Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/74/272/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 09:21:15+00:00

Document:
1. The meander lines run in surveying fractional portions of the public lands bordering upon navigable rivers, are run, not as boundaries of the tract, but for the purpose of defining the sinuosities of the banks of the stream, and as the means of ascertaining the quantity of the land in the fraction, and which is to be paid for by the purchaser.
2. Congress, in providing, as it does, in one or more acts relating to the survey and sale of public lands bordering upon rivers -- that navigable rivers, within the territory to be surveyed should be deemed to be public highways, and that where the opposite banks of any stream, not navigable, should belong to different persons, the stream and the bed thereof should become common to both -- meant to enact that the common law rules of riparian ownership should apply in the latter case, but that the title, to lands bordering on navigable streams should stop at the stream, and not come to the medium filum.
3. But such riparian proprietors have the same right to construct suitable landings and wharves for the convenience of commerce and navigation as riparian proprietors on navigable waters affected by the ebb and flow of the tide.
having, previous to the controversy, been laid out as a city and the municipal authorities having graded and filled up the place to the river edge of the parcel.
5. If, by the laws in force in Minnesota in 1859, the recording of a town of city plot, indicating a dedication, for a public purpose, of certain parts of the land laid out, operated as a conveyance in fee to the town or city, yet it could operate only as a conveyance of the fee subject to the purpose indicated by the dedication, and subject to that it must be held by any future claimant.
Schurmeir filed a bill in one of the inferior courts of Minnesota to enjoin the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company from taking possession and building its railroad upon certain ground in the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, bordering on the Mississippi, and originally a fractional section of the public lands. The place was alleged by Schurmeir to be a public street and landing.
The railroad company justified their entry as owner in fee of the locus in quo. The issues between the parties were tried by a referee, who found both facts and law in favor of Schurmeir. The facts so found, being undisputed the case was removed for decision on them to the supreme court of the state. That court affirming the referee's judgment, the case was here for review.
"The boundary line actually run and marked in the surveys returned shall be established as the proper boundary lines of the sections or subdivisions for which they were intended, and the length of such lines as returned shall be held and considered as the true length thereof, and the boundary lines which shall not have been actually run and marked as aforesaid shall be ascertained by running straight lines from the established corners to the opposite corresponding corners; but in those portions of the fractional townships where no such opposite corresponding corners have been or can be fixed, the said boundary lines shall be ascertained by running from the established corners, due north and south or east and west lines (as the case may be) to the watercourse . . . or other external boundary of such fractional township."
"That all navigable rivers within the territory to be disposed of shall be deemed to be and remain public highways, and in all cases where the opposite banks of any stream, not navigable, shall belong to different persons, the stream and the bed thereof shall be common to both. [Footnote 3]"
duly approved in March, 1848, and returned to the General Land Office. This fractional section was designated by this survey as lot 1, in section 5, township 28, north of range 22, west of the fourth principal meridian. It was represented by the plat thereof, as bounded on the north by the east and west sectional line, on the west by the north and south sectional line, and on the only other remaining side by the Mississippi River. It was this river that interposed and made this section a fractional one.
At the time of the survey, there was a parcel of land (called by the counsel on one side a sand-bar, reef, or "tow-head," and by the counsel on the other, an island) lying along the shore of the river, about four feet lower than the main land of the fraction, and with a channel or slough between it and the main land. This depression was about 28 feet wide, and the bar or island, in its extreme width, was about 90 feet. Its extreme length was about 160 feet. The main body contained 9.28 acres; this parcel, 2.78 acres.
In high water this parcel of land outside was completely under water; in medium water it was exposed to view, and the water flowed through the depression; but, at very low water there was no flow of water through the depression.
It lay in pools in the depression. Very low water mark was thus the exterior part of the bar or island, and the landing place for boats plying on the Mississippi had always been the south or river side of island.
In the government survey, no mention of or reference to this bar or island was in any way made in the field notes, plat, or map. The fractional parcel, as already said, was represented as lying immediately upon and bounded by the Mississippi River.
upstream, south 61, west 6.50; south 54, west 6.00; south 46, west 5.00; south 40, west 3.96, to line of sections 5 and 6, at lower end of St. Paul."
In March, 1849, the United States sold and conveyed the land to one Roberts; the patent describing the lot (along with another fractional section, styled No. 2, not connected with this case) as containing so many acres, "according to the official plat of the survey," a plat which, as already said, did not present the bar or island in any way, nor the channel or slough between, but presented the river as the boundary, much as in the map on the page opposite (page <|74 U.S. 276|>276).
"land intended to be for streets, alleys, ways, commons, or other public use, . . . or for any addition thereto, shall be held in the corporate name, in trust to and for the uses and purposes set forth and expressed or intended."
Roberts subsequently sold to Schurmeir two lots, designated on the plan as lots Nos. 11 and 12, in block 29. All the space in front of this block and between this block and the river was designated as "Landing," and as soon as St. Paul was organized into a city, it exercised municipal control over the space, established a grade, and caused the place to be more or less graded, maintaining it as a landing. Schurmeir's two lots and the whole of the so-called "landing" were situated upon what had been the slough or channel.
occupied by this bar or island was surveyed by a government surveyor and platted and mapped as "Island No 11" in said section 5.
