Chapter 377.
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CHAP. 377.— An act providing in certain cases for the forfeiture of wagon-road grants in the State of Oregon.March 2, 1889. Preamble.Whereas the United States have heretofore made various grants of public lands to aid in the construction of different wagon-roads in the State of Oregon, and upon the condition that such roads should be completed within prescribed times; and Whereas said grants were transferred by said State to sundry corporations, who were authorized by the State to construct such wagon-roads and to receive therefor the grants of lands thus made; and Whereas the Department of the Interior certified portions of said lands to the State of Oregon upon the theory that said roads had been completed as required by the granting acts of Congress, and upon the certificate of the governor of the State of Oregon as to such completion; and Whereas the legislature of the State of Oregon has memorialized Congress and therein alleged that certain of said wagon-roads, in whole or in part, were not so completed, and that to the extent of the lands coterminous with unconstructed portions the certifications 851 thereof by the Department of the Interior were unauthorized and illegal:
Therefore, *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Oregon. Forfeiture of wagon-road grants. That it is hereby made the duty of the Attorney-General, within six months after the passage of this act, to cause suit or suits to be brought, in the name of the United States, in the United States circuit court for the district of Oregon, against all persons, firms, and corporations claiming to own or to have an interest in the lands granted to the State of Oregon by the following enumerated acts of Congress, to wit:
" “An act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the constructionVol. 13, p. 335. of a military road from Eugene City to the eastern boundary of said State,” approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; “An act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the constructionVol. 14. p. 89. of a military road from Albany, Oregon, to the eastern boundary of said State,” approved July fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six; “An act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the constructionVol. 14. p. 409. of a military wagon-road from Dalles City, on the Columbia River, to Fort Boise, on the Snake River,” approved February twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven;
" To determine the questions of the seasonable and proper completionSuit to he brought to determine if construction were in specified time. of said roads in accordance with the terms of the granting acts, either in whole or in part, the legal effect of the several certificates of the governors of the State of Oregon of the completion of said roads, and the right of resumption of such granted lands by the United States, and to obtain judgments, which the court is hereby authorized to render, declaring forfeited to the United States all of such lands as are coterminous with the part or parts of either of said wagon-roads which were not constructed in accordance with requirements of the granting acts, and setting aside patents which have issued for any such lands, saving and preserving the rights of allRights of bona fide purchasers. bona fide purchasers of either of said grants or of any port ion of said grants for a valuable consideration, it any such there be.
Said suitProceedings. or suits shall be tried and adjudicated in like manner and by the same principles and rules of jurisprudence as other suits in equity are therein tried, with right to writ of error or appeal by either or any party as in other cases; and if any person, firm, or corporation having or claiming an interest in any of said lands shall be made defendant in such suit or suits, and in the judgment of the said court be a necessary or proper party defendant, and shall not be an inhabitant of or found within the said district, and shall not voluntarily appear thereto, it shall be lawful for the court to make an order directing said absent defendant or defendants to appear, plead, answer,Absent defendants. or demur by a day certain to be designated, which order shall be served upon such absent defendant or defendants in the manner provided by section eight of an act entitled “An act to determine theVol. 18. p. 472. jurisdiction of circuit courts of the United States, and to regulate the removal of causes from state courts, and for other purposes,” approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-five: *Provided*,*Provisos*.
Advance. That in the said circuit court, said suit or suits shall be advanced to hearing in preference to all other civil cases on the dockets: *And provided further*, That no right of appeal shall exist after six monthsAppeal. from the entering of a final decree in said circuit court. Sec. 2. That the State of Oregon, and any person or corporationOregon and party interested may intervene. claiming any interest under or through the grants aforesaid in the lands to be affected by said suit or suits, and whether made a party thereto or not, may intervene therein by sworn petition to defend his interest therein, as against the United States, or against each other, and affecting the said question of forfeiture, and may. upon such petition for intervention, also put in issue and have adjudicated and 852 determined any other question, whether of law or of fact, which may be in dispute between said intervener and the United States, and affecting the right or title to any part of the lands claimed to have been embraced within the grants of lands by the United States to or Restoration of forfeited lauds.for either of said wagon-roads.
Should the lands embraced within said grants or either of them or any portion thereof, be declared forfeited by the final determination of said suit or suits, the same shall be immediately restored to the public domain and become subject to disposal under the general land laws; and should the final Patents if grants declared valid.determination of said suit or suits maintain the right of the aforesaid wagon-road grantees or their assigns to the lands embraced in said grants, the Secretary of the Interior shall forthwith adjust said grants in accordance with such determination, and shall cause patents to be issued for the lands inuring to said grantees under said wagon-road *Proviso*.grants and which have been heretofore unpatented: *Provided further*, Actual settlers not disturbed.That the lands actually settled upon or occupied and used as a homestead or for agricultural or grazing purposes, in cases in which such settler or occupant has acquired the title of the State of Oregon under the grants recited in the first section of this act to the same, not exceeding one section to any one settler or occupant, shall not be included in such suit, and such settler or occupant shall not be made a party thereto, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding Approved, March 2, 1889.