United States v. Mission Rock Company
Citation | 189 U.S. 391,47 L.Ed. 865,23 S.Ct. 606 |
Decision Date | 13 April 1903 |
Docket Number | No. 198,198 |
Parties | UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err. , v. MISSION ROCK COMPANY |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
district of California, by the United States against the California Dry Dock Company. Pending the hearing, the latter company sold and transferred its title to the Mission Rock Company, a corporation, which thereupon entered into possession of the property. By stipulation the Mission Rock Company was substituted as defendant, and an amended and supplemental complaint was filed.
The property sued for was described by metes and bounds, and, it was alleged, constituted a 'tract of land, being a square, including the rock known as Mission rock, and containing 14.69 acres, more or less, and being a fractional part of the westerly half of section 11, township 2 south, range 5 west, Mount Diablo base and meridian.' Damages and rents and profits were also prayed, in the sum of $355,000.
By consent the case was tried by the court, and its findings, as far as material, are as follows:
'II. At the date of the admission of the state of California into the Union, the premises sued for consisted of two rocks or islands adjacent to one another and projecting above the plane of ordinary high water in the bay of San Francisco, the larger of which rose to a height of more than 20 and less than 40 feet above such high water. Also of other lands contiguous thereto and surrounding said rocks or islands, which were completely submerged and over which the daily tides continuously flowed and ebbed. The rocks or islands referred to are laid down on the chart in this cause, and marked Exhibit 'A.'
'III. The areas of these rocks or islands above ordinary high-water mark at the time of the admission of the state of Cali- fornia into the Union were as follows: The one on the chart called 'Mission rock' had an area of fourteen one-hundredths (14-100) of an acre; the other had an area of one one-hundredth (1-100) of an acre. These rocks or islands rose abruptly out of the bay of San Francisco. Their sides to the extent that they were covered and uncovered by the flow and ebb of the tide varied from 10 to 25 feet, depending on their steepness. Both rocks were barren, without soil or water, and were of no value for purposes agricultural or mineral. They lay at a distance of about half a mile of the then shore line of that part of the bay upon which the city of San Francisco fronted. Navigable water divided and still divides the lands sued for from the mainland, and surrounded and now surrounds them.
'IV. The lands described in the complaint were not, at the date of the admission of the state of California into the Union, within the boundaries of any valid private or pueblo grant of lands of the Spanish or Mexican governments.
'V. No approved plat of the exterior limits of the city of San Francisco, as provided by the terms of § 5 of the act of July 1, 1864 (13 Stat. 332), has been filed or rendered to the General Land Office of the United States, or of the state of California. The lands sued for in this action are within such exterior limits.
'VI. On the 13th day of January, 1899, the President of the United States, purporting to act in conformity with the act of July 1, 1864, already referred to, issued the following order:
William McKinley.'
'The lands herein described include the lands sued for in this action.
'Since the issuance of the state patent hereinbefore referred to, the patentee thereof up to May 1, 1878, the California Dry Dock Company from said time to the 6th day of June, 1900, and the defendant from said last-named date to the present time have been in continuous and uninterrupted possession of the said lands, using the same and the improvements thereon for commercial purposes, and claiming to be the absolute owner thereof.'
The conclusion of the court was that the United States was entitled to the lands sued for, without damages or rents and profits, and judgment was entered accordingly.
The circuit court of appeals reversed the judgment, and remanded the cause, with instructions 'to enter judgment for the plaintiff for the recovery of the possession of the two islands or rocks mentioned in the record, containing, respectively 14-100 of an acre, and 1-100 of an acre, and designated on the official plat on file in the General Land Office, approved October 12, 1898, as lots 1 and 2 of section 11, township 2 south, range 5 west, Mount Diablo meridian, California; and as respects the remainder of the land sued for, that the plaintiff take nothing.' 48 C. C. A. 641, 109 Fed. 763. This writ of error was thereupon sued out.
Solicitor General Richards for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 395-400 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Charles Page, Edward J. McCutchen, and Samuel Knight for defendant in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 400-403 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McKenna, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court:
'It will be observed,' as was said by the circuit court of appeals, 'that the judgment [of the circuit court] is not limited to the two rocks or islands embraced in the executive order of January 13, 1899, the one covering 14-100 and the other 1-100 of an acre, but awards the government the entire tract of 14.69 acres, including the warehouses and other improvements constructed by the defendant and its predecessors in interest.' The circuit court of appeals confined the recovery of the plaintiff to the rocks proper, and awarded the submerged lands to the defendant. The controversy then is, Which party has the title to the latter? The defendant in error is the successor of the rights and title of the California Dry Dock Company, that company being grantee of Henry B. Tichenor, who received the patent for the lands on the 11th of July, 1872, from the state of California, in pursuance of and in conformity with an act of the legislature of the state, entitled, 'An Act to Provide for the Sale and Conveyance of Certain Submerged Lands in the City and County of San Francisco to Henry B. Tichenor.' Cal. Stat. 1870-71, p. 801.
Had the state the title to convey? The plaintiff in error, in effect, contests this, and asserts, besides, a right to the submerged land as an easement appurtenant to the islands.
The title and dominion which a state acquires to lands under tide waters by virtue of her sovereignty received elaborate consideration, exposition, and illustration in the case of Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1-58, 38 L. ed. 331-352, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 548. Prior cases are there collected and quoted, among others, Weber v. State Harbor Comrs. 18 Wall. 65, 21 L. ed. 801. From the latter as follows (and the case concerned tide lands in California): ...
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