Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/243/316/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:38:30+00:00

Document:
The servitude to the interests of navigation of privately owned lands forming the banks and bed of a stream is a natural servitude, confined to such streams as in their ordinary and natural condition are susceptible of valuable public use in navigation, and confined to the natural condition of such streams.
When navigable streams affording ways of commerce between states are improved by the federal government by means of locks and dams which raise the water above its natural level, the streams as thus improved remain navigable waters of the United States for all purposes of federal jurisdiction and regulation.
The power of the federal government to improve navigable streams in the interest of interstate and foreign commerce must be exercised, when private property is taken, in subordination to the Fifth Amendment.
(1) That this amounted to a partial taking of the property.
(2) That the United States was liable ex contractu to compensate the owner to the extent of the injury.
(3) That, upon payment, the United States would acquire an easement to overflow the land as often as would necessarily result from the use of the lock and dam for navigation, the fee, however, remaining in the private owner.
ford over the tributary used in connection with a private way appurtenant to the land.
A like improvement of the Kentucky River, in Kentucky, by raising its water above natural level raised in like manner the water in a nonnavigable tributary on which were a privately owned mill and millsite, thus ending the usefulness of the mill by doing away with the head of water necessary to run it. Held that the mill owner, to whom also, under the law of Kentucky, belonged the bed of the tributary with the right to have the water flow there free from artificial obstruction, was entitled ex contractu to recover from the United States an amount equal to the depreciation of the mill property resulting from the loss of water power.
The right to have the water of a nonnavigable stream flow away from riparian land without artificial obstruction is not a mere easement or appurtenance, but exists by the law of nature as an inseparable part of the land itself.
Section 152 of the Judicial Code, permitting costs against the United States in claims cases, although appearing in the chapter entitled "The Court of Claims," is not confined to cases in that court, but applies also when the district court is exercising concurrent jurisdiction under § 24. This conclusion results from a consideration of the Tucker Act, of March 3, 1887, c. 359, 24 Stat. 505, and §§ 294 and 295 of the Code, read in connection with the repealing section, 297.
the 20th paragraph of § 24, Judicial Code (Act of March 3, 1911, c. 231, 36 Stat. 1087), to recover compensation for the taking of lands and water rights by means of backwater resulting from the construction and maintenance by the government of certain locks and dams upon the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers, respectively, in the State of Kentucky, in aid of the navigation upon those rivers.
In No. 84, the findings of the district court are, in substance, that at the time of the erection of Lock and Dam No. 21 in the Cumberland River, the plaintiff was the owner of 189 acres of land on Whiteoak Creek, a tributary of the Cumberland, not far distant from the river; that, by reason of the erection of the lock and dam, six and six-tenths acres of this land are subject to frequent overflows of water from the river, so as to depreciate it one half of its value, and a ford across Whiteoak Creek and a part of a pass-way are destroyed; that the six and six-tenths acres were worth $990, and the damage thereto was $495; that the damage to the land by the destruction of the ford was $500, and that plaintiff was entitled to recover the sum of $995. It may be supposed that Whiteoak Creek was not a navigable stream, but there is no finding on the subject.
the mill; that no part of the land or mill is overflowed or covered by pool stage of water, nor is the mill physically damaged thereby; that Miller's Creek is not a navigable stream; that the damages sustained by the owners of the mill, representing depreciation of the value of the mill property by cutting off the water power, amount to $1,500.
Judgments were entered in favor of the respective landowners for the sums mentioned in the findings, together with interest and the costs of the suits, and the United States appealed to this Court.
(1) A fundamental contention made in behalf of the government, and one that applies to both cases, is that the control by Congress, and the Secretary of War acting for it, over the navigation of the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers must also include control of their tributaries, and that, in order to improve navigation at the places mentioned in the findings, it was necessary to erect dams and back up the water, and the right to do this must include also the right to raise the water in the tributary streams.
In passing upon this contention, we may assume, without, however, deciding, that the rights of defendants in error are no greater than if they had been riparian owners upon the rivers, instead of upon the tributary creeks.
among the states and with foreign nations (Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1, 152 U. S. 40; Gibson v. United States, 166 U. S. 269, 166 U. S. 272; Scott v. Lattig, 227 U. S. 229, 227 U. S. 243); the exercise of this authority being subject, in its turn, to the inhibition of the Fifth Amendment against the taking of private property for public use without just compensation (Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U. S. 312, 148 U. S. 336; United States v. Lynah, 188 U. S. 445, 188 U. S. 465, 188 U. S. 471).
