Court Opinion

ID: 9854050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:59:51.03152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:53.444604
License: Public Domain

*415Nichols, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
While I concur in Division 1 of the majority opinion and the ultimate conclusion reached in Division 2 that "whatever rights the individual parties to this case may have in the foreshore must be determined under the 1902 Act,” I must dissent from the holding in Division 3 that such Act did not grant title to the foreshore.
In Henderson v. Alexander, 2 Ga. 81, 85 (1847), it was said that the court, in construing statutes, would take its guide from the following rules:
“First. Statutes that are remedial, are to receive an equitable interpretation, by which the letter of the Act is sometimes restrained and sometimes enlarged, so as more effectually to meet the beneficial end in view, and prevent a failure of the remedy. They are to be construed liberally and ultra, but not contra to the strict letter. 1 Kent, 464; Dwarris on Stat. 726.
"Second. It is the duty of Judges so to construe remedial statutes as to repress the mischief and advance the remedy. 11 Coke, 71 b; 1 Kent, 464; and in the application of this rule they are to consider the law as it stood before the act — the mischief against which it did not provide — the remedy which the Legislature has provided and the reason of the remedy.
“Third. The intention of the Legislature is to be deduced from a view of the whole and every part of a statute, taken and compared together. Coke Litt. 381 a; 12 Wheat. R. 332.
“Fourth. The real intention of the Legislature when accurately ascertained will always prevail over the literal sense of terms. 1 Kent, 461; 15 Johns. R. 380; 14 Mass. R. 92.
“Fifth. Several acts in pari materia and relating to the same subject are to taken together and compared in the construction of them, even though some of the statutes have expired, or are not referred to in other Acts. 1 Burrow R. 445; Doug. R. 27; 4 T. R. 447 a 450; Dwarris on Stat., 699.”
"[I]t is the duty of the courts in the construction of *416statutes to give effect to the intention of the legislature when it is ascertainable (Thompson v. Eastern Air Lines, 200 Ga. 216, 222 (39 SE2d 225)); and in construing laws, whether statutory or constitutional, proper regard should be given to the old law, the evil, and the remedy. Walsh v. City Council of Augusta, 67 Ga. 293 (1a); Demere v. Germania Bank, 116 Ga. 317, 318 (42 SE 488); Georgia Railroad & Bkg. Co. v. Wright, 124 Ga. 596, 626 (53 SE 251).” Moore v. Baldwin County, 209 Ga. 541, 545 (74 SE2d 449) (1953).
With these rules in mind, it is necessary to look at the decision of this court in Johnson v. State, 114 Ga. 790 (40 SE 807) (1902). The first headnote in this decision reads: "1. In the absence of special title by grant, lease, prescription, or otherwise, the boundary of a landowner abutting on the ocean, or on any estuary, bay, inlet, or arm thereof where the tide regularly ebbs and flows, extends only to ordinary highwater mark. Sections 3059 and 3060 of the Civil Code are not applicable to such waters.” (Emphasis supplied.) On p. 791 of this opinion it is said: "At common law, in the absence of any special title by grant or prescription, the boundary of landowners abutting on the sea, or upon any estuary, tidal stream, or arm of the seas where there was a regular rise and fall of the tide, extended only to high-water mark. The soil between high-water mark and low-water mark was the property of the crown. This rule, so far as the boundary of the abutting landowner is concerned, has been almost universally followed in the United States. See 4 Am. & Eng. Enc. L. (2d ed.) 818-820, and cases cited; Tyler, Boundaries, 31 et seq.” (Emphasis supplied.)
This same year the General Assembly adopted the Act to be construed. This Act reads as follows in its entirety:
"An Act to fix and prescribe the boundaries of land adjacent to or covered by or bordering on the tide-waters of this State, and to prescribe all rights of the owners of such adjacent lands within such boundaries, and to define navigable tide-waters, and for other purposes.
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same.
