Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/66/358/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:42:53+00:00

Document:
1. If Congress pass an act granting public lands to a territory to aid in making a railroad, and if, by the true construction of the act, the territory acquired any beneficial interest in the lands as contradistinguished from a mere naked trust or power to dispose of them for certain specified uses and purposes, the act is irrepealable and a subsequent act attempting to repeal it is void.
2. If the legislative assembly of the territory, in an act incorporating a company to make the railroad which Congress intended to aid by the grant, conferred upon the company any right, title, or interest in the lands granted by Congress, it is not competent for Congress afterwards to repeal the grant and divest the title of the company.
the reenactment gives to the railroad corporation such title as the territory was capable at that time of conferring.
4. But if the grant was revoked or the act making it repealed before the reenactment of the charter, the title of the company must depend on the validity of the repealing act.
5. The original act of incorporation, passed by the territorial legislature, being before the grant by Congress to the territory, did not operate as a valid grant to the company so as to vest in it a title to the lands when subsequently granted.
6. Legislative grants are not warranties, and the rule of the common law must be applied to them that no estate passes to the grantee except what was in the grantor at the time.
7. While the federal courts have no common law jurisdiction not conferred by statute, and their rules of decision are derived from the laws of the states, still, in construing acts of Congress, the rules of interpretation furnished by the common law are the true guides and have been uniformly followed.
8. In ascertaining the meaning or effect of a state statute, the rules of construction are borrowed from the common law except in cases where the courts of the state have otherwise determined.
9. An act of Congress granting land to a territory to be held for the purpose of making or aiding to make a public improvement of general interest, and restricting the use to that one purpose, does not pass to the territory a beneficial interest in praesenti.
10. If the grant be coupled with a provision that the lands shall be subject to the disposal of the territorial legislature for the public purpose specified and no other, and shall not inure to the benefit of any company heretofore constituted and organized, it is clear that future legislation of the territory alone could dispose of the lands, even for the purpose declared.
11. Where the act of Congress making the grant declares that no title shall vest in the territory, nor no patent issue for any part of the lands until twenty miles of the railroad be finished, these words cannot be rejected or disregarded or shorn of their ordinary signification unless they be so clearly repugnant to the rest of the act that the whole cannot stand together.
12. Such words are not necessarily repugnant to or inconsistent with the word "grant" used in the same and in previous sections of the act.
used broadly and without limitation, it will carry an estate in the thing granted, yet if used in a restricted sense, the grantee will take but a naked trust for the benefit of the grantor.
14. Words which, standing alone in an act of Congress, may properly be understood to pass a beneficial interest in land will not be regarded as having that effect if the context shows that they were not intended to be so used.
15. Legislative grants must be interpreted, if practicable, so as to effect the intention of the grantor, but if the words are ambiguous, the true rule is to construe them most strongly against the grantee.
16. Wherever privileges are granted to a corporation and the grant comes under revision in the courts, it is to be construed strictly against the corporation and in favor of the public, and nothing passes except what is given in clear and explicit terms.
company such further deed or assurance of the transfer of the said property as said company may require to vest in them a perfect title to the same, provided however that such lands shall be taken upon such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the act of Congress granting the same."
of Minnesota for the use and purpose aforesaid, provided that the lands to be so located shall in no case be further than fifteen miles from the line of the road in each case, and selected for and on account of said road; provided further that the lands hereby granted shall be exclusively applied in the construction of that road for which it was granted and selected, and shall be disposed of only as the work progresses, and the same shall be applied to no other purpose whatever; and provided further that any and all lands heretofore reserved to the United States by an act of Congress or in any other manner by competent authority for the purpose of aiding in any object of internal improvement or for any other purpose whatever be and the same are hereby reserved to the United States from the operation of this act except so far as it may be found necessary to locate the route of said railroad through such reserved lands, in which case the right of way only shall be granted subject to the approval of the President of the United States."
"SECTION 2. And be it further enacted that the sections and parts of sections of land which by such grants shall remain to the United States within six miles on each side of said road shall not be sold for less than double the minimum price."
"SECTION 3. And be it further enacted that the said lands hereby granted to the said territory shall be subject to the disposal of any legislature thereof for the purpose aforesaid, and no other; nor shall they inure to the benefit of any company heretofore constituted and organized; and the said railroad shall be and remain a public highway for the use of the United States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of any property or troops of the United States; nor shall any of the said lands become subject to private entry until the same shall have been first offered at public sale at the increased price."
through the lands hereby granted; and when the Secretary of the Interior shall be satisfied that any twenty miles of said road are completed, then a patent shall issue for a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and twenty sections, and included within a continuous length of twenty miles of said road, until it shall be completed, and if said road is not completed within ten years, no further sale shall be made, and the land unsold shall revert to the United States."
