piggrraa s1·,t·1·Es,v. cuarnaaq 11
sale by the state, and they were afterwards in fact included in one of thc
surveys upon, the final decree of confirmation ;; butrtlrat survey was set;
aside, and they were iinally excluded bythe survey which became final
in the year 1871. The supreme court held that no valid selection could
be made by the state until the grant was finally located. No iight of
any kind then had attached to these lands when they were withdrawn
for the purposes of the railroad grant on January 30, 1865, that under
the recent decision of the supreme court in U. S. v. McLaughlin, could
prevent that grant from attaching. It was. therefore, the first grant to V
attach, and, by performance of the conditions subsequent, the title of
the company became absolute. The selections in question were ex-
cepted from confirmation by the act of 1866; but had it been other-
wise, as we have seen, it was not in the power ot'· congress at that
time to divest the right of the company. The act of March 1, 1877,
(19 St. 267,) for like reasons, cannot affect the rights of the rail~
road company. i The right of the company had nctyonly attached, but ._
by theperformance of the required conditions within the prescribed.
time, and of the tiling of the map of definite location, the grant had be-
come specific on Februaryil, 1870, and the title of the company had
become absolute and indefeasible. At the date of this connrmatory act,
therefore, seven years afterwards, the United States had no interest
whatever in the land upon which the act could operate. » . ~ V .
This case affords another instance of hardship arising from the ill-ad-i
vised efforts of the state to prematurely select the lands to which it was
entitled, without regard to the existing laws of the United States. But
with respect, to the particular lands now in question, the parties pur-.
chasing in township 2 S., 1 E., since June 10, 1865, had ofticial rec-.
ord notice of the right of the railroad company, for the map filed in;
the ofiice of the register of the land-otiice had distinctly indorsed upon. A
it, in red ink, the following; "The odd-numbered sections on this plat
are- granted to the,Western Pacino Railroad. See letter qof instructions
dated December 23, 1864.” ,ItI»follows from these views that there-
must be a decreein favorof the United States, adjudging that the list-I
ing to the state of the lands in controversy was unauthorized and void,
and that the patents issued bythe state upon such listing, to purchasers
from her passed no title to them in the lands patented, and enjoining
them from claiming, in any way or form, title to such lands, or to any
part of them, under the said patents, and that the title to the lands
i passed to the Central Pacific Railroad Company by the acts of congress
of July 1, 1862, and of July 2, 1864, the said company having G01I1-
plied with the conditions of the grant to it, and constructed the road.
and telegraph line designated therein; and that the said company is.
entitled to a patent of the United States for such lands. No costs will
be allowed to the complainants. _ V -¤