United States v. Weyerhaeuser Company, a Corporation

Amended Opinion

Before MADDEN, Judge of the United States Court of Claims, and HAMLEY and MERRILL, Circuit Judges.

The appellee corporation, hereinafter called Weyerhaeuser, sued the United States for damages for the conversion of *449 logs cut and removed from land claimed by Weyerhaeuser to be its land. The only issue in the case is the ownership of the land from which the logs were taken. The district court decided that the land belonged to Weyerhaeuser, and awarded it a money judgment against the United States. The case is here on the appeal of the United States from that judgment.

The land here in question, consisting of 45.95 acres, was, in 1855, a part of the public lands of the United States, as was all of the land in the immediate area. A surveyor, Hathorn, was employed by the United States to survey a line called by the Government the Sixth Standard Parallel South, through Ranges 8, 9 and 10 West. The sixth parallel line was, of course, an east and west line. Under Hathorn’s contract he was required to establish the exterior lines of the townships lying along and immediately south of the sixth parallel. A township, in a government survey, is a square tract six miles…

(concurring) :

I concur in the result reached by the majority. In my view Township 27 and Township 28 are right'where the Government put them, whether that is precisely where they were intended to be put or not. Officiál approval and platting of the surveys established the township boundaries in accordance with their respective monuments. Consequently the north boundary of Township 28 is where Ha-thorn put it and the south boundary of Township 27 is where Heydon put it. Heydon did not affect the Township 28 line since he did not purport to re-establish it and was not concerned with that township. His assumption that he was on a common boundary cannot affect what he actually did and what the Government officially adopted. The resulting error in placement was subject to official correction and to re-establishment of a common boundary, but such correction and the decision to correct are beyond the judicial function. The result is that the area designated as Township 27% is still unpatented public land.

*453

392 F.2d 448 UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. WEYERHAEUSER COMPANY, a corporation, Appellee. No. 21275. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. December 26, 1967. Rehearing Denied February 28, 1968. William M. Cohen (argued), Land & Natural Resources Div., Dept. of Justice, Roger P. Marquis, Dept. of Justice, Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., for appellant. Kenneth E. Roberts (argued), Thomas M. Triplett, of Mautz, Souther, Spaulding, Kinsey & Williamson, Portland, Or., George H. Bonneville (argued), Tacoma, Wash., for appellee. Amended Opinion Before MADDEN, Judge of the United States Court of Claims, and HAMLEY and MERRILL, Circuit Judges. MADDEN, Judge: 1 The appellee corporation, hereinafter called Weyerhaeuser, sued the United States for damages for the conversion of logs cut and removed from land claimed by Weyerhaeuser to be its land. The only issue in the case is the ownership of the land from which the logs were taken. The district court decided that the land belonged to Weyerhaeuser, and awarded it a money judgment against the United States. The case is here on the appeal of the United States from that judgment. 2 The land…