"SECTION 5. And be it further enacted that the United States mail shall be transported at all times on said railroad, under the direction of the Post Office Department, at such price as Congress may by law direct, provided that until such price is fixed by law, the Postmaster General shall have the power to determine the same."
It was before the passage of this act that the books of subscription were opened -- namely on the 1st of May, 1854. On the 20th of the same month, subscriptions were made upon the books at St. Paul. On the 30th of June, 1854, the day after the act of Congress making the grant was approved by the President, one million of dollars were subscribed to the stock on the books opened at New York, and ten percent thereupon duly paid to the commissioners. Directors were then elected and the company completely organized. Afterwards, on the 16th of February, 1855, the territorial legislature made some modifications and additions to the charter and reenacted it. The defendants further averred that on the 20th of October, 1855, they caused a survey to be made of their route for the railroad and located it agreeably to the act of incorporation and the act of Congress; that the route as located runs through the land claimed by the plaintiff and described in his complaint; that it was not until after this location -- to-wit, on the 1st of January, 1856 -- that the plaintiff purchased the land from the United States, and that the trespass complained of consisted in going on that part of the land where the track of the railroad was lawfully located and cutting such timber as was necessary to be removed for the purpose of constructing the work.
"Be it enacted that the bill entitled 'An act to aid the Territory of Minnesota in the construction of a railroad therein,' which passed the House of Representatives on the twentieth day of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-four and which was approved by the President of the United States on the twenty-ninth day of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, be, and the same is hereby repealed."
The defendants demurred to the replication, and for cause of demurrer set forth that the repealing act of 24 August, 1854, was void and of no effect.
The court of original jurisdiction gave judgment on the demurrer in favor of the plaintiff. The defendants appealed to the supreme court of the territory, where the judgment was reversed, but judgment was not entered for the defendants. By the law admitting Minnesota into the Union as a state, the records of the supreme court of the territory were transferred to the district court of the United States. There, an application was made to amend the record by entering a proper judgment, which was done, and this writ of error sued out by the defendants from the Supreme Court of the United States was directed to the judge of the district court.
This is a writ of error to the District Court of the United States for the District of Minnesota, bringing up the record of a suit transferred into that court from the supreme court of the territory.
According to the transcript, the suit was commenced by the present plaintiff on the first day of November, 1856, in the District Court for the County of Dakota before the territory was admitted as a state. It was an action of trespass, and the complaint contained two counts, each describing a distinct tract of land as the close of the plaintiff. Both tracts, however, as described, comprised a certain part of township number one hundred and fourteen north, of range nineteen west, situate in the county where the suit was brought, and the several acts of trespass complained of were alleged, in each count, to have been committed on the twenty-fifth day of October, prior to the date of the writ.
framed their answer in this case in conformity to that requirement.
Among other things, they admitted in the answer that the plaintiff claimed title to the premises under the United States, by purchase and entry, made on the first day of January, 1856, but averred that they were incorporated by the territorial legislature on the fourth day of March, 1854, and set up a prior title in themselves, under the provisions of their charter, and an act of Congress passed on the twenty-ninth day of June in the same year.
Responding to that claim, the plaintiff replied that the act of Congress referred to in the answer was repealed on the fourth day of August of the same year in which it was passed.
To that replication the defendants demurred, showing for cause that the act of Congress last named was void and of no effect.
Judgment was entered for the plaintiff in the county court, and thereupon the defendants appealed to the supreme court of the territory, where the judgment of the county court was reversed, but no final judgment in the cause was ever entered in that court.
Pursuant to the act of Congress admitting the territory as a state, 11 Stat. at Large 285, the record of the suit was then transferred to the district court of the United States created by that act, and the latter court, on the nineteenth day of November, 1858, after supplying an omission in the record of the county court, entered a final judgment in favor of the defendants. Whereupon the plaintiff sued out a writ of error and removed the case into this Court.
"All such lands . . . and privileges belonging or which may hereafter belong to the Territory or future State of Minnesota, on and within said two hundred feet in width, are hereby granted to said corporation for said purposes, and for no other, and for the purpose of aiding the said company in the construction and maintaining the said railroad, it is further enacted that any lands that may be granted to the said territory to aid in the construction of the said railroad shall be and the same are hereby granted in fee simple absolute, without any further act or deed."
