Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/223/565/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:08:13+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 223 › United States v. Southern Pacific R. Co.
An indemnity grant, like the residuary clause in a will, contemplates the uncertain and looks to the future, and what the party entitled may elect to select depends upon the state of the lands at the time of selection. Ryan v. Railroad Company, 99 U. S. 382.
the same act and forfeited under the Act of July 6, 1886, c. 637, 24 Stat. 123. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States, 168 U. S. 1, distinguished.
Where selections are made after a decision of this Court, the selections will not be declared illegal at the instance of the government if its claim is inconsistent with the position taken by it in the earlier case.
The facts, which involve rights of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company under its Main Line Grant to lands within the overlap of the primary limits of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company land grant, are stated in the opinion.
decision on the main point, the Southern Pacific from what concerns the excepted lands.
The government argues that, as the lands selected lay within the primary limits of the Atlantic & Pacific, they cannot have been contemplated as possibly falling into the indemnity lands of the other road. It refers to an intimation in Southern Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States, 189 U. S. 447, 189 U. S. 452, made with regard to the branch-line grant and to lands within the place limits of the Southern Pacific but for the paramount right of the Texas Pacific, that, as the indemnity grant was "not including the reserved numbers," "it might be argued" that those words excluded the secondary claim to the same lands by way of indemnity after a forfeiture of the Texas Pacific grant. It suggests that Ryan v. Railroad Co., 99 U. S. 382, relied on for the ground of decision below, concerned land which the United States was claiming at the time of the indemnity grant, and which it ultimately acquired, and that its authority should be limited to such a case. But we are of opinion that these arguments ought not to prevail.
because, in a different event, they would have been subject to a paramount claim. It seems to us, in short, that Ryan v. Central Railroad Company supra, should be taken to establish a general principle, and should not be limited to its special facts. As to the suggestion in 189 U. S. 189 U.S. 447, 189 U. S. 452, the words "not including the reserved numbers" refer primarily at least, to the numbers reserved from any part of the grant by the terms of the act, and the suggestion was made only as to a claim of indemnity from lands in and adjoining a strip to which the title under the primary grant failed. Whether there was anything in it in any aspect we need not consider now. It certainly cannot affect this case.
ground if it had taken a position inconsistent with it in the earlier case, and it seems to us plain that it did so, and expressly deprecated any reference in that case to the rights under the main-line grant.
It appears that the bill in 168 U. S. 168 U.S. 1 was brought, or at least tried, as a bill to quiet title against claims of the Southern Pacific under the branch-line grant, and that, during the litigation on that question, there was pending another bill to quiet title under the main-line grant, being the one before this Court in 183 U. S. 183 U.S. 519. It is said, and we do not understand it to be disputed, that in oral argument and printed brief before the circuit court of appeals, the counsel for the government repeated that title under the main-line grant was not involved, and that, if that question ever arose, there would be pleadings and proof upon it. The Court, in its decision ( 168 U. S. 168 U.S. 1, 168 U. S. 29) stated the claim of the Southern Pacific to be under the Act of 1871 (the branch-line grant). Again, in the case between the same parties in 183 U. S. 183 U.S. 519, 183 U. S. 533, the Court said that it was not adjudged in the former cases that the Southern Pacific had no title to any real estate by virtue of the Act of 1866, and although it also said that, of course, the decrees were conclusive as to the title to the property involved in them, still, in view of the conduct and disposition of the cause as to the branch-line grant, if for no other reason, we think that it would be inequitable for the United States now to rely upon the decree in that cause as conclusive upon the parties in this. It follows that, as the present decision was in favor of the United States with regard to the last-mentioned lands, it must be reversed (No. 129), and that, otherwise (No. 128), it stands affirmed.

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