by John Marshall Harlan

“ Upon careful consideration of the suggestions of learned counsel, we do not doubt that it is our duty to decline any expression of opinion as to the effect or proper construction of the numerous documents which, it is claimed, give the plaintiffs in the motions the right to have the appeals of the Denver Company dismissed. ”

“ Their delay in the construction of the road west of Ca non City and through the Grand Ca non seems to have been in the interest of the stockholders they represented, and not inconsistent with an honest purpose, within the period fixed by law, to meet the objects for which Congress granted to it the right of way. Its surveys of 1871-72, followed by an occupancy of the ca non on the 19th of April, 1878, in advance of the Ca non City Company, for the purpose of constructing its road through that defile, was, in our judgment, a final appropriation of the way granted by Congress. ”

“ Their right, while in the exercise of their legitimate functions, to manage the affairs and suits of the company, ought not to be controlled or interfered with by this court, by reason of any thing which appears upon the pending motions. ”