Task: songer_initiate

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. Your task is to identify what party initiated the appeal. For cases with cross appeals or multiple docket numbers, if the opinion does not explicitly indicate which appeal was filed first, assumes that the first litigant listed as the "appellant" or "petitioner" was the first to file the appeal. In federal habeas corpus petitions, consider the prisoner to be the plaintiff.

BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.
This is a companion case to Choctaw Nation v. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, 10 Cir., 396 F.2d 578. Reference is made to the decision in that ease for the pertinent treaties and statutes.
The land in question is a 32-acre reservoir tract reserved from allotment because of an easement obtained for reservoir purposes by a predecessor of the appellee railway company in 1903. The complaint alleges an abandonment in 1910 and a conveyance to the Choctaw Nation and the Chickasaw Nation by the railroad in 1946. The answer and cross-claim of the appellees Lee F. White, O. R. Smiley, and Mamie Smiley, abutting landowners, allege abandoment in 1946. The railroad filed a disclaimer. The district court sustained a motion of the other appellees to dismiss.
In Choctaw Nation v. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, supra, we held that upon abandonment of the reservoir easement, title vested to the abutting landowners. The same principle applies here whether the abandonment occurred in 1910 or 1946. The conveyance to the two Nations was a nullity because the railroad had nothing to convey.
Affirmed.

Question: What party initiated the appeal?
A. Original plaintiff
B. Original defendant
C. Federal agency representing plaintiff
D. Federal agency representing defendant
E. Intervenor
F. Not applicable
G. Not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: A