Opinion ID: 901273
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicable Navigability Test

Text: [¶ 23.] Since the decision in Illinois Central Railroad , it is commonly accepted that states hold navigable waters, as well as lands beneath them, in trust for the public. Here, we must first determine which navigability test appliesthe federal navigability for title test or the state navigability test. Under the federal test, the question is whether the water body was navigable in fact at the time the state entered the Union. [10] Thus, the waterway must have been susceptible to being used as an avenue of commerce in its ordinary condition at the time of statehood. Utah v. United States, 403 US 9, 91 SCt 1775, 29 LE2d 279 (1971); Hughes v. Washington, 389 US 290, 88 SCt 438, 19 LEd2d 530 (1967); The Daniel Ball , 77 US (10 Wall) 557. Our state navigability test originated in Hillebrand v. Knapp, 65 SD 414, 274 NW 821 (1937). There, the plaintiff sought to enjoin the defendant from cutting hay from a lake bed in front of the plaintiff's property. Id . at 822. This Court ruled that ownership of the bed was in the state. Id. at 822-23. The lake had at no time been used for commerce and was not susceptible to commerce. Id. [¶ 24.] Relying on Lamprey v. Metcalf, 53 NW 1139 (Minn 1893), this Court assumed that it had the jurisdiction to design its own test of navigability for title and applied the pleasure boat test to find the lake navigable. [11] Several other states in the years after Lamprey agreed that navigability for title was to be a state law test, often discarding the notion that the water must be capable of commercial purposes in favor of tests where the water was found naturally suitable for a broad range of public uses. However, the United States Supreme Court has made clear that the navigability for title test is one of federal law. United States v. Utah, 283 US 64, 75, 57 SCt 438, 440-41, 75 LEd 844, 849 (1931) (The question of navigability is a federal question and state laws cannot affect titles vested in the United States.); Holt State Bank , 270 US at 55-56, 46 SCt at 199, 70 LEd at 469 (Navigability is a question of federal law to be determined according to whether the stream or lake is navigable in fact.); Brewer-Elliott Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 260 US 77, 88, 43 SCt 60, 64, 67 LEd 140, 146 (1922) (It is not for a state by courts or legislature, in dealing with the general subject of beds of streams to adopt a retroactive rule for determining navigability which would destroy a title already accrued under federal law and grant or would enlarge what actually passed to the state, at the time of her admission, under the constitutional rule of equality here invoked.). Thus, our Hillebrand state test for navigability is inapplicable to lake beds originating from federal patents. [¶ 25.] Applying the federal navigability for title test to the lakebeds here, we conclude that the title to these beds lies with the landowners. A review of the record reveals no evidence tending to establish navigability in fact or a use of the water for commercial purposes at the time of statehood. In fact, the survey records reveal that there was little, if any, water on these lands at the time the land was surveyed. Therefore, the circuit court properly applied the federal test of navigability, finding that the beds were owned by those holding the federal patent to the property. But we are still left with the question of water ownership as a separate asset.