Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/274/651.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 17:33:55+00:00

Document:
Messrs. E. J. Dempsey, Moses Hooper, and John F. Kluwin, all of Oshkosh, Wis., for plaintiffs in error. [274 U.S. 651, 652] Messrs. R. M. Rieser, of Madison, Wis., and Adolph Kanneberg, of Madison, Wis., for defendant in error.
Plaintiffs in error are riparian owners of land bordering on the Fox River, a navigable stream. They own a dam at Appleton, Wis., which has been maintained since its construction in 1878 without permission from any state authority. Since 1841 the statutes of the territory, and later of the state, have forbidden the building of a dam on any navigable river without legislative consent. Laws 1841, No. 9; R. S. 1849, c. 34; R. S. 1858, c. 41, 2; 1 Wis. Stat. 1898, c. 70, 1596; 1 Wis. Stat. 1925, 30.01(2).
Plaintiffs in error petitioned the commission for permits to maintain and repair their dam, which, they asserted, 'does not materially obstruct navigation or violate other public or private rights or endanger life, health or property.' The application was rejected by the commission solely for want of jurisdiction, since the applicants had omitted to file the proposals required by section 31.09. Plaintiffs brought suit in the nature of a mandamus proceeding on the circuit court of Dane county, Wis., to compel the commission to take jurisdiction of the application and to proceed to a hearing. The bill drew in question the validity of section 31. 09 under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, alleging that the determination of the commission acting under the statute operated to deprive plaintiffs of their property without due process of law. The commission answered, admitting the allegations of fact of the bill, setting up that plaintiffs' dam had been constructed and was maintained without a permit from the state, and that the application had been dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The trial court gave final judgment on the pleadings for defendant in error, upholding the validity of this act. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin affirmed by an evenly divided court. 189 Wis. 626, 208 N. W. 266. The case is here on writ of error. Judicial Code , 237(a), as amended (Comp. St. 1214).
The right set up in the bill is one under the federal Constitution. Whether the state court denied that right or failed to give it due recognition is a question upon which the plaintiffs are entitled to invoke the judgment [274 U.S. 651, 654] of this court. Our jurisdiction is not affected because the existence of the right for which constitutional protection is claimed depends upon state law. Cf. West Chicago R. R. v. Chicago, 201 U.S. 506 , 26 S. Ct. 518; Ward v. Love County, 253 U.S. 17, 22 , 40 S. Ct. 419; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Ry. v. Illinois, 200 U.S. 561 , 26 S. Ct. 341, 4 Ann. Cas. 1175; Appleby v. City of New York, 271 U.S. 364, 380 , 46 S. Ct. 569.
There being no question of evasion of the constitutional issue ( Nickel v. Cole, 256 U.S. 222, 225 , 41 S. Ct. 467; Union Pac. R. R. v. Public Service Commission, 248 U.S. 67 , 39 S. Ct. 24; Ward v. Love County, supra, 22 (40 S. Ct. 419); Long Sault Development Co. v. Call, 242 U.S. 272 , 37 S. Ct. 79), this court on writ of error must accept as final the ruling of the state court of last resort on all matters of state law (Sauer v. New York, 206 U.S. 536 , 27 S. Ct. 686; Kaukauna Co. v. Green Bay, etc., Canal, 142 U.S. 254, 272 , 277 S., 12 S. Ct. 173). Although presumptively title to the soil under navigable waters within the state is in the state (Massachusetts v. New York, 271 U.S. 65, 89 , 46 S. Ct. 357; United States v. Holt State Bank, 270 U.S. 49, 54 , 46 S. Ct. 197), the nature and extent of the rights of the state and of riparian owners in navigable waters within the state and to the soil beneath are matters of state law to be determined by the statutes and judicial decisions of the state (Kaukauna Co. v. Green Bay, etc., Canal, supra, 272 (12 S. Ct. 173); Packer v. Bird, 137 U.S. 661, 669 , 11 S. Ct. 210; Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U.S. 371, 382 , 11 S. Ct. 808, 838; Barney v. Keokuk, 94 U.S. 324 , 338). If the state chooses to resign to the riparian proprietor sovereign rights over navigable rivers which it acquired upon assuming statehood, it is not for others to raise objections. Barney v. Keokuk, supra, 338 (24 L. Ed. 224). We assume, although judicial expression is not entirely consistent, that by the law of Wisconsin, in the absence of special circumstances, title to the bed of navigable rivers is in the riparian owner. Kaukauna Co. v. Green Bay, etc., Canal, supra, 272 (12 S. Ct. 173); Willow River Club v. Wade, 100 Wis. 86, 95, 76 N. W. 273, 42 L. R. A. 305; Wisconsin River Improvement Co. v. Lyons, 30 Wis. 61. Cf. Merwin v. Houghton, 146 Wis. 398, 409, 131 N. W. 838. But defend- [274 U.S. 651, 656] ant contends that in any case the rights of plaintiffs are subordinate to the state control of navigable waters, and as was held in effect by the state court in this case, the riparian owner can have no right in the water power created by damming a navigable river, so long as the state withholds its consent to the construction or maintenance of the dam. Wisconsin River Improvement Co. v. Lyons, supra, 67.
We accept as conclusive the state court's view of the nature of the rights of riparian owners. We therefore find in the refusal of the commission to grant the permit no denial of the property rights of plaintiffs and hence no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Compliance with section 31.09 is the price which plaintiffs must pay to secure the right to maintain their dam. Cf. Booth Fisheries v. Industrial Commission, 271 U.S. 208 , 46 S. Ct. 491.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.