Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-03
ATTORNEY
UPHOLDS RIGHT TO
CURB WATER TRUST
Mr.. Wilson Files Brief Replying
to Argument TO Vacate
Injunction.
CONTROL OF KILL Won KULL
RETAINED BY NEW JERSEY
Commonwealth Powers Not
Affected by War Secre-
tary's Permit.
Especial to the Newark start

EDWIN robert walker
dealing with the rights of the Hudson
County Water Company to place water
pipes under Kill Won Kuil, for the
purpose of carrying New Jersey water
to Staten Island, has been made for
the State by Acknowledgement Edmund
Wilson In a brief submitted to Vice
Chancellor Walker. The proceedings
are for the purpose of enjoining the
water company from proceeding with
its work of laying pipes, and in his
argument the attorney general holds
that New Jerseys jurisdiction over
Kill Won Kull to the middle of that
body of water entities the State to the
order asked.
The brief maintains that New Jersey
Is the owner of the middle of the land
under Kill Won Kull from the outside
line of piers on its shore and is a linn
tied owner between the exterior lines
of the piers and the lines for solid fill
ing, and on this basis the attorney-gen-
eral holds that if the water npan
is not restrained as to the bottom of
the stream outside the exterior lines
of the piers, al injunction should issue
dealing with the LAND inside those lines
and up to that for solid filling. The at
torney-general says:
The Information in this case prays
for an injunction to restrain the Hud-
son County Water Company from
dredging and laying its pipes on the
bed of Kill Won Kull between the ex-
terror line for solid filing. as granted
to the j. NJ. Guffey Petroleum Com
pany by the Riparian Commission, and
likewise to restrain the Guffey Com
pany from permitting the Hudson COM
pany to dredge on its lands and lay
pipes. The grant from the State to the
Guffey company is in fee for all pur-
poses to the exterior line for solid fill
ing. Beyond the line for solid filing
and piers the Guffey company only
WINS for the purpose of erecting a pier
or piers, under which the tide may ebb
and flow, and on which no solid filling
shall be placed.
THE ether proviso in the grant is
that the State may grant or lease n
of the lands in front of the line for
solid filling or piers, for the cultivation
of oysters and fish. or for any other
purpose whatever, with a proviso that
the same shall not operate to interfere
with the reasonable use OF and access
~ Ny NotCI " LiiS ufidCl WdtCi
granted to the Guffey company.
THE rule Is we'll settled that in a
grant from the State everything is pre-
sumed in favor of the State as against
the grantee. and that the grant must be
strictly construed. In this case the
Guffey company took a grant from that
State for its lands subject to the pro-
visos. 1t Is bound by them and cannot
Io,,y tl1iu ,-a1;l.4xv Iyt-.1 -ro
in the nature of covenants or condi-
tons, for a violation of which there is
no adequate remedy at law.
"In the thirtieth United States
statutes, at large, chapter 425, will be
found an act OF Congress which pro-
vides that where it Is made manifest
to the secretary of war that the estab-
lishment of harbor lines is essential TO
the preservation and protection of har-
bors, he may cause such lines to be
established, beyond which no pier,
wharf or other structure may be built.
1t is the insistment of the defendant
that pursuant to the permission of the
secretary of war granted to the Hud-
son County Water Company, the COM
pany has the right to dredge the entire
bed of Kill Won Kull from New Jersey
to the New York shore, and tina in
such endeavor it is engaged in inter
state commerce"
On this point the encouragement adj
mits that if Congress had passed a law
directing the laying of pipes from shore
to shore. there could possibly. be nc
question as to the rights of the water
company in this instance. He insists
that Congress has not lone so. and as
the Hudson County Water Company
only had the permission of the secre-
tary of war to dredge the stream and
lay pipes, such consent is insufficient
for continuing with the work. He then
continues;
LAS Congress has not acted with re-
spect to diversion of water from New
Jersey to New York, it is the insistment
of the State that it is still the owner
for certain purposes of the and be-
tween the exterior line for solid filling
and the exterior line for piers, as
granted to the Guffey company, and is
also the owner from the exterior line
for piers to the middle of the stream.
THE Hudson County Water Com
pany has never obtained permission
from the State to dredge any of the
land or lay its pipes on the Jersey sidt
of Kill Won Kull. In respect to the
Guffey grant, the rights of the Hudson
company can rise no higher than tn,
rights of the Guffey company, and thu
latter company, when it took its grant
did so with full knowledge of the pro
visos therein contained, to which it IL
now subject and to which it must nov
adhere.
That the Guffey company, and tn
Hudson company under it, seek to vic
late n of the conditions of the graz
is apparent. If the conditions in tn
grant be actually violated by the lay
ing of pipes. 1t is not conceived hoy
the State can have any adequat
remedy at law. Further than this, /
will result in a multiplicity of actions
one certainly against the Guffey com
pany and one against the Hudsot
Water Company. and perhaps on
against the dredging company, tn
agent of the Hudson company. 1t /
not a mere trespass with the company
but if it is a trespass tits a continu
ing one.
1.-THE map before the court produce
by counsel for the Hudson company in
dicates hat the Federal Government
and the State government have de
termined what portion of the stream
to be conserved for the Federal Govern