Opinion ID: 1738151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: issue #1. was the railroad granted a right of way across the plaintiffs' land by the railroad right of way act of 1875?

Text: [1-3] 43 U.S.C. Sec. 934, [2] popularly known as the General Railroad Right of Way Act of 1875, provides as follows: The right of way through the public lands of the United States is granted to any railroad company duly organized under the laws of any State or Territory, except the District of Columbia, or by the Congress of the United States, which shall have filed with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under the same, to the extent of one hundred feet on each side of the central line of said road; also the right to take, from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, material, earth, stone, and timber necessary for the construction of said railroad; also ground adjacent to such right of way for station buildings, depots, machine shops, side tracks, turnouts, and water stations, not to exceed in amount twenty acres for each station, to the extent of one station for each ten miles of its road. Mar. 3, 1875, c. 152 §1, 18 Stat. 482. It is clear that if the railroad was granted its right of way by the Railroad Right of Way Act of 1875, it was granted only an easement, not a fee. Great Northern Railway Co. v. United States, 315 U. S. 262, 271 (1942). To secure the benefits of the act, a railroad company must file a profile of its road with the Secretary of the Interior under 43 U.S.C. Sec. 937. The right of way passes to the railway upon approval of the profile map by the Secretary or upon actual construction of the road. Minneapolis St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company v. Doughty, 208 U. S. 251 (1908). The act, by its own terms, applied to public lands of the United States. The patent to the land in question was granted to Jesse Russell in 1884. The railroad's claim to the right of way does not derive from the Railroad Right of Way Act of 1875, since it did not file its profile map until 1887, the same year the track was constructed. By that time, the land was no longer public land. There is no authority for the Pollnows' argument that the right of way dates from the time the railroad company issued bonds in 1880. See 43 U.S.C. Sec. 937, supra at footnote 1.