Provision was also made for such further deed or assurance of the transfer of the said property as said company might require, to vest in them a perfect title to the same, and to that end the governor of the territory or future state was authorized and directed, "after the said grant of land shall have been made" to the territory by the United States, to execute and deliver to said company such further deed or assurance, in the name and in behalf of said territory or state, but upon such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the act of Congress granting the same.
Assuming the allegations of the answer to be correct, subscriptions to the capital stock of the company were made on the following day to the amount of one million of dollars, and an installment of ten percent upon each share so subscribed was duly paid to the committee. Having complied with the conditions of the charter in these particulars, the subscribers to the stock, in pursuance of previous notice given by the committee, met in the City of New York on the first day of July in the same year and completed the organization of the company by the election of twelve directors and such other officers as were necessary under their charter to effect that object.
Reference will now be made to the act of Congress set up in the replication of the plaintiff in order that the precise state of facts, as they existed on the fourth day of August, 1854, when the repealing act was passed, may clearly appear.
in question had been repealed. Survey of the route and location of the railroad were made on the twentieth day of October, 1855, and the defendants admitted that the location included the parcels of land in controversy, and that they went upon the same at the time alleged, and cut down and removed the trees from the track of the railroad, as alleged in the complaint.
Most of the facts here stated are drawn from the answer of the defendants, but inasmuch as the pleadings resulted in demurrer and the replication did not controvert the allegations of the answer, it must be assumed that the facts stated in the answer are correct.
Secondly. Whether the territory, as a municipal corporation, by the true construction of the act of Congress set up in the answer, acquired under it any beneficial interest in the same, as contradistinguished from a mere naked trust or power to dispose of the land in the manner and for the use and purpose described in the act.
the suit, because if the legal effect of the act of Congress set up in the answer was to grant to the territory a beneficial interest in the lands, then it is equally clear that it was not competent for Congress to pass the repealing act and divest the title, and the defendants, on the facts exhibited in the pleadings, although they did not acquire any title under their original charter, are nevertheless the rightful owners of the land by virtue of the first amendment to the same, passed by the territorial legislature. Unless both of the questions, therefore, are determined in the negative, the judgment of the court below must be affirmed. Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch 135.
It is insisted by the defendants that their original charter, or that part of it already recited, operated as a valid grant to them of all the lands thereafter to be granted by Congress to the territory, and that the charter took effect as a grant, so as to vest the title in the company the moment the act of Congress was passed. But it is very clear that the proposition cannot be sustained, for the reason that both principle and authority forbid it. Grants made by a legislature are not warranties, and the rule universally applied in determining their effect is that if the thing granted was not in the grantor at the time of the grant, no estate passes to the grantee. Even the defendants admit that such was the rule at common law, but they contend that the rule is not applicable to this case. Several reasons are assigned for the distinction, but when rightly considered, they have no better foundation than the distinction itself, which obviously is without merit.
true guide, and the same remark applies in the construction of the statutes of a state, except in cases where the courts of the state have otherwise determined.
Able counsel submitted the same proposition in the case of Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, 11 Pet. 545, but this Court refused to adopt it, and in effect declared that the rules for the construction of statutes in the federal courts, both in civil and criminal cases, were borrowed from the common law. See also 1 Story Com. on Con., 3d ed., sec. 158.
More direct adjudications, however, as to the validity of a grant where the title was not in the grantor at the time it was made are to be found in the earlier decisions of this Court. Three times, at least, the question has been expressly ruled, and in every instance in the same way. It was first presented in the case of Polk's Lessee v. Wendell, 9 Cranch 99, and the court, Marshall, C.J., delivering the opinion, said that where the state has no title to the thing granted or where the officer issuing it had no authority, the grant is absolutely void. Five years afterwards, the same case was again brought before the Court, and the same doctrine was affirmed in the same words. Polk's Lessee v. Wendell, 5 Wheat. 303.
Notwithstanding those decisions, the question was presented to the Court for the third time in the case of Patterson v. Winn, 11 Wheat. 388, and on that occasion this Court, after referring to the previous decisions, said we may therefore assume as the settled doctrine of the Court that if a patent is absolutely void upon its face or the issuing thereof was without authority or prohibited by statute or the state had no title, it may be impeached collaterally in a court of law in an action of ejectment. Assuming the rule to be a sound one, it is as applicable to a grant by a territory as to one made by a state, and the cases cited are decisive of the point. Our conclusion, therefore, on this branch of the case is that the defendants acquired no right, title, or interest in the lands in controversy by virtue of their original charter.
