Case Title: Siler v. Dreyer

Citation: 183 Kan. 419, 327 P.2d 1031

Docket Number: 41,040

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1958-07-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
183 Kan. 419 (1958)
327 P.2d 1031
JAMES E. SILER and AUDREY SILER, d/b/a AMERICAN SAND COMPANY, Appellees,
v.
MILTON G. DREYER, d/b/a DREYER SAND COMPANY, Appellant.
No. 41,040

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed July 7, 1958.
James H. Barnes and Donald H. Corson, Jr., both of Kansas City, argued the cause, and Donald H. Corson, of Kansas City, was with them on the briefs for the appellant.
James K. Cubbison, of Kansas City, argued the cause, and John J. Bukaty, Blake A. Williamson and Lee Vaughan, all of Kansas City, were with him on the briefs for the appellees.
John Anderson, Jr., attorney general, Robert J. Roth, assistant attorney general, and Charles H. Hobart, assistant attorney general, were on the brief of amicus curiae.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
WERTZ, J.:
Defendant appeals from an order of the trial court permanently enjoining him from maintaining and operating certain sand-pumping equipment in the Kansas river landward of the water's edge and in front of the property leased by plaintiffs. The injunction was based on a finding that the Kansas river is subject to the control of the state only from water's edge to water's edge.
The facts necessary to a decision on the question involved follow: Plaintiffs (appellees) and defendant (appellant) both operate sand plants on the Kansas river in Wyandotte county. Defendant operates a sand plant on a tract of land which borders on the north bank of the river. Plaintiffs' main plant operation is on a tract of land which borders on the south bank of the river. Plaintiffs also lease a tract of land on the north bank immediately upstream from the tract upon which defendant's plant is located. Defendant pumps sand from the river by virtue of a contract with the state of Kansas (G.S. 1949, 71-101 et seq.). A previous decision of this court construed defendant's contract to permit him to pump sand from the *420 river to a point 1500 feet upstream from the extension of his west property line. (Dreyer v. Siler, 180 Kan. 765, 308 P.2d 127.) In pumping upstream from his property line, defendant projects a boom composed of pontoon floats out into the river. Pipe is strung out along the boom and from thence leads up to defendant's tipple located upon his property. From such operation arose this controversy.
Plaintiffs (the Silers) filed a petition in district court alleging that defendant (Dreyer) and his employees were and had been trespassing upon their leasehold in operating the boom, that defendant and his employees had tied his sand barge to the bank and trees located on plaintiffs' leasehold, and that by reason of defendant's operation plaintiffs were unable to move their equipment from the south side of the river to their leasehold on the north bank. Plaintiffs' petition prayed that defendant be enjoined from tying to or using the bank of plaintiffs' leasehold and from obstructing plaintiffs' use of and right to use said property. Plaintiffs also asked for damages.
The district court rendered judgment for plaintiffs in accord with its memorandum opinion, the pertinent parts of which read:
It is apparent that the trial court predicated its judgment on the *421 premise that defendant under his lease with the state was entitled only to operate and maintain his pumping equipment in and take sand out of that portion of the river bed covered by water at any stage of the river flow, "from water's edge to water's edge." The determinative question presented on this appeal, therefore, concerns the relative rights of the plaintiffs, the defendant and the state of Kansas in the area between the water's edge and the ordinary high-water mark along plaintiff's leasehold, it being unquestioned that the Kansas river is a navigable stream at this point. Neither party disputes the state's ownership or right to control soil and sand in the bed and channel of the Kansas river. Defendant claims that title to the area between the water's edge and the ordinary high-water mark is in the state of Kansas and that, therefore, as a matter of law it was erroneous for the trial court to enjoin defendant, a lessee of the state, from entering or using this area. Plaintiffs' argument on this question is based largely upon a Wisconsin case, Doemel v. Jantz, 180 Wis. 225, 193 N.W. 393, 31 A.L.R. 969, in which it was held, in accord with the previous Wisconsin view, that in regard to navigable waters a riparian owner holds a qualified title to the area between ordinary high-water mark and the water's edge, the qualification being that this title is subject to the public right to use for navigational purposes.
It has long been settled that the extent of the title of the owner of lands bordering upon navigable waters depends on the local law. (State, ex rel., v. Akers, 92 Kan. 169, 177, 178, 140 Pac. 637, and cases cited therein.) Therefore, Kansas law on the point must be regarded as controlling. The common law test of navigability never became the law of Kansas. (State, ex rel., v. Akers, supra, 202.) In Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S. 46, 27 S. Ct. 655, 51 L. Ed. 956, it was stated that each state has full jurisdiction over the lands within its borders, including the beds of streams and other waters. G.S. 1949, 71-106 provides that the bed and channel of any river within this state and all islands and sand bars lying therein shall be considered to be the property of the state of Kansas unless this state or the United States has granted or conveyed an adverse interest therein. Since the early case of Wood v. Fowler, 26 Kan. 682, 40 Am. Rep. 330, it has been clear in Kansas that a riparian owner owns only to the bank and not to the center of a navigable stream. (State, ex rel., v. Akers, supra, 179.)
Plaintiffs support their contention that Kansas law is the same *422 as announced for Wisconsin in Doemel v. Jantz, supra, with quotations from Kansas cases holding that the owner of land bordering a navigable stream may acquire additional land by the process known as accretion. These very quotations illustrate that the Wisconsin rule has not been considered in effect in Kansas. Included in plaintiffs' quotations from Fowler v. Wood, 73 Kan. 511, 544, 85 Pac. 763, is an except from Wallace v. Driver, 61 Ark. 429, 33 S.W. 641, 31 L.R.A. 317:
This seems clearly to hold that the boundary line of the riparian owner is the ordinary high-water mark and that for the riparian owner to obtain land the accretion must shift the ordinary high-water mark. It was stated in the case of United States v. Mackey, 214 Fed. 137, 153:
Both plaintiffs and defendant quote from Cushenbery v. Waite-Phillips Co., 119 Kan. 478, 484, 240 Pac. 400:
*423 It appears that the court in the mentioned case regarded the boundary line of the navigable stream to be the point to which the water usually rises in ordinary seasons of high water, thus setting the state's boundary line. The theory of the owners taking to the water's edge seems to have been regarded as existing only for the purpose of protecting the riparian right to access to the water frontage and access to the water.
Our cases appear to hold that the ordinary high-water mark is the boundary line between the bed of the river and the land of the riparian owner. In State, ex rel., v. Berk, 129 Kan. 645, 648, 284 Pac. 386, we approved a conclusion of law of the trial court that "the north boundary line of the river is the south line of lots one, two and three, with their accretions, being the line to which water rises in ordinary seasons of high water,..." [Emphasis supplied.]
It is therefore apparent we have held that the boundary line between a landowner and the state's navigable river bed is the line to which water rises in times of ordinary high water.
In view of what has been said it is obvious that the trial court entered judgment, predicated on an erroneous premise, that the jurisdiction of the state over the river bed was from water's edge to water's edge. The Kansas river is a navigable stream and the title to the bed and channel to ordinary high-water mark is in the state of Kansas. Therefore, defendant as lessee of the state is entitled to the use of the river bed and channel to ordinary high-water mark for the operation and maintenance of his sand-pumping equipment. Under the circumstances the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the case is remanded for a new trial in accordance with the views expressed herein.
It is so ordered.