The record-union., 1897-09-23
SUPREME COURT DECISIONS.
SYLLABI.
SYLLABI.
(s. F, Nos. $50, 527-In Bank-Filed
September 13 1e91)


(s. F., Nos. $50, 527-In Bank-Filed
September 13, $3.50
City of Oakland, respondent; Oak
land Water Front Company, appellant.
Action TO determine conflicting claims
to real estate. Reversed. Harrison and
Henshaw, j. j., dissenting.
The grant to the town Of Oakland
is contained in the third section OF the
original Act of incorporation. (Stats
1852, p. lSl), and the description is
in these words: The lands lying with
in the limits aforesaid G. e. the cor
porate limits Of the town as defined in
the first section OF the AcD between
high tide and ship channel. Such
being the terms of the grant it is evi-
dent that its extent and location de-
pend primarily upon the proper con-
struction to be given to the first sec
tion of the Act defining the corporate
limits.
Held that the Act of 1852 intended
the southeriy line of the San antonio
Creek or Estuary to be t:lo line of low
tide and not the high-tide line. and the
line to be followed down the creek to
the bay, crossing the mouth of the mar
row channel connecting with the east
ern basin, and not ascending the chan
mel. and following around the basin
The State acts for the public good
and all its grants, including the grant
OF municipal franchises. are to be con-
Strued in d manner most conducive to
the general welfare The fact that one
Legislature ] as improvidently eAterded
the municipal boundaries :li one direc-
ton is no reason for holding that an
ambiguous grant of O. former Legisla-
ture should be construed in a sense
which would render it similarly i'm
provident with respect to the corporate
limits, and infinitely more so in its dis
position of public navigable waters.
Where the terms of u grant are to
impose burdens upon the public or to
create restraint injurious to the pub
lie interest, there is sound reason for
Interpreting the terms, if ambiguous. in
favor of the public
Ships channel comprises the waters
left free to navigation, and when it is
required to locate its boundaries with
precision, and no artificial boundary
has been established by competent au-
thority it becomes necessary to seek a.
definite natural boundary. if such may
be found. Held, in this case, that ship S
channel at Oakland is the line of low
tide, and was the western boundary of
the town of Oakland, intended by the
original Act of Incorporation.
A grant by the State of California Of
mud flats and shoals between high and
low tide on the margin of the Bay of
san Francisco cannot be held to have
been in excess of the legislative power
in the absence of proof that such
grant has seriously impaired the power
OF succeeding Legislatures to protect,
regulate, Improve or develop the public
rights of navigation or fishery.
The power of the Legislature to make
a grant of lands to a natural person.
and the power of the municipal corpo-
ration to make the grant are two very
different things. The corporation has
no power to ALLEVIATE the lands unless
such power has been conferred by the
Legislature, and whether it has been
conferred or not is a question of legis-
lative intent to be gathered from the
terms of the statute construed with
reference to its general scope and pow
ers. Held, that the ordinances and
deed of 1928, by which it was at
tempted to transfer the entire Oakland
water front to Carpenter, were wholly
void, for lack of authority on the part
Of the municipal corporation.
The word ordinance means a local
lava rule of conduct prospective in
its operation, and applying generally
to the persons and things subject to
the local Jurisdiction. 1t does not, in
its ordinary use or Specification, in
clude a grant of lands.