Opinion ID: 2388227
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Reception of the Principles of the Ordinance into the Common Law of Maine

Text: The District of Maine did not become part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1692. By its terms, the Ordinance did not apply to the territory that is now Maine, nor did the legislative body responsible for its enactment have governing authority over that territory. Moreover, prior to the separation of Maine from Massachusetts the Ordinance was annulled with the charter by the authority of which it was made. Storer v. Freeman, 6 Mass. 435, 438 (1810). Ten years before Maine's separation, however, the private ownership created by the ordinance was declared part of the common law of Massachusetts. [A]n usage has prevailed, which now has force as our common law, that the owner of lands bounded on the sea or salt water shall hold to low water mark, so that he does not hold more than one hundred rods below high water mark. Id. [5] Relying on the prevailing usage referred to in Storer v. Freeman , this Court had held for over 150 years that the Colonial Ordinance is a part of Maine common law. In Lapish v. Bangor Bank, 8 Me. 85 (1831), the issue was whether a deed conveying lands along the Penobscot conveyed the intertidal lands as well as the upland. This Court rejected the argument that the Colonial Ordinance was not applicable either by enactment, construction or adoption. Ever since [ Storer v. Freeman ], as well as long before, the law on this point has been considered as perfectly at rest; and we do not feel ourselves at liberty to discuss it as an open question. We deem the usage in question as applicable to ... this species of property. Id. at 93. Fiftyone years later, in Barrows v. McDermott, 73 Me. 441 (1882), the plaintiff argued that the Ordinance did not apply to lands situated within the ancient Acadia. We acknowledged that the Ordinance did not extend to Maine by its terms but we regarded the Ordinance as part of the common law of Maine by virtue of public acceptance and usage. We described the precise method of adoption in the following terms: It [the Ordinance] is not adopted solely at the discretion of the court declaring its adoption, but because the court find (sic) that it has been so largely accepted and acted on by the community as law that it would be fraught with mischief to set it aside. Id. at 448. Although not explicitly noted, we relied upon the two elements classically considered essential for the legal recognition of custom, namely, long-continuing usage and tacit consent or general agreement. See Schiller Custom in Classical Roman Law, 24 Va.L.Rev. 268, 272 (1937-1938). Stated accurately, Maine did not adopt the Ordinance but rather fashioned the law from the custom and usage that grew out of the Ordinance. [6] Although such a clear example of law developed from custom and usage is rare, the jurisprudential concept is of ancient origin. Julian, a classical jurist of the highest prestige describes the use of custom as a source of Roman law in the classical era (roughly 150 B.C. to 235 A.D.): Immemorial custom is properly preserved as law and this is the law that is said to have been enacted by usage. For since statutes bind us for no other reason than that they have been received by the opinion of the people, properly also those things which the people have approved without any writing at all will bind all; for what does it matter whether the people declares its will by vote or by circumstances and conduct? Wherefore even this principle is most rightly received that statutes are abrogated not only by vote of the legislator but also by the tacit consent of all through desuetude. [7] J. Dawson, The Oracles of the Law 128 (1968) (quoting Dig. 1.3.32 (Julianus, Dig. 94)). I conclude that the source of the law of private ownership of the Maine shore is this Court's recognition of usage and public acceptance. No deed of transfer or legislative grant created the existing scheme of private ownership, but rather the plaintiffs' ownership is derived exclusively from customary law. The public rights, on the other hand, existed at common law and predated the Ordinance and the custom of private ownership. [8] Accordingly, disputes concerning previously undefined attributes of public rights and private ownership should be resolved by resort to the original sources, the common law and custom. As illustrated by the process of adopting the Colonial Ordinance in Maine, custom is an unwieldy source of law. Obvious difficulties are involved in documenting and proving the dynamic process of public usage and acceptance. Even once established, however, custom is rarely sufficiently comprehensive to resolve all areas of conflict and dispute. The present case is no exception.