Robert M. Timberlake v. Southern Pacific Company

By complaint lodged in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico appellant sought under diversity jurisdiction to obtain declaratory relief and a decree quieting title against the appellee railroad to certain designated lands. The factual heart of appellant’s complaint was the allegation that the railroad had lost all rights to the subject lands through abandonment and non-use and the assertion of valid title in appellant. The trial court concluded that appellant had no standing to maintain the action in view of two state district court decisions that had negated…