*417"Section 1. That from and after the passage of this Act the title to the beds of all tide-waters in this State, where the tide regularly ebbs and flows, and which are not navigable under section 2 of this Act, shall vest in the present owner of the adjacent land for all purposes, including among others, the exclusive right to oysters, clams and other shell fish therein or thereon. If the water is the dividing line, each owner’s boundary shall extend to the main thread or channel of the water. If the main thread, or center, or channel of the water changes gradually, the line follows the same, according to the change. If for any cause it takes a new channel, the original line, if capable of identification, remains the boundary. Gradual accretions of land on either side accrue to the owner.
"Section 2. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That a navigable tide-water, in contemplation of this Act, is any tide-water, the sea, or any inlet thereof, or other bed of water where the tide regularly ebbs and flows, which is in fact used for the purposes of navigation, or is capable of bearing upon its bosom at mean low tide boats loaded with freight in the regular course of trade. The mere rafting of timber thereon, or the passage of small boats thereover, whether for the transportation of persons or freight, shall not be deemed navigation within the meaning of this Act, and does not make tide-water navigable.
"Section 3. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That for all purposes, including among others the exclusive right to the oysters and clams (but not to include other fish) therein or thereon being, the boundaries and rights of owners of land adjacent to or covered in whole or in part by navigable tide-waters, as defined in section 2 of this Act, shall extend to low-water mark in the bed of the water; provided, however, that nothing in this Act contained shall be so construed as to authorize such an exclusive appropriation of any tide-water, navigable or unnavigable, by any person whomsoever, as to prevent the free use of the same by others for purposes of passage and for the transportation of such freights as may be capable of being carried thereover.
*418"Section 4. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with tljis Act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.
"Approved December 16, 1902.” Ga. L. 1902, p. 108 (Code Ann. §§ 85-1307, 85-1308 and 85-1309).
In Johnson v. State, supra, it was specifically held that those sections of the Code now codified as §§ 85-1303 and 85-1304 were not applicable to land abutting tidal waters.
The General Assembly then enacted the Act in question. Section 2 of this Act follows almost verbatim the language of now Code § 85-1303 defining a navigable body of water.
Section 1 of this Act, after providing that title to the beds of all tidewaters in this State which are not navigable shall vest in the present owners of adjacent land for all purposes with certain exceptions, provided, with reference to gradual changes in the channel, the exact language that had been applicable prior thereto to non-navigable streams. Compare Code § 85-1302.
Section 3 of the Act then followed the language in the Johnson decision by providing the location of the boundary of property abutting navigable tidewaters. The Johnson decision places such boundary at the high water mark and the 1902 Act placed the boundary at the low water mark. Thus, it is seen that the evil sought to be remedied was the holding of this court in Johnson v. State, supra, and the only intent that can be gleaned from the Act of 1902 is that the General Assembly intended to extend the boundary of land abutting the tidal-waters of this State from the high water mark to the low water mark or to the middle of the channel in those cases where the title was not already at the low water mark or the middle of the channel.
The question of legislative intent in this case must be decided based upon legislative intent in 1902 and not legislative intent based upon the situation which exists in 1976. In 1902 the foreshore area of this State, which includes thousands upon thousands of acres of marshland, was not considered by the majority of Georgians as having any real value. Since 1902 beach property and marshlands, both of which are included in the definition *419of foreshore, have become important to a majority of the citizens of Georgia. However, this is no reason to place a meaning upon an Act of the General Assembly different than that intended at the time of its adoption. Would the court declare today that landowners actually don’t own the mineral rights to their property should vast deposits of ojl be discovered underlying the surface of the earth in Georgia? While, in 1976, it may be incomprehensible to assume that the General Assembly intended to give to the adjoining landowners the foreshore of the Georgia coast, yet in 1902 this was not the case and, having concluded that title to such foreshore was granted by the 1902 Act and approved by the people in 1945,1 conclude that the effect of the majority opinion is to take private property without the payment of just and adequate compensation as required by the Constitution when private property is taken for public purposes. See "Some Legal Problems Involved in Saving Georgia’s Marshland,” Ga. S. B. J., August, 1970, p. 27.
Having concluded that the title to the foreshore was not in the State, the defendants in the trial court, under the facts in this case, being successors in title to the subdivider were entitled to the accreted land. Compare Akin v. Wallace, 134 Ga. 873 (68 SE 937) (1910).