"That there shall be, and is hereby, granted to the Territory of Minnesota for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad, . . . every alternate section of land, designated by odd numbers, for six sections in width on each side of said road within said territory, . . . which land shall be held by the Territory of Minnesota for the use and purpose aforesaid."
Certain words in the clause are omitted because they are not material to the present inquiry, and if produced would only serve to embarrass the investigation. Standing alone, the clause furnishes strong evidence to refute the proposition of the defendants that a beneficial interest passed in praesenti to the territory, because it is distinctly provided that the lands granted shall be held by the territory for a declared use and purpose, evidently referring to the contemplated railroad, which, when constructed, would be a public improvement of general interest. Resort to construction, however, on this point is wholly unnecessary, because it is expressly declared in the second proviso that the land hereby granted shall be exclusively applied in the construction of that road for which it was granted, and shall be disposed of only as the work progresses, and the same shall be applied to no other purpose whatever. Beyond question, therefore, the lands were to be held by the territory only for the use and purpose of constructing the railroad described in the act, and they were to be applied to that purpose and no other.
Passing over the residue of the section and also the second section, as unimportant in this inquiry, we come to the third, which shows even more decisively than the first that the interpretation assumed by the defendants cannot be sustained.
"That the said lands hereby granted shall be subject to the disposal of any legislature thereof for the purpose aforesaid, and no other; nor shall they inure to the benefit of any company heretofore constituted and organized."
Such disposal of the lands could not be made under the previous legislation of the territory, for the reasons already assigned in answer to the first proposition of the defendants; and we may now add another, which is that no such authority was conferred in the act of Congress granting the land. Whether we look at the language employed, or the purpose to be accomplished or both combined, the conclusion is irresistible that it was by future action only that the legislature was authorized to dispose of the lands even for the purpose therein described, and it is clear, irrespective of the prohibitions hereafter to be mentioned, that they could not be disposed of at all for any other purpose, nor in such manner that they would inure to the benefit of any company previously constituted and organized. Much reason exists to conclude that the latter prohibition, notwithstanding the fact that the defendants were not then organized, includes their company; but in the view we have taken of the case, it is not necessary to decide that question at the present time. Considered together and irrespective of what follows, the first and third sections show that the lands were to be held by the territory for the declared use and purpose of constructing a specified public improvement; that they could not be disposed of at all under any previous territorial legislation, nor for any other purpose than the one therein declared, nor to any company falling within the prohibition set forth in the third section; but, restricted as the authorities of the territory were by those limitations and prohibitions, their hands were still more closely tied by the provisions of the fourth section, which remain to be considered.
until a continuous length of twenty miles of said road shall be completed through the lands hereby granted."
Most of the cases bearing upon the point previously decided were very carefully reviewed on that occasion, and consequently it is not necessary to refer to them. Judge Story dissented from the views of the majority of the judges, but the opinion of the Court has since that time been constantly followed. Later decisions of this Court regard the rule as settled that public grants are to be construed strictly, and that nothing passes by implication. That rule was applied in the case of Mills v. St. Clair County, 8 How. 581, and the court said the rule is that if the meaning of the words be doubtful in a grant designed to be a general benefit to the public, they shall be taken most strongly against the grantee and for the government, and therefore should not be extended by implication in favor of the grantee beyond the natural and obvious meaning of the words employed; and if those do not support the right claimed, it must fall. Any ambiguity in the terms of the contract, said the Court in the case of Richmond R. v. Louisa R. Co., 13 How. 81, must operate against the corporation, and in favor of the public, and the corporation can claim nothing but what is given by the act. Perrine v. Chesapeake Canal Co., 9 How. 192. Taken together, these several cases may be regarded as establishing the general doctrine that whenever privileges are granted to a corporation and the grant comes under revision in the courts, such privileges are to be strictly construed against the corporation and in favor of the public, and that nothing passes but what is granted in clear and explicit terms. Ohio Life and Trust Co. v. Debolt, 16 How. 435; Com. v. Erie & N.E. Railroad Co., 27 Pa. 339; Stourbridge v. Wheeley, 2 Barn. & Ad. 792; Parker v. Great W. Railway Co., 7 M. & Gr. 253.
to select and locate the land; but the case is so unlike the present that we do not think it necessary to waste words in pointing out the distinction. Our conclusion upon the whole case is that the act of Congress set up in the replication of the plaintiff is a valid law, and that the plaintiff is entitled to prevail in the suit.
