Barney v. Keokuk

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Iowa. This was an action of ejectment brought by the plaintiff against the city of Keokuk and several railroad companies and a steam-packet company, to recover the possession of certain premises occupied by them with railroad tracks, buildings, and sheds on the bank of the Mississippi River, in the city aforesaid. The plaintiff, in his petition, described the premises as follows: 'All the land lying and being in front of lots 5 and 6, in block 3, in the city of Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, and extending from the front line of said lots to the Mississippi River the full width of said lots.' The petitioner states that he is the owner in fee-simple of the premises, subject only to the right of the public to use that part of them embraced within the limits of Water Street as a public highway, and is entitled to possession as against the defendants, that the city of Keokuk claims to be the proprietor, and the other defendants occupy as its tenants.