Opinion ID: 374364
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Nebraska Law.

Text: 9 On review of the governing principles of state law, we hold the district court's interpretation of Nebraska law was incorrect, and adhere to our prior opinion that all parties making claim against the Tribe, with the exception of the State of Iowa, demonstrated only speculative and conjectural evidence of their right to have title to the reservation land, which was granted to the Tribe by the Treaty of 1854, quieted in them. We hold that those parties failed to sustain the burden of proof placed upon them by 25 U.S.C. § 194 and title to the land in question should be quieted in the Tribe. 2 10 Our disagreement with the district court was with its broad definition of accretion and correspondingly narrow definition of avulsion. We stated: 11 The trial court . . . held that a sudden and unusual (erratic) jump or movement of the thalweg without evidence of identifiable land in place falls within the historical rule of accretion. We find this ruling inconsistent with settled principles governing the rule of accretion and the broader parameters involving the doctrine of avulsion. 12 575 F.2d at 639. 13 We also held the district court erroneously placed the burden of proof on the Tribe, although it did not give defendants the benefit of a presumption of accretion. Id. at 633. The result was that defendants received the benefit of any favorable inferences from sketchy proof of avulsion: what was not clearly proved avulsive must, in the district court's view, be the result of accretion. 14 The Supreme Court's decision makes it clear that defendants shoulder the burden of persuasion on the question of whether the Tribe is no longer entitled to possession of the area which was in the past part of its reservation. To quiet title in themselves, defendants must show the strength of their title; they must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the River changed by the process called accretion. Thus they do not have the advantage, as they did under the trial court's reasoning, of inferences drawn from any weaknesses in evidence tending to show avulsion. See Mitchell v. Beermann, 175 Neb. 616, 620, 122 N.W.2d 525, 527 (1963); Jones v. Schmidt, 170 Neb. 351, 355, 102 N.W.2d 640, 644 (1960); De Long v. Olsen, 63 Neb. 327, 329, 88 N.W. 512, 513 (1901). 15 Upon examination of Nebraska case law, we conclude Nebraska adheres to the common law principles governing avulsion and accretion set forth in our earlier opinion. 3 Federal and Nebraska law do not differ substantially in the basic definition of the terms, perhaps because of the shared origin of the common law principles in Roman and early English law. Our prior analysis, commencing with early definitions from the Institutes of Justinian through the early United States Supreme Court cases including Missouri v. Kentucky, 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 395, 20 L.Ed. 116 (1870); Jefferis v. East Omaha Land Co., 134 U.S. 178, 10 S.Ct. 518, 33 L.Ed. 872 (1890); Nebraska v. Iowa, 143 U.S. 359, 12 S.Ct. 396, 36 L.Ed. 186 (1892), and this court's decisions in Davis v. Anderson-Tully Co., 252 F. 681 (8th Cir. 1918); Commissioners of Land Office v. United States, 270 F. 110 (8th Cir. 1920), appeal dismissed, 260 U.S. 753, 43 S.Ct. 14, 67 L.Ed. 497 (1922), finds full accord in Nebraska case law. Nearly all the earlier Nebraska cases we have examined rely upon these and other early federal cases for definitions of accretion and avulsion. 16 The early United States Supreme Court cases of Mayor, Aldermen & Inhabitants of New Orleans v. United States, 35 U.S. (10 Pet.) 662, 9 L.Ed. 573 (1836) and County of St. Clair v. Lovingston, 90 U.S. (23 Wall.) 46, 23 L.Ed. 59 (1874), were cited as rules of decision and quoted in the early Nebraska case of Gill v. Lydick, 40 Neb. 508, 59 N.W. 104 (1894), and also in Frank v. Smith, 138 Neb. 382, 293 N.W. 329 (1940). As the Nebraska Supreme Court stated in Lienmann v. Sarpy County, 145 Neb. 382, 392, 16 N.W.2d 725, 729 (1944), citing several representative cases, it has repeatedly followed the rules of law as stated in State of Nebraska v. Iowa, supra. See also, Mercurio v. Duncan, 131 Neb. 767, 769, 269 N.W. 901, 902 (1936); Independent Stock Farm v. Stevens, 128 Neb. 619, 621, 259 N.W. 647, 648 (1935); Iowa Railroad Land Co. v. Coulthard, 96 Neb. 607, 610, 148 N.W. 328, 329 (1914); De Long v. Olsen, 63 Neb. at 331, 88 N.W. at 514. Principles articulated by this court in Commissioners of Land Office v. United States, 270 F. 110 (8th Cir. 1920), appeal dismissed, 260 U.S. 753, 43 S.Ct. 14, 67 L.Ed. 497 (1922), were quoted with approval in State v. Ecklund, 147 Neb. 508, 521-22, 23 N.W.2d 782, 789-90 (1946) and were applied in Durfee v. Keiffer, 168 Neb. 272, 280, 95 N.W.2d 618, 624 (1959), and Frank v. Smith, 138 Neb. at 392, 293 N.W. at 334-35. An even earlier eighth circuit case, Whiteside v. Norton, 205 F. 5 (8th Cir. 1913), appeal dismissed, 239 U.S. 144, 36 S.Ct. 97, 60 L.Ed. 186 (1915), was also followed in Durfee v. Keiffer. As the district court stated: Nebraska law has relied heavily on federal law in formulating its definitions of accretion and avulsion. United States v. Wilson, 433 F.Supp. at 65. 