Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/187/224.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:23:04+00:00

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CHARLES F. FOGERTY et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA et al., Defendants and Respondents.
William T. Chidlaw, Peter E. Racobs, Washburn & Kemp, Edgar B. Washburn and John P. Yeager for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, N. Gregory Taylor, Assistant Attorney General, Jan Stevens and David B. Judson, Deputy Attorneys General for Defendants and Respondents.
In State of California v. Superior Court (Lyon) (1981) 29 Cal. 3d 210 [172 Cal. Rptr. 696, 625 P.2d 239] (hereafter Lyon) our Supreme Court [187 Cal. App. 3d 229] held that the lands lying between the low and high watermarks of Clear Lake are owned by their littoral owners subject to a "trust" interest held by the State of California for the benefit of the public for purposes of commerce, navigation, fishing, recreation, and preservation of the land in its natural state. (Id, at pp. 226-233.) In State of California v. Superior Court (Fogerty) (1981) 29 Cal. 3d 240 [172 Cal. Rptr. 713, 625 P.2d 256] (hereafter Fogerty) our high court held, in this very case, that the public trust enunciated in Lyon was applicable to Lake Tahoe. (Id, at pp. 243, 247.) In this appeal, we hold that, for purposes of determining the boundaries of land along the shore of Lake Tahoe subject to the public trust, the low watermark of the lake is 6,223 feet above sea level, Lake Tahoe datum, and the high watermark is 6,228.75 feet above sea level, Lake Tahoe datum.
In Fogerty, the People sought a writ of mandate from our Supreme Court after the trial court had entered partial summary judgment decreeing that no real property lying landward of the last natural low watermark of Lake Tahoe was subject to the public trust. (29 Cal.3d at p. 243.) The court addressed two questions not discussed in Lyon.
Defendants' exhibit R showed the maximum and minimum lake elevations from 1900 to 1984. The exhibit revealed that since 1917 the lake had never [187 Cal. App. 3d 232] reached its negotiated high watermark of 6,229.1 feet. fn. 2 The data summarized in the exhibit are undisputed by the parties.
Plaintiffs' appeal challenges these two rulings. As we shall explain, we conclude many of plaintiffs' contentions are foreclosed by Lyon and Fogerty. However, plaintiffs also assert the trial court erroneously fixed the high watermark at a theoretical maximum elevation which the lake has not reached since 1917. This contention is meritorious; we shall modify the trial court's summary judgment to reflect the high watermark as disclosed by the record in accordance with the state's acquisition of its property interest by prescription.
 Plaintiffs have acquiesced in the summary judgment's establishment of 6,223 feet as the lake's low watermark and do not challenge that figure on appeal. (See 9 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (3d ed. 1985) Appeal, § 479, p. 469.) Defendants have not cross-appealed (see op. cit., supra at pp. 394-395) and may make no challenge of their own. Accordingly, the figure of [187 Cal. App. 3d 233] 6,223 feet as the low watermark is conclusively established. Consequently, as modified to reflect the correct high watermark, the judgment shall be affirmed.
Certain of Plaintiffs' Contentions Cannot be Reconciled with Lyon and Fogerty.
 Read together, we think Lyon and Fogerty establish the following rules: (1) the littoral property owners own the shorezone fn. 4 of Lake Tahoe in fee simple to the low watermark of the lake in its "current" condition; (2) the property owners' fee simple title in the shorezone is impressed with a public trust analagous to an easement, acquired by the State of California pursuant to the doctrine of prescription and held for the benefit of the public for purposes of commerce, navigation, fishing, recreation and preservation of the land in its natural state.
In their attack on the judgment, plaintiffs have fired a fusillade of contentions that essentially ask us to undo what Lyon and Fogerty have done. fn. 5 [3a] Thus, for example, although plaintiffs concede in their brief that "Lyon held that the public trust easement extends to the ordinary high watermark, making it necessary to ascertain the location of that line," plaintiffs contend the high watermark must be set according to conditions prevailing in 1850, when California was admitted to the Union.