By virtue of this survey, the railroad company claimed the title under a Congressional land grant of May 22, 1857.
2. By the meander lines run by the surveyor?
If by either of the former, the railroad company had no right.
If by the latter, Schurmeir had none.
A minor question was whether -- supposing Roberts to have owned the parcel originally -- he had or had not, under the statutes then in force in Minnesota, divested himself of such right by recording his town plot?
whole space, subject to the public right to use and occupy the same as such street, levee, and public landing.
Based upon these preliminary allegations, the charge is that the corporation respondents were then engaged, without his license or consent, in extending and constructing their railroad over and along the said public street, levee, and landing, in front of his premises, with the design and purpose of running their cars on the same for the transportation of freight and passengers; and the complainant alleged that the effect would be, if the design and purpose of the respondents should be carried out, that the said public street, levee, and landing, could not be occupied and used for the purposes for which they were constructed, and to which they were dedicated, and that his premises would be rendered useless and valueless.
Two defenses were set up by the respondents in their answer.
First. They denied that the fee of the land described in the bill of complaint, as a public street and levee, or public landing, was ever in the complainant, or that he ever had any right, title, or interest in the land between his premises and the main channel of the river.
Secondly. They alleged that all the land between the premises of the complainant and the river in front, were part and parcel of the lands surveyed by the United States, and granted by the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1857, to the Territory of Minnesota, and that they were the owners of the same in fee, as the grantees of the territory and state, to aid in the construction of their railroad.
Defense of the other respondents is that all the acts charged against them were performed by the direction and under the authority of the respondent corporation.
Prayer of the bill of complaint was that the respondent might be restrained from extending and constructing their railroad over and along said public street, levee, or landing, and from obstructing and impeding the free use of the same by the public.
court that the cause be referred to a sole referee to hear and determine all the issues in the pleadings, and that he should report his determination to the court. Such a report was subsequently made by the referee, and the record shows that the court, in pursuance of the same, enjoined the respondents as prayed in the bill of complaint and ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the respondents should remove from the street, levee, and landing in front of the complainant's premises all tracks, trestleworks, embankments, buildings, and obstructions of every kind erected or constructed thereon by them for railroad purposes.
Appeal was taken by the respondents from the decree, as rendered in the district court for that county, to the supreme court of the state, where the decree was in all things affirmed, and the respondents removed the cause into this Court by a writ of error sued out under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act.
1. Express finding of the referee was that the premises in question were included in that part of section five, township twenty-eight north, in range twenty-two west of the fourth principal meridian which is situated on the north side of the center line of the Mississippi River. He also found that the survey of that part of section five was made by the deputy surveyor October 27, 1847; that the field notes of the survey were duly communicated to the surveyor general, and that the latter officer, on the 15th of March following, duly approved the survey as made by the deputy surveyor. Same report also shows that a plat of that part of section five was duly prepared and certified by the surveyor general on the same day, and that it was duly transmitted to the land office of the district where the land was situated. By that plat it appears that the land as surveyed consisted of two separate parcels, called lots 1 and 2, in the report of the referee, exhibited in the record. Lot 1, the tract in question is situated in the northwest corner of the section, and contains the quantity of land described in the official survey and plat. Particular description of lot 2 is unnecessary, as it is not in controversy in this case.
Both of those lots were purchased by Lewis Roberts, and on the 24th of March, 1849, a patent, in due form of law, was issued to him, for the same, by the proper officers of the United States. Possessed of a full title to all the land described in the patent, the purchaser caused lot 1 to be surveyed and laid out into town blocks, lots, streets &c., as a part of the town of St. Paul, and the finding of the referee is, that the plat, as recorded, describes the land as extending to the main channel of the river. Block 29, as exhibited on that plat, includes lots 11 and 12, described in the bill of complaint, and the report of the referee shows that they are a part of the triangular fraction of land situated in the northwest corner of section 5, as delineated on the official plat.
Claim of the complainant is to lots 11 and 12, in block 29, and the finding of the referee is, that he holds the same through certain mesne conveyances, from the original grantee under the patent.
Title claimed by the complainant, being of prior date to that set up by the respondents, will be first examined, because if it be sustained as including the premises in controversy, an examination of the title of the respondents will not be necessary.
block twenty-nine, where the complainant's warehouse is situated. Claiming entire control over the premises, as a street, levee, or landing, the city authorities have established a grade for the same, and, long before any attempt was made by the respondents to controvert the title of the complainant, they had made large progress in the work of reducing the surface of the land to the established grade.
Appellants contend that the river is not a boundary in the official survey; that the tract, as surveyed, did not extend to the river, but that the survey stopped at the meander posts and the described trees on the bank of the river. Accordingly they insist that lot 1 did not extend to the river, but only to the points where the township and section lines intersect the left bank of the river, as shown by the meander posts.