17 The case of Nebraska v. Iowa, 143 U.S. 359, 12 S.Ct. 396, 36 L.Ed. 186 (1892), which has had a seminal influence on the development of the legal definitions of accretion and avulsion in Nebraska case law, established that while the nature of the Missouri River might lead one to assume otherwise, the law of boundary changes due to diminution and accretion could apply to the River, at least in the mere washing of the waters of the stream. Id. at 370, 12 S.Ct. at 400. While erosion might take place rapidly on the banks of the Missouri, the boundary change rule would still apply as long as the land eroded so as to be completely disintegrated, and the accretion, despite the unusual rapidity of the erosion, was a mere gradual and imperceptible process. Id. at 369, 12 S.Ct. at 399; see also, De Long v. Olsen, 63 Neb. at 331, 88 N.W. at 514. 18 As Nebraska case law makes clear, this basic statement of accretive change in the Missouri River has two elements. First, a boundary changes only where the River's change of channel is caused by a process of erosion or excavation of earth from one bank and deposition of unidentifiable silt and sediment on the other the land between the old and new channels must be completely disintegrated. This point is made most dramatically in State v. Ecklund, a case in which title to old river bed land, bared by a river's gradual change in channel, was retained in accordance with the original boundary line, as is the case in avulsion. The river movement was not accretive, as the term is legally defined, because the river did not shift its channel by excavating or eroding intervening land, but by flowing around it. 147 Neb. at 523, 23 N.W.2d at 789. Other cases, involving title to islands rather than old river bed land, also illustrate the principle. E. g., Valder v. Wallis, 196 Neb. 222, 242 N.W.2d 112 (1976); Durfee v. Keiffer. 19 The second element, stressed by the court in Nebraska v. Iowa, is that no matter how rapid and great is the abrasion and washing away, or the diminution, of soil, the accretion (or reliction) of soil is always gradual and by the imperceptible deposit of floating particles of earth. 143 U.S. at 368-69, 12 S.Ct. at 399. 4 This point, the gradual and imperceptible nature of accretive change as stressed in Nebraska v. Iowa, is evident in Nebraska cases. 5 See, e. g., Bouvier v. Stricklett, 40 Neb. 792, 798-99, 59 N.W. 550, 553 (1894); Gill v. Lydick, 40 Neb. at 512, 59 N.W. at 105; Mercurio v. Duncan, 131 Neb. at 768-69, 269 N.W. at 903; Jones v. Schmidt, 170 Neb. at 356, 102 N.W.2d at 644. 20 Clear distinctions become obscured when applied to the actual movement of uncontrolled rivers, as we noted in our prior opinion. Nevertheless, the elements of river channel change through the process of excavation or erosion and deposition or accretion must have been established for defendants to have met their burden of proof under Nebraska law. Not only is accretive change defined more precisely in Nebraska law than in the district court's opinion, but correspondingly, the Nebraska Supreme Court's definition of avulsion is similar to that set forth in our prior opinion as the federal standard, in that it is not as narrow as the district court's reasoning would indicate. 6 In contrast to the process of erosion and gradual deposition, avulsive movements of a river channel are characterized primarily by their suddenness and perceptibility. 21 The Nebraska cases indicate Nebraska follows the basic common law principle: avulsion occurs when there is a sudden and rapid change of the channel, within or without the bed of a stream, whether or not intervening land is submerged during a sudden flood. A recent definition given by the Nebraska Supreme Court indicates the broad parameters of avulsive movement include movement within the river bed, and also illustrates the primary emphasis on sudden change: 22  'Avulsion' is a sudden and perceptible loss or addition to land by the action of water, or a sudden change in the bed or course of a stream. 78 Am.Jur.2d, Waters, s. 406, p. 852. See, also, Ziemba v. Zeller, 165 Neb. 419, 86 N.W.2d 190; Mercurio v. Duncan, 131 Neb. 767, 269 N.W. 901. 23 Valder v. Wallis, 196 Neb. 222, 224, 242 N.W.2d 112, 114 (1976) (emphasis added). 24 Other cases stress the sudden character of avulsive change as its primary distinction from the process of erosion and gradual deposition. See, e. g., Gill v. Lydick, 40 Neb. at 512, 59 N.W. at 105 ((B)ut, if the alteration takes place suddenly, the land thus formed does not belong to the proprietor of the adjoining soil.); Wiggenhorn v. Kountz, 23 Neb. at 694, 37 N.W. at 605 (quoting 3 Washburn R.P. 60 (4th ed.)) ( 'The difference between avulsion, . . . and alluvion, consists in the one being done by imperceptible loss from the land of one, and increment to that of the other; and in the other, its being done suddenly, to an extent which can be ascertained and measured.' ); Ingraham v. Hunt, 159 Neb. 725, 732, 68 N.W.2d 344, 348-49 (1955) (a flood suddenly, violently, and visibly, by avulsion, changed its channel . . . during the next few years, there were several flash floods which again suddenly, violently, and visibly by avulsion moved the channel . . . .); Jones v. Schmidt, 170 Neb. at 356, 102 N.W.2d at 644 (Some of the new structures (of land) came into being with suddenness, and others imperceptibly by addition over long periods of time to other structures . . . the latter . . . is termed accretion.) 