 As an inferior court, we are dutybound to follow and apply the law as interpreted by our Supreme Court. (Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court (1962) 57 Cal. 2d 450, 455 [20 Cal. Rptr. 321, 369 P.2d 937].)  Plaintiffs suggest the Supreme Court's express instructions--to set the low watermark using post-dam conditions--are dicta and may be disregarded by this court. We cannot agree. Even when part of an opinion is not relevant to material facts, if it is responsive to an argument raised by counsel and intended for guidance of the court and attorneys upon a new hearing, it probably constitutes the basis of the decision and cannot be disregarded by a lower court as mere dictum. (United Steelworkers of America v. Board of Education (1984) 162 Cal. App. 3d 823, 834-835 [209 Cal. Rptr. 16]; Paley v. Superior Court (1955) 137 Cal. App. 2d 450, 460 [290 P.2d 617].) Here, in both Lyonand Fogerty, the Supreme Court issued writs directing lower courts to rule "consistent with the views expressed above." (Lyon, supra, at p. 233; Fogerty, supra, at p. 249.) In these circumstances, Fogerty's direction to use the "current" post-dam level of the lake is not dictum. fn. 7 (United Steelworkers of America v. Board of Education, supra, 162 Cal.App.3d at p. 835.) Indeed, the court's remarks on the question constitute the law of the case that we are obliged to follow. (People v. Shuey (1975) 13 Cal. 3d 835, 841 [120 Cal. Rptr. 83, 533 P.2d 211]; compare Searle v. Allstate Life Ins. Co. (1985) 38 Cal. 3d 425, 434 [212 Cal. Rptr. 466, 696 P.2d 1308].) [3b] We shall therefore use the "current" condition of the lake to set the high watermark.
The "Current" Level of Lake Tahoe is 6,228.75 Feet Above Sea Level, Lake Tahoe Datum.
A. The 1944 consent decree adjudicating water rights of all users of Truckee River water does not establish the high watermark of Lake Tahoe for public trust purposes.
B. The state did not acquire any property rights by plaintiffs' "acquiescence" in public administrative agencies' use of 6,229.1 feet above sea level as the high level of the lake.
[7a] As we have noted, the level of Lake Tahoe has never reached elevation 6,229.1 feet since 1917. Nonetheless, the defendants note that correspondence and records maintained by the State Lands Commission reveal a widespread acceptance of 6,229.1 feet as the lake's high watermark. Defendants also point to an affidavit by plaintiffs' counsel suggesting that the figure of 6,229 feet is "generally accepted" as the high watermark. In addition, defendants note that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency have consistently used that figure. Defendants conclude the widespread acceptance of the figure (6,229.1 feet) compels the conclusion the figure has been established by "acquiescence" and is now binding on plaintiffs. We cannot agree.
Moreover, if defendants' claim of "acquiescence" has any grounding in an established theory of property rights, it may be viewed as an assertion of an "agreed boundary." However, the assertion may not be maintained. The doctrine of agreed boundary is wholly insufficient to sustain the trial court's high watermark of 6,229.1 feet.
In the circumstances it would be manifestly unfair, if not disingenuous, to justify the imposition of public trust rights upon private owners' land on the basis that the owners, by their ignorance and inaction, somehow "agreed" to imposition of the public trust boundary at elevation 6,229.1 feet. The trial court's high watermark may not be sustained under a theory of "agreed boundary."
C. The extent of the public trust must be established in accordance with a theory of prescriptive rights.
1. The doctrine of prescription will not support a high watermark of 6,229.1 feet.
[11a] Defendants contend a high watermark of 6,229.1 feet has been established by prescription. However, we cannot agree.
