Court Opinion

ID: 9464527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:36:34.252056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:40.104833
License: Public Domain

BARRETT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Significantly, the United States did not believe for the past 110 years that it was endowed with the gratuities found in the majority opinion. This is evidenced in the uncontroverted finding of the District Court which goes far to prove the correctness of the decision we reverse: “For 110 years after the grant of the fee lands to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, neither the Department of the Interior nor any other agency or agent of the United States construed the grant or the patents issued pursuant thereto as conferring any right upon the United States, its agents or the public to traverse the lands granted to the railroad, and such administrative construction should be given great weight in the event of doubt concerning the scope of the grant.”
*890It is fundamental that a grant is to be construed strictly against the grantor. Congress did not expressly reserve easements in the grants or patents issued pursuant thereto to reach the even-numbered sections. Such failure precludes judicial legislation. No statutory authorities or common law principles are cited which confer upon the United States the special privilege granted here.
The discussion relative to the Unlawful Inclosures Act, combined with the Camfield and Buford decisions, lends no credence to the majority’s holding that “. . . when applied to a checkerboard railroad grant, is . evidence of congressional recognition in 1885 that there was such an implied reservation in the 1862 railroad grant.”
The majority opinion does not, in my view, stress the fact that Leo Sheep Company is not challenging the right of the United States to obtain the right-of-way across its private land. What the case is all about is whether the United States may take the private land for access purposes without compensation. This point is not recognized in the majority opinion. In fact, the observation is made that without the aid of the implied reservation, the grant of the odd-numbered sections defeated access to the interlocking even-numbered sections.
It is uncontroverted that Leo Sheep Company must employ the condemnation statutes in order to obtain a right-of-way easement over and across the lands of another. Our holding here is that the United States — on the basis of an implied reservation — is a “favored person.” In my view the United States is in no better position than Leo Sheep Company. By imposing the public servitude, i. e., the “implied reservation" to use the privately owned lands acquired via the railroad grants for right-of-way easement purposes without the payment of any compensation, we have, I believe, permitted the United States to take private property without compensation in violation of rights guaranteed Leo Sheep Company by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
I would affirm the District Court’s judgment, findings and conclusions.