Court Opinion

ID: 9841830
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-22 20:08:00.426486+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:35.529862
License: Public Domain

Me. J ustice Field
dissenting.
I am unable to concur with my associates in affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nevada in this case, and will state as briefly as possible the grounds of my dissent.
The case comes before us on a writ of error to the Supreme Court of that State, alleging error in its decision against the Central Pacific Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of California, but doing business and possessed of property, real and personal, in Nevada.
That State commenced an action in December, 1888, in the district court- for Lander county in Nevada, against the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and certain described real estate and improvements thereon, situated within the State, belonging to that company. By the laws of Nevada, an action against a railroad company doing business and holding property therein, may be brought against the company to recover a money judgment against it, and at the same time against its property to obtain a judgment establishing a lien thereon for the amount recovered against the company.
The question in the present case is whether the lands taxed by the State are, in fact, subject to taxation. It does not appear to me that they are thus subject, for they are not free *528from the lien of the' government or from its control and. disposition. Until they are thus freed and the right of the Central Pacific Railroad Company to the lands has accrued beyond question, they are not in my judgment open to taxation as the property of such compan}7. So long as the government retains, as it now does, the legal title to the lands, and the control thereof with a substantial interest therein, the lands cannot properly be treated as private property and be subjected to taxation on that account. By the acts of Congress of July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864, the Central Pacific Railroad Company was invested with similar powers, conferred by them upon the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and like grants of land were made to it to aid in the construction of its railroad and telegraph lines, and it was subjected to the same conditions. The property taxed by Nevada as that of the Central Pacific Railroad Company was granted to it by Congress as above stated, and consists largely of mineral lands. But a joint' resolution was passed by Congress in January, 1864, declaring “that no act passed at the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, [that being of the year 1864,] granting lands to States or corporations to aid in the construction of roads or for other purposes, or to extend the time of grants heretofore made, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in all cases shall be and are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless otherwise specially provided in the act or acts making the grants.” 18 Stat. 567. Attempts to subject lands, thus reserved and controlled by the government, to taxation on private account until the government is released of all interest in the property appears to me only as a wanton invasion upon its rights. I therefore dissent from the judgment herein, and from the opinion of the court pronouncing it.
Me. Justice Beewee and Me. Justice Peokham took no part in the consideration and decision of these cases.