Case Name: ANDERSON et al. v. HOWARD
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1895-05-21
Citations: 69 F. 84
Docket Number: No. 351
Parties: ANDERSON et al. v. HOWARD.
Judges: Before PARDEE and McCORMICK, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 69
Pages: 84–86

Head Matter:
ANDERSON et al. v. HOWARD.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
May 21, 1895.)
No. 351.
Public Lands—Railroad Grants—What Lands Included.
The act of June 3, 1856, granting to the state of Alabama, to aid in the construction “of certain railroads in said state,” the odd sections of public land within six miles of each side of said roads, did not embrace lands within six miles of a part of the road which lay in the neighboring state of Georgia,- and within six miles (but not in a perpendicular direction) of the road at the point where it crossed the state line. Swann v. Jenkins, 2 South. 136, 82 Ala. 478, approved and followed.
In Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Alabama.
This was an action at law by Frank Y. Anderson and William J. Cameron, trustees, successors to John Swann and John A. Billups, trustees, against John Howard, to recover possession of certain parts of section 27, township 8 S., of range 10 E., in De Kalb county, Ala. In the circuit court a verdict was directed for defendant, and judgment entered accordingly. Plaintiffs bring error.
The -following is part of an agreed statement of facts filed in the case:
It is agreed, by and between the parties to the above cause, that the plaintiffs have succeeded to all the right and title -of the state of Alabama, and of the Wills Valley Railroad Company, and of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad Company, to all the land included in the grant of lands by the congress of the United States by act approved June 3, 1856 (11 Stat. 17), and renewed by act approved April 10, 1869 (16 Stat. 45); that all the terms and conditions of said acts of congress were fully complied with by the completion of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, on May 17, 1871, from Wauliatchie, Tenn., to Meridian, Miss., the said Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad being a consolidation of the Wills Valley and the Northeast & Southwest Alabama Railroad Companies. Said consolidation was made by authority of the-legislature of Alabama, by act approved October C, 1868.
It is further agreed that the map hereto attached, and marked “Exhibit A,” and which is made a part of this agreement, shows the relative position of the track of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, as completed on May 17, 1871, and as it has ever since remained, to the land in dispute. That the land in dispute is within six miles of the line of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad (now the Alabama Great Southern Railroad) at the point where it crosses the line dividing the states of Alabama and Georgia, but is not at right angle with said railroad at any point of said line of railroad in Alabama; that said land is in Alabama, and within six miles of the track, and at right angle thereto, of the said Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad (now the Alabama Great Southern Railroad), at a point where said railroad is within the state of Georgia, between the Georgia and Alabama state line and Wauhatehie, Tenn.
J. A. W. Smith, for plaintiffs in error.
W. H. Wade, for defendant in error.
Before PARDEE and McCORMICK, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The question involved in this case is as to the proper construction of the act of congress approved June 3, 1856, entitled "An act granting public lands in alternate sections in the state of Alabama to aid in the construction of certain railroads in said state." 11 Stat. 17, 18. The circuit court followed the decision of the interior department (Decisions Department of the Interior Eelating to Public Lands, vol. 3, p. 242) and the decisiop of the supreme court of Alabama in Swann v. Jenkins, 82 Ala. 478, 2 South. 136. [We concur in this ruling. Judgment affirmed.