[11b] Unlike waters which actually lap upon the shore, a high watermark which exists only on paper and not on the land is not a "use" of the land at all, much less an "open" one. (See Warsaw v. Chicago Metallic Ceilings, supra, 35 Cal.3d at p. 570.) A "paper" high watermark--particularly one unaccompanied by the assertion of any effect on property rights--cannot fulfill the notice purpose underlying the elements of prescription. (Twin Peaks Land Co. v. Briggs, supra, 130 Cal.App.3d at p. 593; Zimmer v. Dykstra, supra, 39 Cal.App.3d at p. 431.) As the Court of Appeal has colorfully said, an adverse user "'"oust unfurl his flag on the land, and keep it flying, so that the owner may see, if he will, that an enemy has invaded his domains, and planted the standard of conquest."'" (Wood v. Davidson (1944) 62 Cal. App. 2d 885, 890 [145 P.2d 659].) To continue the metaphor, merely filing the blueprints for a flagpole over at the irrigation district offices or at the federal courthouse with the thought that, someday, the flagpole might be built, is not the sort of notice to which the landowner is entitled. The trial court erred in concluding that 6,229.1 feet was the high watermark.
2. Application of the doctrine of prescription results in a high watermark of 6,228.75 feet above sea level.
Fogerty's doctrine of prescriptive rights is derived from cases allowing the public to obtain property rights from the actual incursion of dam waters upon the shore. (See Fogerty, supra, 29 Cal.3d at p. 248; State v. Parker (1918) 132 Ark. 316 [200 S.W. 1014, 1016]; State v. Sorenson (1937) 222 [187 Cal. App. 3d 239] Iowa 1248 [271 N.W. 234, 238-239].)  We shall therefore use the actual incursion of the waters to set the high level of Lake Tahoe. The question is: what is the appropriate level of actual incursion? Once again, we turn to the law of prescriptive easements for the answer.
We find Hesperia Land directly analogous to the situation at bar. The need for water storage, like the need for water transportation in an irrigation ditch, fluctuates from season to season and ultimately from year to year. We believe it wholly unnecessary to the doctrine of prescription for water impounded behind a dam to remain in place continuously for the five-year period in order for prescriptive rights to attach. Practical experience tells us no reservoir operates that way. We believe, instead, that the needs of the reservoir operator are determinative. (Hesperia Land etc. Co. v. Rogers, supra, 83 Cal. at p. 11.) Where the reservoir operator returns the waters to a zenith each water year and maintains the water at that elevation for the duration of his needs his use of the reservoir is "continuous" up to and including that highest point. (Ibid) For purposes of the public trust doctrine, we shall therefore set the high watermark of Lake Tahoe at the highest elevation actually reached by the "current" lake in five sequential years.
The judgment is modified to reflect that "the high watermark of Lake Tahoe constituting the uppermost limit of that lake subject to the public trust is located at 6,228.75 feet above sea level, Lake Tahoe datum." As modified, the judgment is affirmed.
Blease, Acting p. J., and Carr, J., concurred.
FN 1. Civil Code section 830 provides that "Except where the grant under which the land is held indicates a different intent, the owner of the upland, when it borders on tide-water, takes to ordinary high-water mark; when it borders upon a navigable lake or stream, where there is no tide, the owner takes to the edge of the lake or stream, at low-water mark; when it borders upon any other water, the owner takes to the middle of the lake or stream."
FN 2. However, it had come close on several occasions. Since the entry of the consent decree in 1944 (which established the present mode of water level regulation) the lake exceeded elevation 6,229 feet on a total of 81 days. During that time, however, it never rose the next one-tenth of a foot to the theoretical maximum of 6,229.1 feet.
"8. Plaintiffs holding property littoral to the bed of Lake Tahoe have not been deprived of the use or enjoyment thereof without compensation, contrary to the provisions of article 1, section 19 of the state Constitution and amendments V and XIV of the United States Constitution."
