
being claimed that the act OF Con
rress under which the land was deed
ed to the Southern Pacific state
that the land should not be sold fol
more than that amount.
People in all parts of Imperial Vel
lev, as well as in Los Angeles ano
other parts of the Southland, were
invited to participate in what wa
probably the greatest land contes
scheme ever concocted in the South
vest. The promoters of the title-at
tack collected from $50 to 500 from
as many as 500 pecple. it is believed
an in that wav raised fund which
mounted up close to $4,000. Thes,
investors were gambling their "ante'
for TIE privilege of buying from the
promoters of the plan plots Of Ian
at a fipure which is said to have bee
about So an acre. in the event thai
the suit to compel the Southern Pa
cific to sell the land for $3.50 pc
acre was won by the plaintiffs.
When it came to going into cour'
the names of all the investors whc
had ioined to help conduct the suit
were booked onto big complaints filed
hy Fullinwider, Erickson and Burke
In the comrlaints it was alleged thai
tie complainants had offered to bu!
sections of tbs land from the South
orn Pacific comnanv at $3.50 PEI
acre. and that the offers had beer
refused
IN the United States District Cour'
at Los Angeles Judge Bledsoe rulec
against TIE plaintiffs, placing the
rovernment's judicial stamp Of vali9
itv upon the title to the lands II
question bv disn1issine the suits. Bu'
that was not enough. The Fullir
wider case was appealed to thf
United +Sates Circuit court. wher
Judge Bledsoe's decision was unhei9
It was then carried to the Unite
States Supreme court.
The court holds that the Southern
Pacific Company was not obliged ac
cordinq to the ter1ns Of its grant
10 sell the lands in question for no
more than $3.50 per acfe. The gov
ernment allotted certain lands in th@
Southwest to the Texas P1cifi" rail
way on that basis hut the Texa'
Pacific never availed itself of the
lands in Question and when the eov
o~nmcnt allotte5 the Southern Peoif'
certain lands between the Tehacher
and Yuroa there was nothin" in thl
grant which snecified that the Ian
could not be sold for more than $2.5'
per acre.
In the Dismissal proceedings abou'
April 5. 1915. Judge Rledsca stat
that the plaintiffs had either bee
misled By faIlacious arguments ant