The State of Kentucky, like most of the states of the Union, determines the navigability of her streams, so far as the public right is concerned, not by the common law test of the ebb and flow of the tide -- manifestly inapplicable in a state so wholly remote from the sea -- but by the test of navigability in fact (Thurman v. Morrison, 53 Ky. 367; Morrison v. Thurman, 56 Ky. 249; Goodin v. Kentucky Lumber Co., 90 Ky. 625; Murray v. Preston, 106 Ky. 561, 564; Banks v. Frazier, 111 Ky. 909, 912; Ireland v. Bowman, 130 Ky. 153, 161), while sustaining private ownership of the beds of her streams, both navigable and nonnavigable, according to the common law rule (Berry v. Snyder, 66 Ky. 266, 273, 277; Miller v. Hepburn, 71 Ky. 326, 331; Williamsburg Boom Co. v. Smith, 84 Ky. 372, 374; Wilson v. Watson, 141 Ky. 324, 327; Robinson v. Wells, 142 Ky. 800, 804), with incidental rights to flow of the stream in its natural state (Anderson v. Cincinnati Southern R. Co., 86 Ky. 44, 48).
179 U. S. 141, 179 U. S. 163; Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson, 223 U. S. 605, 223 U. S. 634; United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co., 229 U. S. 53, 229 U. S. 62; Lewis Blue Point Oyster Cultivation Co. v. Briggs, 229 U. S. 82, 229 U. S. 85-88; Greenleaf-Johnson Lumber Co. v. Garrison, 237 U. S. 251, 237 U. S. 268; Willink v. United States, 240 U. S. 572, 240 U. S. 580.
But this rule, like every other, has its limits, and in the present cases, which require us to ascertain the dividing line between public and private right, it is important to inquire what are "navigable streams" within the meaning of the rule.
contrary. An apparent but not a real exception is the New York case of Canal Appraisers v. People ex Rel. Tibbits (1836), 17 Wend. 571, where the decision was rested (pp. 609, 612, 624) upon the ground that the bed of the Mohawk River was the property of the state, the authority of the case having been limited accordingly by later decisions of the court of last resort of that state. Commissioners of Canal Fund v. Kempshall, 26 Wend. 404, 416; Child v. Starr, 4 Hill, 369, 372; Ft. Plain Bridge Co. v. Smith, 30 N.Y. 44, 63; Smith v. Rochester, 92 N.Y. 463, 482; Fulton L., H. & P. Co. v. State, 200 N.Y. 400, 413.
Many state courts, including the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, have held also that the legislature cannot, by simple declaration that a stream shall be a public highway, if in fact it be not navigable in its natural state, appropriate to public use the private rights therein without compensation. Morgan v. King, 18 Barb. 277, 284, 35 N.Y. 454, 459, 461; Chenango Bridge Co. v. Paige, 83 N.Y. 178, 185; Murray v. Preston, 106 Ky. 561, 563; Stuart v. Clark's Lessee, 32 Tenn. 9, 17; Walker v. Board of Public Works, 16 Ohio, 540, 544; Olive v. State, 86 Ala. 88, 92; People ex Rel. Ricks Water Co. v. Elk River Mill & Lumber Co., 107 Cal. 221, 224. And see Thunder Bay River Booming Co. v. Speechly, 31 Mich. 336, 345; Koopman v. Blodgett, 70 Mich. 610, 616.
This Court has followed the same line of distinction.
"A different test must therefore be applied to determine the navigability of our rivers, and that is found in their navigable capacity. Those rivers must be regarded as public navigable rivers in law which are navigable in fact. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water."
which were vessels from 70 to 100 feet in length, with 12 feet beam and drawing, when loaded, from 2 to 2 1/2 feet of water. The Court, by Mr. Justice Davis, declared (p. 87 U. S. 441) that it would be a narrow rule to hold that, in this country, unless a river was capable of being navigated by steam or sail vessels, it could not be treated as a public highway.
"The capability of use by the public for purposes of transportation and commerce affords the true criterion of the navigability of a river, rather than the extent and manner of that use. If it be capable in its natural state of being used for purposes of commerce, no matter in what mode the commerce may be conducted, it is navigable in fact, and becomes in law a public river or highway."
"There are but few of our fresh water rivers which did not originally present serious obstructions to an uninterrupted navigation. In some cases, like the Fox River, they may be so great while they last as to prevent the use of the best instrumentalities for carrying on commerce, but the vital and essential point is whether the natural navigation of the river is such that it affords a channel for useful commerce. If this be so, the river is navigable in fact, although its navigation may be encompassed with difficulties by reason of natural barriers, such as rapids and sand bars."
Numerous decisions of state courts were cited as supporting this view, including some of those to which we have referred.