FN 5. These include the assertions: (1) that our Supreme Court's decisions in Lyon and Fogerty constitute a "sudden and unpredictable change in state law" and thereby violate their constitutional rights to due process of law; (2) that the state acquired no prescriptive rights in new shorezone created by construction of the dam; and (3) that any prescriptive rights acquired by the state permit fewer uses of land by the public than the uses allowed by the public trust doctrine.
FN 6. It is immaterial that the lower boundary now established--6,223 feet--may or may not be lower than the high level of the lake in 1850. That figure had not been agreed upon and was not discussed by the court in Fogerty.
FN 8. We also note the consent decree litigated water rights, not property rights.
Needless to say, only the lowest of these five elevations has been reached each year.
Because the last year of the prescriptive period was 1971 we need not consider the effect, if any, of Civil Code section 1009 (effective 1972) which provides a means of protecting owners of private property who make their lands available to the public from later claims of prescriptive rights.
FN 11. For example, in years 1951, 1952, and 1953 the lake reached elevations 6,228.89, 6,228.79, and 6,229.04 feet, respectively. Similarly, in years 1956, 1957, and 1958, the lake reached elevations 6,229.04, 6,229.07, and 6,229.02 feet, respectively. In 1973, 1974, and 1975, the lake reached 6,228.64, 6,228.92, and 6,228.64 feet, and in 1982, 1983, and 1984 the lake exceeded elevation 6,228.50 feet.
FN 12. The parties have suggested various other methods that might be used to set the high level of the lake. However, none of the methods they suggest is consistent with the theory of prescriptive rights which provides the basis for the state's assertion of its public trust. (Fogerty, 29 Cal.3d at pp. 248-249.) We briefly summarize the proposed methods and their shortcomings.
The traditional method of ascertaining the high watermark in tidal waters is of little help. The height of the tides is determined primarily by the gravitational effects of the sun and the moon; these effects run one complete cycle every 18.6 years. The high tide is generally computed by averaging the high tides occurring over such a period of time. (Borax Consolidated v. City of Los Angeles (1935) 296 U.S. 10, 26-27 [80 L. Ed. 9, 20, 56 S. Ct. 23].) This method is inconsistent with prescriptive rights obtained during a five-year period of time. Moreover, nontidal waters generally, and waters impounded behind a dam in particular, know of no tidal rhythmic regularity. Water stored in reservoirs, like that in uncontrolled lakes and streams, fluctuates with the weather but is also under the direct control of man. Thus, the 18.6-year average is of little utility.
Averaging the high watermarks set over a larger number of years is also inconsistent with the theory of prescriptive rights. Moreover, the method poses two additional problems: (1) determining the number of years over which to average (see, e.g., Willis v. United States (S.D.W.Va. 1943) 50 F. Supp. 99, 101-102; and (2) the danger that a landowner may have to endure excess encroachment in years of above-average waters.
Plaintiffs propose the method traditionally used in free-flowing rivers. The high watermark is defined as the place where the riverbed ends and the riverbank begins. (Howard v. Ingersoll (1851) 54 U.S. 381 [14 L. Ed. 189].) This method involves examining the riverbank to find the highest point where the water's flows have prevented the growth of vegetation. (See Harrison v. Fite (8th Cir. 1906) 148 F. 781, 783.) This method is premised on the assumption that the river will, over a period of time, predictably return to a certain level where it will leave an indelible mark upon its banks. This method is unacceptable for several reasons. First, resort to the physical characteristics of the riverbank is a method of ascertaining the historical levels of water where more accurate measurements are unavailable. Here, we have data accurate to two decimal points and need not rely on physical inspection of vegetation to tell how high the water has risen over time. Moreover, in a reservoir the water level is under the control of man and may fluctuate from month to month and from year to year in only a grossly predictable manner. Thus, the visible vegetation line may be a reflection of only recent events in the reservoir. We conclude the "vegetation test," like the mathematical averaging test, is unsuitable for present purposes.

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