Opinion ID: 600290
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Test of Navigability

Text: 10 The State next argues that the district court applied an incorrect legal standard to determine navigability. The State urges that the court ignored the test of Ramsey River Road Property Owners Ass'n, Inc. v. Reeves, 396 So.2d 873 (La.1981), namely, whether a water body may be used in its ordinary condition as a highway for commerce over which trade and travel may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water given the means of navigation at that time. 396 So.2d at 876. Considering nineteenth century means of navigation in south Louisiana, the State argues, the court should have easily found navigability. 11 The district court, specifically noting that under Ramsey River certain shallow water bodies may be wide enough and contain enough water flow ... to sustain commercial activity such as floating lumber from a nearby sawmill, found, the Lafourche Realty Property before 1902 did not contain any such water body. Even under a floating-lumber test of navigability, 4 the court determined that no navigable water bodies existed on the property. The State's claim that the court exacted too strict a standard of navigability is without merit. Accordingly, there is no error in the finding and conclusion that Louisiana acquired none of the Lafourche Realty property as navigable water bottoms in 1812.