"erect such works as may be deemed expedient for the purpose of improving the navigation and increasing usefulness of a navigable river, without rendering itself liable to individuals owning land bordering on such river, for injuries to their lands resulting from their overflow by reason of such improvements."
This Court overruled the contention, and held there was a taking without compensation, contrary to the applicable provision of the Constitution of Wisconsin.
In United States v. Lynah, 188 U. S. 445, the same principle was applied in the case of an operation by the government of the United States. For the improvement of the navigation of the Savannah River, certain dams and other obstructions were placed and maintained in its bed, with the result of raising the water above its natural height and backing it up against plaintiff's embankment upon the river and interfering with the drainage of their plantation. This was held (pp. 188 U. S. 465, 188 U. S. 471) to be a taking of private property, requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment notwithstanding the work was done by the government in improving the navigation of a navigable river. The raising of the water above its natural level was held to be an invasion of the private property thereby flowed.
In several other cases, the limitation of the public right to the natural state of the stream has been recognized. Packer v. Bird, 137 U. S. 661, 137 U. S. 667; United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 174 U. S. 690, 174 U. S. 698; Leovy v. United States, 177 U. S. 621, 177 U. S. 631.
condition, are navigable in fact and confined to the natural condition of the stream. And, assuming that riparian owners upon nonnavigable tributaries of navigable streams are subject to such inconveniences as may arise from the exercise of the common right of navigation, this in like manner must be limited to the natural right. The findings make it clear that the dams in question, constructed by the government in the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers, respectively, are for raising the level of those streams along certain stretches by means of backwater so as to render them, to the extent of the raising, artificial canals instead of natural waterways. In the language of engineering, the government has "canalized" the rivers. We intimate no doubt of the power of the United States to carry out this kind of improvement. Nor do we doubt that, upon the completion of the improvements, these rivers, the Cumberland because it is an avenue of communication between two states, the Kentucky and also the Cumberland because, in connection with the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, they furnish highways of commerce among many states (Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713, 70 U. S. 725; The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 77 U. S. 563; South Carolina v. Georgia, 93 U. S. 4, 93 U. S. 10) -- remained navigable waters of the United States for all purposes of federal jurisdiction and regulation notwithstanding the artificial character of the improvements (Ex Parte Boyer, 109 U. S. 629, 109 U. S. 632; The Robert W. Parsons, 191 U. S. 17, 191 U. S. 28).
defendants in error as was unaffected by the flow of the rivers or their tributaries prior to the construction of the locks and dams in question was private property, and not subject to be overflowed, without compensation, in the raising of the level of the rivers by means of artificial dams.
These cases have no proper relation to cases such as Gibson v. United States, 166 U. S. 269, where no water was thrown back on claimant's land and the damage was confined to an interference with the access thence to the navigable portion of the river; Scranton v. Wheeler, 179 U. S. 141, 179 U. S. 153, which likewise had to do with the interruption of access from riparian land to a navigable channel; Bedford v. United States, 192 U. S. 127, 192 U. S. 225, where the damage to claimant's land resulted from operation conducted by the government six miles farther up the river; Jackson v. United States, 230 U. S. 1, 230 U. S. 23, where owners of lands on the east bank of the Mississippi claimed compensation as for a taking of their property by reason of the effect of levees built on the west bank opposite their lands as a part of a system of levees designed to prevent crevasses, retain the water in the river, and thus improve the navigation. In each of these, there was no direct invasion of the lands of the claimants, the damages were altogether consequential, and the right to compensation was denied on that ground.
"Where the government, by the construction of a dam or other public works, so floods lands belonging to an individual as to substantially destroy their value, there is a taking within the scope of the Fifth Amendment. While the government does not directly proceed to appropriate the title, yet it takes away the use and value; when that is done, it is of little consequence in whom the fee may be vested. Of course, it results from this that the proceeding must be regarded as an actual appropriation of the land, including the possession, the right of possession, and the fee, and when the amount awarded as compensation is paid, the title, the fee, with whatever rights may attach thereto -- in this case, those at least which belong to a riparian proprietor -- pass to the government, and it becomes henceforth the full owner."
domain. Where formal proceedings are initiated by the party condemning, it is usual and proper to specify the precise interest taken, where less than the fee. But where, as in this case, the property owner resorts to the courts, as he may, to recover compensation for what actually has been taken, upon the principle that the government, by the very act of taking, impliedly has promised to make compensation because the dictates of justice and the terms of the Fifth Amendment so require (United States v. Great Falls Mfg. Co., 112 U. S. 645, 112 U. S. 656; United States v. Lynah, 188 U. S. 445, 188 U. S. 465), and it appears that less than the whole has been taken and is to be paid for, such a right or interest will be deemed to pass as is necessary fairly to effectuate the purpose of the taking, and where, as in this case, with respect to the six and six-tenths acres, land is not constantly, but only at intervals, overflowed, the fee may be permitted to remain in the owner, subject to an easement in the United States to overflow it with water as often as necessarily may result from the operation of the lock and dam for purposes of navigation.