7 25 Thus, in a channel shift the primary distinction in Nebraska law is between sudden and perceptible change and the process of erosion and gradual, imperceptible deposition. We adhere, therefore, to our earlier holding that the district court erred in including within the definition of accretive change a sudden movement without evidence of identifiable land in place. 8 Defendants' burden is not met by the absence of proof of identifiable land in place; of greater importance is the sufficiency of proof of erosion and gradual accretion. Because the unusually sudden and rapid erosion on the Missouri blurs the theoretical distinction between avulsion and accretion, the presence of identifiable land in place may have significant probative value in that it disproves one element of accretive change: erosion. Omaha Indian Tribe v. Wilson, 575 F.2d at 637. The absence of identifiable land above high water cannot make defendants' case, however. Erosion must be shown; the mere fact that intervening land was once submerged does not yield the inference of river movement by accretion. For instance, in State v. Ecklund, the intervening land in a channel change was old river bed land. This fact alone did not justify application of the rule of accretion, however. The boundary remained the same, because the cause of the channel change was not gradual movement across the land by excavation and accretion, but diversion of the river's flow around a body of land. Ecklund relied upon an early opinion of this court concerning the situation where change, albeit gradual, is not due to erosion and subsequent accretion: 26 To this rule, however, there is a well-established and rational exception. It is that, where a river changes its main channel, not by excavating, passing over, and then filling the intervening place between its old and its new main channel, but by flowing around this intervening land, which never becomes in the meantime its main channel, and the change from the old to the new main channel is wrought during many years by the gradual or occasional increase from year to year of the proportion of the waters of the river passing over the course which eventually becomes the new main channel, and the decrease from year to year of the proportion of its waters passing through the old main channel until the greater part of its waters flow through the new main channel, the boundary line between the estates remains in the old channel subject to such changes in that channel as are wrought by erosion or accretion while the water in it remains a running stream. 27 147 Neb. at 522, 23 N.W.2d at 789-90 (quoting Commissioners of Land Office v. United States, 270 F. at 113). 9 28 Because both inundation and baring of land are part of the swift change process referred to as avulsion, see Beck, The Wandering Missouri River: A Study in Accretion Law, 43 N.D.L.Rev. 429, 431 (1967), intact land may well be temporarily under high water. As was noted by the district court, 433 F.Supp. at 65, when a bank is composed of point bar deposits, or sand and sediment, it may be difficult to detect land present prior to the swift inundation and baring of avulsive movement. Similarly, deposits of alluvion which increase a bank by accretion may follow avulsive changes. See, e. g., Independent Stock Farm v. Stevens, 128 Neb. at 622, 259 N.W. at 649. Therefore, evidence of relative variations in water elevation at different times and some changes in topographical conditions alone is not sufficient to prove accretion. See e. g., Jones v. Schmidt, 170 Neb. 351, 358, 102 N.W.2d 640, 645 (1960). 29 We conclude both Nebraska and federal common law apply the same basic definitions of avulsion and accretion to boundary disputes caused by a river channel change. We hold the district court incorrectly interpreted the Nebraska cases to hold that all river movements, other than those in which intervening land above the high water mark is identifiably in place, are included within the term accretion. Thus, our review of the evidence in sections VI VIII of our prior opinion compels the same holding: defendants' evidence supports only speculative inferences as to whether the thalweg moved by accretion or avulsion in the critical time periods. Inferences drawn from the 1879 map, admittedly prepared at high water, are inconclusive; prior alluvion in that area means identifying features would be few; erosion on the surface of the point of land could have occurred as it was bared following swift inundation in the avulsive process. As we observed in our earlier opinion, the evidence strongly suggests avulsive change in 1879 through a series of chute channels or a cut-off across the neck of the Blackbird Bend. As to the later time periods, the little scientific evidence there is in the record contradicts the defendants' theory. 30