Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/260/127/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 05:53:18+00:00

Document:
1. The Missouri statute declaring that title to all birds, game, and fish shall be in the state, Rev.Stats. Mo.1909, § 6508; 1919, § 5581, speaks only in aid of the state's power of regulation, leaving the land owner's property in these things otherwise unaffected. P. 260 U. S. 135.
2. Unlike wild birds and fish, live mussels, which have practically a fixed habitat in the bottom of a stream and little ability to move, are in the possession of the owner of the land, as are, even more obviously, the shells taken from such mussels and piled upon the bank. P. 260 U. S. 135.
3. Such possession is enough to warrant recovery of substantial damages for conversion by a trespasser. P. 260 U. S. 136.
4. But a license to take such mussels from unenclosed and uninhabited places may be implied from custom, the more readily where statutory prohibitions are limited to enclosed and cultivated land and private ponds, as by Rev.Stats. Mo.1919, § 5662, 3654. P. 260 U. S. 136.
5. The existence of such custom and license, and whether it extends beyond occasional uses to systematic extraction of mussels in large quantities for commercial purpose, held for the jury. P. 260 U. S. 136.
of stones, mineral, etc.," or other substance or material being part of the realty." P. 260 U. S. 137.
7. Damages recoverable by the landowner for mussels taken by trespass but in a belief of right due to a mistaken interpretation of the state game laws are limited to the value at the time of conversion. P. 260 U. S. 137.
Certiorari to a judgment of the circuit court of appeals reversing a judgment for the present petitioners in an action for damages brought by the respondent Gratz to recover the manufactured value of over 300 tons of mussel shells which were dug from a stream bed on his land (then of his assignor) and converted into buttons; also for triple damages under a Missouri statute.
This is a suit brought by the respondent, who is also a cross-petitioner, to recover the value of mussel shells removed from the lands of the respondent's assignor and manufactured by the petitioners into buttons. It was brought in a court of the State of Missouri, but was removed to the district court of the United States. There were two counts; one simply for the conversion of the shells and a second alleging that the shells were part of the realty, and that the plaintiff was entitled to treble damages under Rev.Stats.Mo.1909, § 5448 (Rev.Stats.Mo.1919, § 4242). At the trial, the district court directed a verdict for the defendants, and the judgment was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. Gratz v. McKee, 258 F. 335. The main question was disposed of on the ground that, by the Statutes of Missouri, Rev.Stats.1909, §§ 6508, 6551, the title to the mussels was in the state.
As to the second count, it was held that the mussels were not part of the realty. Later, a rehearing was granted, and while the Court adhered to its former opinion on the second count, it rightly, as we think, held that the statutes declaring the title to game and fish to be in the state spoke only in aid of the state's power of regulation, and left the plaintiff's interest what it was before. See Missouri v. Holland, 252 U. S. 416, 252 U. S. 434. It assumed that the defendants were trespassers, and sent the case back for a new trial on that footing, the damages to be confined to the value of the shells at the date of conversion, and not to include that subsequently added by manufacturing them into buttons. Gratz v. McKee, 270 F. 713.
await transportation. Northern Pacific R. Co. v. Lewis, 162 U. S. 366, 162 U. S. 378, 162 U. S. 382. Possession is enough to warrant recovery of substantial damages for conversion by a trespasser. We say nothing about the character of the stream as to navigability. The jury at least might find that there was nothing in that to prevent the application of what we have said. We are slow to believe that there were public rights extending to the removal of mussels against the landowner's will.
right. Chenery v. Fitchburg R. Co., 160 Mass. 211, 212.
As to the rule of damages in case the plaintiff recovers, in the absence of a decision by the supreme court of the state, we should not regard the mussels as part of the realty within the meaning of the statute relied upon in the second count, and, so far as appears at present, we see no reason for charging the defendants, if at all, with more than the value of the mussels at the time of conversion as ruled below. Wetherbee v. Green, 22 Mich. 311; Wooden-Ware Co. v. United States, 106 U. S. 432; Union Naval Stores Co. v. United States, 240 U. S. 284. The result is that this judgment of the circuit court of appeals is affirmed, but not all the principles laid down by it, and that the case will stand for trial by jury in the district court.

References: § 6508
 § 5581
 § 5662
 § 5448
 § 4242
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