87 Minn. 117 | Minn. | 1902
Lead Opinion
The plaintiff, on May 16, 1901, brought this action in the district court of the county of Otter Tail to recover from the defendant the possession of the east J of the northeast of section 17, township 131 north, range 43 west. The answer put in issue the plaintiff’s alleged title, and set up title in the defendant by adverse possession. On the trial in the district court at the close of the evidence both parties asked for a directed verdict, and the court directed a verdict for the defendant. On the motion of the plaintiff for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, the court made its order granting a new trial, from which the defendant appealed.
| The evidence and admissions given and made on the trial established these facts: The land here in question was embraced in the patent issued to the state of Minnesota by the United States on February 19,1901, under the acts of congress granting land to the state to aid in the construction of the St. Vincent Extension of the St. Paul & Pacific Railway Company, and was embraced in the deed issued to the plaintiff by the governor of the state on behalf of the state on April 8, 1901., A map in due and proper form, and duly approved by the secretary of the interior, fixing the definite and permanent location of the railroad from East St. Cloud to St. Vincent, known as the Stv Vincent Extension of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, was filed in the office of the commissioner of the general land office at Washington, on December 19, 1871, by the governor of the state of Minnesota. The land is within the primary or ten-mile limit of the grant made by the congress of the United States in aid of the construction of the railroad, as shown by the map fixing the definite location of the route of the railway. The' entire extension was completed and equipped prior to January 1, 1880, and on January 9, 1880, the governor of the state of Minne
Tbe mere fact that tbe defendant took possession of tbe land believing that tbe title thereto was in tbe United States, and intending by bis possession to secure it by virtue of a homestead entry, would not prevent bis possession from being adverse as against tbe plaintiff within tbe legal meaning of tbe term. Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Townsend, 84 Minn. 152, 86 N. W. 1007. And we assume, for tbe purposes of this appeal only, that tbe plaintiff, by virtue of tbe congressional land grant, tbe completion of its railway, and the filing of the certificate of that fact, acquired such a title to the land in question that it could at all times thereafter have maintained an action to recover tbe possession thereof, unless tbe litigation and proceedings in tbe land department operated to suspend its right to maintain such an action; and we come directly to the consideration of tbe question of the effect of such proceedings on tbe respective rights of the parties hereto.
Whenever a person is prevented from exercising bis legal remedy by some paramount authority, tbe time during wbicb be is thus prevented is not to be counted against him in determining whether the statute of limitation has barred bis right, even though tbe statute makes no specific exception in bis favor in such cases. Braun v. Sauerwein, 10 Wall. 218; 19 Am. & Eng. Enc. (2d Ed.) 216. It is also well settled that tbe courts have no right to invade tbe functions confided by law to other departments of tbe government, and interfere with tbe discharge of their duties in matters exclusively intrusted to their determination, so long as such matters are pending and undetermined.
Now, it appears from the admitted facts in this case that the questions arising upon the defendant’s application to enter the land as a homestead, and upon a claim of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company that it was entitled to the land by virtue of its grant, were pending and undetermined in the land department from 1887 to 1898, and, if it had jurisdiction to hear and determine them, it necessarily follows that during that time the courts were without right to hear and determine the questions, and that such time is not to be counted against the plaintiff in determining whether the statute of limitations has barred its right to its land. The defendant, however, claims that the land department had no jurisdiction to hear and determine any questions as to the title of the land, because when the defendant initiated his contest therein upon his claim that the land was public land, and subject to his proposed homestead entry, the title had in fact already passed from the United States to the plaintiff by virtue of the land grant in question; that such grant was one in prsesenti; that the filing of the map of definite location was the source as well as the evidence of plaintiff’s title, and that it then became complete, and the issuing of a patent for the land thereafter would be in the nature of a ■conveyance for further assurance, but in no sense essential to the legal title already vested; that, if the department had patented the land to the defendant on his contest and homestead claim, the ■courts would have held the patent void.
If there was any fair doubt as to the correctness of this conclusion, the doubt ought to be resolved against the defendant, for the claim he here makes is inequitable. He asserted by his homestead application that the land was public land, and within the-jurisdiction of the land department, which he invoked; and by successive appeals he thereby compelled the plaintiff to litigate in the land department, with him, his claim, for eleven years. We-therefore hold that the time during which the question of the title-to the land was pending and undetermined in the land department cannot be counted against the plaintiff in determining whether the statute of limitation has barred its right to recover its land,,
Order affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
It seems to me the majority give entirely too much effect to the proceedings in the government land department on defendant’s application to make homestead entry of the land in question. Such proceedings were not brought to determine plaintiff’s title, —its title had already vested, — but to determine the asserted homestead right of defendant. Under what statute or principle of law does such a proceeding suspend the running of the statute of limitations as to plaintiff’s right to bring ejectment for the land, to which the majority must concede it had title? Suppose the maker of a promissory note should bring an action to cancel the same for fraud, or to recover possession thereof on the ground that it was never delivered, would the pendency of such an action suspend the holder’s right of action on the note? Clearly not. Notwithstanding such an action were brought, the statute of limitations would continue to run against the owner of the note, and his right of action would be barred after the lapse of the statutory period of six years. Yet this decision establishes a rule to the contrary. I am unable to concur in that view of the law.