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Show OPINION IS GIVEN . IN RAJLWAYGflSE Supreme Court Pjusses Upon Important R igh t-o f-Way Matter. JUDGMENT OF LOWER COURT IS REVERSED Holding Is That Owners of Land in Dispute Lost Their Title. Without passing upon the point of whether tho act of congress, approved March 3, 1S75, granting to railways rights-of-way through public lands, applies ap-plies only to railroads constructed and operated after the act was passed, or to railroads constructed and In operation before tho act was passed, tho supreme court, In an opinion handed down Tuesday, Tues-day, reversed tho judgment of the Third district court in favor of the defendants In tho suit of the Rio Grande Western Railway company against the Strlngharas to iulet title to a strip of ground 200 feet wide along tho right-of-way of the Blng- 'lmm branch of the present Denver & Rio Grande. Tho Strlnghams acquired possession of the ground In Question by right of settlement settle-ment back in the seventies. The Bingham Bing-ham Canyon & Camp Floyd Railway company, predecessor of tho Rio Grande Western, in 1S72 organized to build a line from Sandy to Lewlston, Tooclo county, a distance of thlrty-llvo miles, and In September of 1S75 filed Its Incorporation Incor-poration articles with tho secretary of the Interior, but failed to finish the road lwyond Bingham. Tho Rio Grando Western West-ern afterward took over the lino with Its appurtenances, but the Strlnghams refused re-fused to give up possession of tho part of the right-of-way they occupied and suit was necessary Lower Court Decision. The lower court held that tho act of congress granting railways rights-of-way through public grounds did not apply to railways then In operation or partly In operation and entered judgment In favor fa-vor of the Stringhams except as to a strip twelvo and one-half feet wide on either sldo of tho track, which the Strlnghams held from Nicholas Trcweek, who got title from the United States. Tho railway company appealed. Tho supreme court says that the Strlngalnns lost title to tho ground by failing to flic their declaratory statement and making entry as pre-emptors within the tlmo prescribed by law. and therefore there-fore acquired no prior right by settlement settle-ment or occupancy. The grounds were public lands when the railway company incorporated, and the secretary of the interior, when ho accepted tho Incorporation Incorpora-tion articles, determined the question under un-der consideration. This operated as a conveyance of titlo to tho proposed right-of-way to tho mil way company, tho supreme su-preme court say., and tho lower court is ordered to enter judgmont accordingly. The opinion Is written by Chief Justice D. N. Straup. his associates concurring. The defendants were Thomas B. and Ell Strlngham man and wife, and nine other Strlnghams. |