Opinion ID: 2289766
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Heading: History of Riparian Rights

Text: One is seldom more impressed with Maryland's colonial ties than when provided with the tether of historical tracing of the property rights of riparian owners. A base point from which to begin is found in our most recent restatement of one of our more ancient concepts:    The lands in Maryland covered by water were granted to the Lord Proprietor by Section 4 of the Charter from King Charles I to Caecillius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, his heirs, successors and assigns, who had the power to dispose of such lands, subject to the public rights of fishing and navigation. Brown v. Kennedy, 5 H. & J. 195 (1821). By virtue of Art. 5 of the Declaration of Rights in the Maryland Constitution, the inhabitants of Maryland became entitled to all property derived from and under the Charter and thereafter the State of Maryland had the same title to, and rights in, such lands under water as the Lord Proprietor had previously held. These lands were held by the State for the benefit of the inhabitants of Maryland and this holding is of a general fiduciary character. Kerpelman v. Board of Public Works, 261 Md. 436, 276 A.2d 56 (1971). See also Sollers v. Sollers, 77 Md. 148, 151-152, 26 A. 188 (1892); Hawkins Point Light-House Case, 39 Fed. 77, 79-80 (C.C.D. Md. 1889); Gould on Waters, §§ 32, 42 (3rd Ed. 1900). There is no need to review with particularity the cases defining the rights of a riparian owner at common law as our interpretation of the law for the purposes of this case must be based on the construction given to modern statutes. It suffices to note: By the common law it is well settled, that where land lies adjacent or contiguous to a navigable river, in which there is an ebb and flow of the tide, any increase of soil formed by the gradual and imperceptible recession of the waters, or any gain by the gradual and imperceptible formation of what is called alluvion, from the action of the water in washing it against the fast land of the shore, and there becoming fixed as part of the land itself, shall belong to the proprietor of the adjacent or contiguous land. 2 Bl. Com. 261; Giraud v. Hughes, 1 G. & J. 249. And the right to accretion, thus formed, is considered as an interest appurtenant to the principal land, and belonging, in the nature of an incident, to the ownership of that, rather than as something acquired by prescription or possession, in the ordinary legal sense of those terms. B. & O.R.R. Co. v. Chase, 43 Md. 23, 34-35 (1875). In assessing the changes which have occurred in riparian rights down the corridor of years it is well to keep in mind an appreciation for the basic rationale behind the rule of law which gave to the riparian owner the rights to land surfacing through the process of accretion or reliction. In its nascency, the sole purpose of the rule was to assure to the riparian owner that he would never be cut off from his access to water. If an intervening party were permitted to gain title to accretions or to land exposed by the subsidence of water, the riparian landowner would be deprived of his valuable water-access rights. The first substantial change in riparian rights in Maryland occurred in our colonial period when they were enlarged in specific areas by the enactment of the Act of 1745. Judging the Act of 1745 at its moment in history it becomes apparent that, as was stated by Alvey, C.J. in B. and O.R.R. Co. v. Chase, supra : By the Act of 1745, ch. 9, sec. 10, which was a supplement to the Act incorporating Baltimore Town, it was provided that `All improvements of what kind soever, either wharves, houses or other buildings that have been or shall be made out of the water, or where it usually flows, (as an encouragement for such improvers) shall be forever deemed the right, title and inheritance of such improvers, their heirs and assigns forever.' 43 Md. at 32-33. This Act of 1745 was obviously passed to accommodate the growing pains of a burgeoning colony as a prelude to the state and nation to be. Environmental factors and ecological balances were not yet the concern of the people of this new land. Their concern was the building of a bustling port on the eastern seaboard to support westward expansion of population and commerce. A similar right was given to the property owners of the town of Port Deposit on the Susquehanna River by the Act of 1824. See Tome Institute v. Crothers, 87 Md. 569, 40 A. 261 (1898). [2] In 1860 the General Assembly repealed the Act of 1745 by a new codification of Maryland Laws which, with regard to riparian owners, restated a modified version of Ch. 168 of the Laws of 1835, which had provided for the construction of wharves on the navigable waters of the State. See Power, Chesapeake Bay in Legal Perspective, U.S. Dept. of Interior (1970), p. 97. The act to which we now direct attention, and which is vital to several of the issues resolved in the court below, is the Act of 1862. Chapter 129 of the Acts of 1862 (which at the time of the institution of this action was codified as Maryland Code (1968 Repl. Vol.), Art. 54, §§ 45, 46 and 48), provided:  Whereas, Doubts are entertained in regard to the extent of the rights of proprietors bounding on navigable waters, to accretions to said land, and to extend improvements into said waters; for the purposes of solving such doubts, therefore,    [Sec. 45] The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable waters of this State, is hereby declared to be entitled to all accretions to said land by the recession of said water, whether heretofore or hereafter formed or made by natural causes or otherwise, in like manner and to like extent as such right may or can be claimed by the proprietor of land bounding on water not navigable. [Sec. 46] The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable waters of this State, is hereby declared to be entitled to the exclusive right of making improvements into the waters in front of his said land; such improvements, and other accretions as above provided for, shall pass to the successive owners of the land to which they are attached, as incident to their respective estates. But no such improvement shall be so made as to interfere with the navigation of the stream of water into which the said improvement is made. [Sec. 48] No patent hereafter issued out of the Land Office shall impair or affect the rights of riparian proprietors, as explained and declared in the two sections next preceding this section, and no patent shall hereafter issue for land covered by navigable waters.