the general government. Congress has made many grants of lands to states and territories for the same or kindred objects; for the founding of seminaries of learning; for building common roads, railroads, and canals; for reclaiming marsh lands, clearing obstructions from rivers, and other like objects. Now can it be said that the states and territories have no beneficial interest in these grants, or that they hold them as the mere agents of the general government, or as naked trustees, and that they may be recalled at pleasure? I think not; certainly this is not the language of the Court in respect to similar grants made by the states to public corporate bodies such as town and cities. If this be the sound construction of this class of grants, and the one to be hereafter adopted and applied, I do not see that any effect is to be given to them until the lands granted have been sold and conveyed to purchasers. They might take a valid title under the power of sale contained in the grant. But even then, the state or territory would derive no benefit from the grant after the sale, for if they hold the lands as public agents or naked trustees for the general government, as has been argued, the purchase money would belong to it, and might be reclaimed. Certainly if the states and territories are the mere agents of the general government in the grants mentioned, the money would belong to the principal. Indeed, upon the doctrine contended for, I do not see how the sixteenth section in every township of the public lands which is reserved to it for common schools can be held by in indefeasible title. The use for which the grant is made in that instance is as much a public one as a grant of land to the town to build a canal, a turnpike, or railroad. And if a public use of this description deprives the town of any beneficial interest in the grant, then Congress may reclaim this sixteenth section if unsold, and, if sold, the purchase money.
"The lands hereby granted &c., shall be disposed of by the territory in the following manner: no title shall vest in said territory, nor shall any patent issue for any part of the land until a continuous length of twenty miles of said road shall be completed; and when the Secretary of the Interior shall be satisfied that any twenty miles has been made, a patent shall issue for a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and twenty sections, and so on until the road is finished."
And then ten years is given for the completion of the road.
This is a conditional grant, the condition particularly specified in this fourth section. The condition is the construction of twenty miles of the road, when one hundred and twenty sections are to be conveyed, and so on. The idea seems to be that a conditional grant of this description may be revoked, but not one absolute in its terms. I am not aware of any such distinction. Certainly none is to be found in the common law. At common law or in equity, a conditional grant is just as obligatory and indefeasible between the parties as one that is absolute. The grant carries with it not only the right, but the obligation, of the grantee to fulfill the condition, and until the failure to fulfill, the obligation is complete and the grant irrevocable.
It would be singular if the grantor, by availing himself of his own wrong in not waiting for the performance of the condition, could defeat the grant. Certainly it cannot be maintained, that the grant of land on condition is no grant until the condition is performed. And if so, then why not as effectual and binding as an absolute grant until default in the condition?
furtherance of this purpose, and to prevent any failure of it, provided that no title should vest or patent issue except from time to time as twenty miles of the road were completed. The argument that this provision indicates an intention on the part of Congress not to vest any beneficial interest in the territory in the lands seems to me to be founded on a misapprehension of its purport and effect, which was simply to secure the accomplishment of the purposes of the grant.
Then as to the difference between this grant and the numerous others of a similar description, which it is said are subject to a different interpretation. I have examined several of them. The present one is a copy of the others mutatis mutandis, with one exception, and that is instead of withholding the title to the lands till the twenty miles of the road are completed, the act forbids the sale of them till the condition is fulfilled. In the one instance, on satisfying the Secretary of the Interior that the twenty miles have been constructed, the patent issues for the several sections specified; in the other, on satisfying him that the work has been done, he gives to the state or territory an authority to sell. The different provisions prescribe a different mode of securing the application of the lands to the purposes of the grant. This is the object and only object of each of them, and so far as this distinction goes, other grants of this description will be entitled to the benefit of it in case of an attempt to revoke them.
MR. JUSTICE WAYNE concurred in the dissent expressed by MR. JUSTICE NELSON, and added, as a further reason against the judgment of the court, that after this grant was made, more than a million of dollars was subscribed upon the faith of it to the railroad corporation.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY, MR. JUSTICE GRIER, and MR. JUSTICE SWAYNE concurred in the opinion of MR. JUSTICE CLIFFORD.
MR. JUSTICE CATRON did not sit in the case, being prevented by illness.
Judgment of the district court reversed and the cause remanded with directions to overrule the demurrer filed by the defendants, issue a writ of inquiry to ascertain the plaintiff's damages, and after the return of the inquisition to enter judgment in his favor.

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