H. A. & L. D. Holland Co. v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co.

The appellants are severally the owners of property in the city of Spokane, abutting on what is referred to in the record as “Railroad street,” which is a strip of land 2^5.7 feet wide, occupied in part by the railroad tracks of the defendant company, and intersected by cross-streets. Upon February 6, 1912, by ordinance, the city required the defendant to separate its grade from the street grades, and this it proposes to do by means of a dirt fill, approximately 15 feet high and 85 feet wide, with retaining walls of stone or concrete. To prevent the creation of such an obstruction in. front of their property in what they contend is a public street, *924 appellants have brought these suits. “Railroad street” is embraced in the north half of section 19, township 25 north, range 43 east, B M., and lies 100 feet upon the southerly side and 125.7 feet upon the northerly side of the center line of the defendant’s main track. Title to the whole of section ’ 19 was acquired under' the provisions of the Northern Pacific Rand Grant Act of July 2, 1864 ( 13 Stat. 365 ). By the first section of that act the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was created, with power to construct and operate a…