The finding of the referee also shows that the meander line of lot 1 was run, in the official survey, along the left or north bank of a channel which then existed between that bank and a certain parcel of land in front of the same, afterwards designated as Island 11, but which was not mentioned in the field notes of the official survey, nor delineated on the official plat.
Conceded fact is that those field notes constituted the foundation of the official plat, and that that plat was the only one in the local land office at the time the patent was issued under which the appellee claims. When the water in the river was at a medium height, there was a current in the channel, between what is called the island and the bank, where the meander posts were located, but when the water was low, there was no current in that channel, and when the water was very high in the river, the entire parcel of land, designated as the island, was completely inundated.
approved by the surveyor general. Duplicates of that survey were communicated to the General Land Office, and the finding of the referee shows that the plat exhibits the true relation which that tract bears to lot 1 in that section. Prior to that survey, however, the City of St. Paul had filled the channel and reclaimed the land at the west end of the same, and extended the grade of the street and levee, or landing, entirely across the island to the main channel of the river. Besides, the uncontradicted fact is that the landing for boats and vessels touching at that port was always on the river side of the island, and the finding of the referee shows that the front wall of the complainant's warehouse is not more than four feet north of the southerly line of the lot on which it is erected.
"unless where the line of the late Indian purchase, or of the tracts of land heretofore surveyed or patented, or the course of navigable rivers, may render it impracticable."
"subdivided into sections, by running straight lines from the mile corners, marked as therein required, to the opposite corresponding corners, and by marking on each of the said lines intermediate corners, as nearly as possible equidistant from the corners of the sections on the same."
Corners thus marked in the surveys, are to be regarded as the proper corners of sections, and the provision is, that the corners of half and quarter sections, not actually run and marked on the surveys, shall be placed, as nearly as possible, equidistant from the two corners standing on the same line. [Footnote 8] Boundary lines actually run and marked on the surveys returned, are made the proper boundary lines of the sections or subdivisions for which they were intended, and the second article of the second section provides, that the length of such lines, as returned, shall be held and considered as the true length thereof. Lines intended as boundaries, but which were not actually run and marked, must be ascertained by running straight lines from the established corners to the opposite corresponding corners; but where no such opposite corresponding corners have been, or can be fixed, the boundary lines are required to be ascertained by running from the established corners due north and south, or east and west, as the case may be, to the watercourse, Indian boundary line, or other external boundary of such fractional township.
sinuosities of the banks of the stream, and as the means of ascertaining the quantity of the land in the fraction subject to sale, and which is to be paid for by the purchaser.
In preparing the official plat from the field notes, the meander line is represented as the border line of the stream, and shows, to a demonstration, that the watercourse, and not the meander line, as actually run on the land, is the boundary.
Extended discussion of that topic, however, is unnecessary, as the court decides to place the decision, in this case, upon the several acts of Congress making provision for the survey and sale of the public lands bordering on public navigable rivers, and the legal construction of the patents issued under such official surveys. Such a reservation, in the acts of Congress, providing for the survey and sale of such lands, must have the same effect as it would be entitled to receive if it were incorporated into the patent, especially as there is nothing in the field notes, or in the official plat or patent, inconsistent with that explicit reservation. Rivers were not regarded as navigable in the common law sense, unless the waters were affected by the ebb and flow of the tide, but it is quite clear that Congress did not employ the words navigable, and not navigable, in that sense, as usually understood in legal decisions. On the contrary, it is obvious that the words were employed without respect to the ebb and flow of the tide, as they were applied to territory situated far above tidewaters, and in which there were no salt water streams.
between streams navigable and those not navigable, intended to provide that the common law rules of riparian ownership should apply to lands bordering on the latter, but that the title to lands bordering on navigable streams should stop at the stream, and that all such streams should be deemed to be, and remain public highways.
to any purpose which would render valueless the adjoining real estate of the complainant.
Acts of May 18, 1796, 1 Statutes at Large 446, May 10, 1800, 2 id. 73, and February 11, 1805, 2 id. 313.
See the able opinion of Wilson, C.J., in 10 Minn. 99-100, from which this account is extracted.
And see Act of April 16, 1814, 3 Statutes at Large 125, as explained by Act of February 27, 1815, ib., 218.
11 Stat. at Large 195; State Session Laws, 1857, 70; Gen.Laws, 1858, 9; Session Laws, 1862, 226.
1 Stat. at Large 468.
Schurmeier v. Railroad, 10 Minn. 82.
3 Commentaries 11th ed. 427.
1 Stat. at Large 491; 2 id. 235, 279, 642, 666, 703, 747; 3 id. 349.
The Jefferson, 10 Wheat. 428; Genesee Chief, 12 How. 456; Hine v. Trevor, 4 Wall. 565.
Dutton v. Strong, 1 Black 23.
Lindsey v. Hawes, 2 Black 554; Bates v. Railroad Company, 1 Black 204; Brown v. Clements, 3 How. 650.
Statutes of Wisconsin Territory 159.

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