Case Name: C. A. FRENCH, Appellant, v. Frederick L. YOUMANS and Corene H. Youmans, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1973-09-14
Citations: 282 So. 2d 642
Docket Number: No. 72-169
Parties: C. A. FRENCH, Appellant, v. Frederick L. YOUMANS and Corene H. Youmans, Appellees.
Judges: LILES, J., and PIERCE, J., (Ret.), concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 282
Pages: 642–642

Head Matter:
C. A. FRENCH, Appellant, v. Frederick L. YOUMANS and Corene H. Youmans, Appellees.
No. 72-169.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
Sept. 14, 1973.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 19, 1973.
Frank J. Aloia of Adderly, Aloia & Dudley, Cape Coral, for appellant.
Guy H. Amason, Jr., of Roberts, Watson, Taylor & McNeil, Fort Myers, for ap-pellees.

Opinion:
MANN, Chief Judge.
Billy's Creek isn't where it used tó be, and hasn't been for about forty years. There is no authority of record for Lee County to employ its first dragline and a couple of WPA crews to straighten it, nor is there any evidence that making a canal out of a creek is an improvement over the design of the Creator. But there it is, flowing freely and creating an occasional legal problem.
In 1970 French took quitclaim deeds to the land between Billy's Creek Canal, a/k/a Billy's Creek, and the bed of the original, and this ejectment action followed an unpleasant encounter with Youmans, who thought he owned to whichever Billy's Creek the water was in. None of French's predecessors in title seems to have disagreed.
The trial judge's finding of fact that the new, straighter Billy's Creek has been acquiesced in as the boundary of lots fronting on Billy's Creek is amply supported by the record, legally sustained by the Supreme Court's decision in Palm Orange Groves, Inc. v. Yelvington, Fla.1949, 41 So.2d 883, and is hereby
Affirmed.
LILES, J., and PIERCE, J., (Ret.), concur.