(3) In No. 84, some question is made about the allowance for the damage to the land by the destruction of the ford across Whiteoak Creek and the pass-way, but we deem the objection unsubstantial. It is said there is nothing to show how Cress acquired ownership of the ford, and that it does not appear that he had a right to pass over the adjoining land of one Brown. It seems to us, however, that the findings, while meager, sufficiently import that Cress had a right to a private way and ford as appurtenant to his land, and that the damage to the land by the destruction of the ford was $500. This brings the case squarely within United States v. Welch, 217 U. S. 333, 217 U. S. 339, and United States v. Grizzard, 219 U. S. 180, 219 U. S. 184-185.
"The water above the lock and dam, when it is at pool stage, is about one foot below the crest of the milldam, which prevents the drop in the current which in necessary to run the mill."
Under the law of Kentucky, ownership of the bed of the creek, subject only to the natural flow of the water, is recognized as fully as ownership of the mill itself. The right to have the water flow away from the milldam unobstructed except as in the course of nature is not a mere easement or appurtenance, but exists by the law of nature as an inseparable part of the land. A destruction of this right is a taking of a part of the land. Gardner v. Village of Newburgh, 2 Johns.Ch. 162, 166; Tyler v. Wilkinson, 4 Mason 397, Fed.Cas. No. 14,312; Johnson v. Jordan, 2 Met. 234, 239; Wadsworth v. Tillotson, 15 Conn. 366, 373; Parker v. Griswold, 17 Conn. 288, 299; Harding v. Stamford Water Co., 41 Conn. 87, 92; Holsman v. Boiling Spring Bleaching Co. ,14 N.J.Eq. 335, 343; Beach v. Sterling Iron & Zinc Co., 54 N.J.Eq. 65, 73; Scriver v. Smith, 100 N.Y. 471, 480; Crook v. Hewitt, 4 Wash. 749, 754; Rigney v. Tacoma Light & Water Co., 9 Wash. 576, 583; Benton v. Johncox, 17 Wash. 277, 281; Lux v. Haggin, 69 Cal. 255, 390; Hargrave v. Cook, 108 Cal. 72, 77; Pine v. New York, 103 F. 337, 339; Wood v. Waud, 3 Exch. 748, 775; Dickinson v. Grand Junction Canal Co., 7 Exch. 282, 299; Stokoe v. Singers, 8 El. & Bl. 31, 36 (Erle, J.).
"Sec. 295. The arrangement and classification of the several sections of this Act have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and orderly arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the chapter under which any particular section is placed. "
From this, it is plain that § 152 of the Code applies to suits in the district courts as well as to those in the Court of Claims.
* Wadsworth v. Smith, 11 Me. 278, 281; Brown v. Chadbourne, 31 Me. 9, 21; Treat v. Lord, 42 Me. 552, 561, 562; Pearson v. Rolfe, 76 Me. 380, 385; Moore v. Sanborne, 2 Mich. 519, 523, 524; Thunder Bay River Booming Co. v. Speechly, 31 Mich. 336, 343, 345; Witheral v. Muskegon Booming Co., 68 Mich. 48, 58, 59; Improv. Co. v. Lumber Co., 69 Mich. 207, 212-213; Koopman v. Blodgett, 70 Mich. 610, 616; Goodin's Ex'rs v. Kentucky Lumber Co., 90 Ky. 625, 627; Murray v. Preston, 106 Ky. 561, 565; Banks v. Frazier, 111 Ky. 909, 912; Morgan v. King, 35 N.Y. 454, 459; Chenango Bridge Co. v. Paige, 83 N.Y. 178, 185; Ten Eyck v. Town of Warwick, 27 N.Y.S. 536; Weise v. Smith, 3 Or. 445, 449; Goodwill v. Police Jury, 38 La.Ann. 752, 755; Smith v. Fonda, 64 Miss. 551, 554; East Hoquiam Boom & Logging Co. v. Neeson, 20 Wash. 142, 146; Stuart v. Clark's Lessee, 32 Tenn. 9, 16; Irwin v. Brown, 3 Tenn.Cas. 309; Webster v. Harris, 111 Tenn. 668, 677; Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas R. Co. v. Brooks, 39 Ark. 403, 409,.

References: § 24
 § 24
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 152
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.