Egan v. Hart

• Decision Date: 01 February 1897
• Docket Number: No. 63,63
• Citation: 165 U.S. 188,17 S.Ct. 300,41 L.Ed. 680
• Parties: EGAN et al. v. HART et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

165 U.S. 188

17 S.Ct. 300

41 L.Ed. 680

EGAN et al.

v HART et al.

No. 63.

February 1, 1897.

C. H. Boatner, for plaintiff in error.

A. H. Leonard, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiffs in error, by original and supplemental petitions, sued in order to perpetually enjoin the building by the board of state engineers of the state of Louisiana of a dam across an alleged stream, designated as 'Bayou Pierre.' It was averred that the construction would permanently impair the value of certain real property to the plaintiff belonging, situated in the vicinage of the proposed work; that it was a purely private undertaking, which the board of state engineers was not authorized to do at publicexpense; and that the dike, if carried out, would obstruct the navigation of Bayou Pierre, and would therefore violate the laws of the United States. The state of Louisiana, by intervention, and the defendants, by answers, traversed the averments of the petitions. There was judgment in the trial court rejecting the plaintiffs' demand, which was, on appeal, affirmed by the supreme court of the state of Louisiana. 14 South. 244. To the decree of affirmance this writ of error is prosecuted.

The record before us contains all the testimony introduced and evidence offered in the trial court, all of which was open for consideration and passed upon by the supreme court of the state of Louisiana. On error, however, to a state court, this court cannot re-examine the evidence, and, when the facts are found below, is concluded by such finding. Dower v. Richards, 151 U. S. 658, 14 Sup. Ct. 452; Bartlett v. Lockwood, 160 U. S. 386, 16 Sup. Ct. 334; Stanley v. Schwalby, 162 U. S. 255, 16 Sup. Ct. 754. True it is that in Dower v. Richards the court (referring to the dictum in Republican River Bridge Co. v. Kansas Pac. Ry., 92 U. S. 315, 317) treated as open for further consideration the question whether, in chancery cases, the power existed in this court to review the decision of state courts on both the law and the fact. We, however, conclude that not only the very nature of a writ of error, but also the rulings of this court from the beginning, make it clear that on error to a state court in a chancery case, as in a case at law, when the facts are found by the court below, this court is concluded by such findings. The adjudications are collected very fully in Dower v. Richards, and in the subsequent cases above referred to.

It is likewise settled that on error to the supreme court of Louisiana the opinion of that court is to be treated as part of the record, and that it may be examined in order to ascertain the questions presented, and this court may, for the purpose, not of deciding the facts, buy by way of throwing light on the findings, look into the entire record. Crossley v. City of New Orleans 108 U. S. 105, 2 Sup. Ct. 300; Gross v. Mortgage Co., 108 U. S. 477, 2 Sup. Ct. 940.

Turning to the opinion of the supreme court of Louisiana, it is obvious that it held not only that under the law of Louisiana the board of state engineers was competent to undertake the work in question, and any damage resulting to the plaintiff thereby was absque injuria, but that it also rested its decree upon three propositions, two of fact and one of law, viz.: First, that the construction of the dam was a public work jointly undertaken by the government of the United States and the board of state engineers of the state of Louisiana; second, that the stream across which the dam was to be erected was not navigable, and was hence subject to state control; third, that even if navigable, as the stream was wholly within the state of Louisiana, it was hence exclusively under the dominion of the state law. The findings of the court on these subjects were thus expressed:

'Speaking of the nature of the work, the district judge says: 'It is a public work, planned and located by state authority, and is a part of a system of levees ordered by the state for the prevention of overflows. It is the initial point of a line of levees the propriety, location and construction of which have been determined by the state, acting through the state board of engineers, its accredited and duly-authorized agents. It begins on the highlands on the west bank of the bayou, and extends thence across the bayou to Hart's Island, and from there to Dixie plantation, on Red river.'

'The United States government has contributed four thousand dollars—a sum equal to the price of Hart's contract with the state towards the cost of construction of the line of levees of which the dam in question is a part. Manifestly, the claim that such a work undertaken by the state, with the aid of the general government, is the work of private persons, for private and selfish motives, is absolutely without foundation.

* * *

'As to plaintiffs' contention that Bayou Pierre is a navigable stream, we have carefully considered the voluminous testimony on that part of the case, and we are clear that the upper part of Bayou Pierre, in which the dam in question is situated, is not navigable, and that the navigation of even the lower part of Bayou Pierre, a considerable distance below the dam, is attended with many obstacles and difficulties. On this point the district judge says: 'From Grande Ecore, where it [Bayou Pierre] enters Red river, to a point some miles below its junction with Tone's bayou, a stream flowing out of the river, Bayou Pierre has been frequently navigated by steamboats; but from the point of junction to the dam in question it has never been navigated,...