Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-01-20
DECISION ON RI
PARIAN RIGHTS
CASE OF YATTIG VS.. SCOTT OF
INTEREST TO THE GEN
ERAL PUBLIC.
Justice Sullivan Dissents From the
Opinion and Cites Clear Authority
Case Came UP From Canyon
County District Court.


The supreme court handed down
an opinion yesterday involving a
question Of riparian rights in which
It is held that land owners in this
state upon streams. both navigable
and non-nayigable, take to the thread
of the stream, subject to an ease
ment for the use of the public. In
other words. where an unsurveyed
island lies between the meander line
of the river bank and the center of
the channel, patent to the
surveyed upland abutting the
river, conveys title to the island.
The opinion was in the case of c.
p Lattig VS. John e. Scott and
Robert e. Green, an appeal from the
Canyon county district court ivnolv-
ing Poole island containing 1873
acres, in the Snake river north Of
Payette.
The land abutting the river was
purchased by Green and a man nam
ed Poole in 1894 and 1895, patents
being conveyed in accordance with
surveys made in 1868. Lattig later
made settlement upon the island
under a squatters right and continued
to reside on the island for several
years. Poole, in the meantime. CON
veyed his interest in the land to
Scott.
Scott and Green last summer in
stituted an action in the district
court to eject Lattig. judgment of
eiectment being entered by Judge
Bryan His decision is affirmed upon
appeal.
The opinion in the case, which is
on all tours with the case of John
son VS.. Johnson, is written by JUS
tice Ailshie and concurred in by JUS
tice Stewart Chief Justice Sullivan,
as in the former action, dissents.
The syllabus by the court is as fol-
lows:
THE common law rule of riparian
ownership has been adopted in
Idaho, and under and by that rule
a riparian proprietor on a fresh
water stream, whether navigable or
non-navigable, takes title to the
thread of the stream.
'As a general rule. the omission
on the part of the government to
take notice of an existing island or
tract of land between the meander
line along a stream of FRESH water
and the stream itself which it pur-
ports to meander, and the subsequent
approval of a survey thereof and the
plats of such survey, is to be taken
as evidence that the island or strip
of land beyond such meander line
was intended to pass as a part of
and incident to the surveyed abutting
upland.
Ordinarily the government is
bound by it's own plats. and a patent
issued referring to the official plats
as a part of the description, and the
natural monuments therein designat-
ed and shown are ordinarily control
ling as to the true boundary line.
The plat and field notes made from
survey of public lands which has
been approved and adopted by he
government showing fractional sub
divisions along a meandered stream
of fresh water showing all the dry
land as having been surveyed and
the balance of the. legal subdivisions
as covered by the waters of the
stream, constitute prima facie evil
dence that no island of which the
government takes notice existed OPP
posite such fractional subdivisions
at the time the survey was made.
Where p and G purchased frac-
tional subdivisions of the public do
main meandering the Snake river
and took title by patents issued in
] 1914 and 1S95, respectively. for such
tracts of land. and the description
contained in such conveyances re-