Case Name: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY v. WASS
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1911-02-20
Citations: 219 U.S. 426
Docket Number: No. 181
Parties: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY v. WASS.
Judges: Mr. Justice Day,, dissenting.
Reporter: United States Reports
Volume: 219
Pages: 426–433

Head Matter:
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY v. WASS.
ERROR to the supreme court op the state op MINNESOTA.
No. 181.
Argued April 27, 28, 1910
Restored to docket for reargument December 19, 1910.
Reargued January 19, 20, 1911.
Decided February 20, 1911.
Decided on authority of Weyerhaeuser v. Hoyt, anteojo. 380.
The facts are stated in the opinion.
Mr. Charles W: Bunn and Mr. Frank B. Kellogg, with whom Mr. Stiles W. Burr was on the brief, for appellants in No. 24 and appellees in No. 12.
Mr. Charles W. Bunn for plaintiffs in error in No. 181.
Mr. M. H. Stanford, with whom Mr. H. H. Hoyt was on the brief, for appellees in No. 24 and appellants in No. 12.
Mr. P. B. Gorman for defendant in error in No. 181.
This case, was argued simultaneously with No. 24, Weyerhaeuser v. Hoyt, ante, p. 380, and No. 12, Campbell v. Weyerhaeuser, ante, p. 324.

Opinion:
Mr., Chief Justice White
delivered the opinion of the court.
In brief, the facts of this case are as follows: While a filed selection by the St. Paul and Northern Pacific Railway. Company of land within the indemnity limits of a railroad grant was awaiting the action of the Secretary of the Interior, Fred Wass, in April, 1899, entered upon the land with the intention of making it a homestead, and continued in possession, making improvements, etc. In December following Wass presented to the Land Office an application to enter the tract under the homestead laws. The register and receiver filed his application, but on the same day rejected it and refused to receive the fees tendered, basing such refusal and rejection upon the ground that the lands filed for were embraced in the then pending selection. On appeal the action of the local Land Office was affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office and by the Secretary of the Interior respectively. The selection was subsequently approved and a patent for the lands was issued by the governor of Minnesota, all rights under which became vested in the Northern Pacific Railway Company, the plaintiff in error. That company then commenced this action against Wass and his wife in a court of the State of Minnesota to recover possession of the land and damages for the detention. In the answer, among other things, affirmative relief was prayed against the railway company for the conveyance of the legal title to Wass. A demurrer to the answer was overruled upon the authority of the decision in Sjoli v. Dreschel, 199 U. S. 564, and a decree was entered in favor of Wass, granting the relief prayed by him. • This decree was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Minnesota upon the authority of the Sjoli case as well as the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in Hoyt v. Weyerhaeuser, 161 Fed. Rep. 324. The opinion just announced, reviewing the action of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Hoyt case and reversing the decree entered in that case, conclusively establishes that error was committed by' the court below, and therefore requires a reversal.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for further 'proceedings not inconsistent with this- opinion.