75 Mo. 522 | Mo. | 1882
This is' an action of ejectment.. The-plaintiff recovered judgment, and the defendant has appealed to this court.
The following agreed statement was read at the trial: (1) The land sued for in this suit was a part of the lands granted by act of Congress, .dated' Eebruary 9th, 1853,. to aid in building a railroad from a point on the Mississippi river opposite the mouth of the Ohio river, via Little-Rock, to Eulton, Arkansas. (2.) .Said land was sold to-defendant by the Cairo & Eulton Railroad Company, a corporation duly organized under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Missouri, by a deed .of conveyance in due-
The lands granted to the State of Missouri by the act ■ of Congress of February 9th, 1853, were by the 3rd section of the act of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri of February 20th, 1855, granted to the Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company. On the 7th day of January, 1867, the Cairo & Fulton Railroad was conveyed by the .State to McKay, Reed & Co., under and by virtue of the provisions of the act of February 19th, 1866. ■ Thomas Allen having subsequently acquired their title to this road and its appurtenances, he and his associates, on the 23rd day of April, 1872, incorporated themselves under the act of March 20th, 1866, as “ The Cairo, Arkansas & Texas ■ Railroad Company.” This company was afterward consolidated with the “ St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Company,” under the name of “The St. Louis, Iron Mountain .& Southern Railway Company.” The Cairo & Fulton Railroad was constructed as projected, and on the 23rd day of January, 1877, a patent issued to the plaintiff for the lands in controversy, together with others of the same •class. This constitutes the title of the plaintiff.
.The lands in controversy are more than forty miles from the starting point of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad on the Mississippi river, and it does not appear that a sufficient number of miles of said road had been constructed .at the date of defendant’s purchase, to authorize a sale of :said land under the act of Congress of February 9th, 1853.
This act was not such á legislative declaration of forfeiture as would divest the State of the title granted by the act of February 9th, 1853. The purpose of the act' was not to enforce a forfeiture of the estate granted by the act of 1853, but to waive any right of forfeiture which existed in favor of the United States at the time of the-passage of the act of 1866, and to extend the time for the-Cairo & Fulton road for the. period of ten years'from the-passage of said last mentioned act.
Upon the agreed statement of facts, therefore, the defendant was entitled to judgment, and the judgment of the circuit court will be reversed.