Phillips Petroleum Company v. Mississippi

• Decision Date: 23 February 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-870,86-870
• Citation: 98 L.Ed.2d 877,108 S.Ct. 791,484 U.S. 469
• Parties: PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY and Cinque Bambini Partnership, Petitioners v. MISSISSIPPI and Saga Petroleum U.S., Inc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

484 U.S. 469

108 S.Ct. 791

98 L.Ed.2d 877

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY and Cinque Bambini Partnership, Petitioners

v MISSISSIPPI and Saga Petroleum U.S., Inc.

No. 86-870.

Argued Nov. 9, 1987.

Decided Feb. 23, 1988.

Rehearing Denied May 16, 1988.

See 486 U.S. 1018, 108 S.Ct. 1760.

Syllabus

Petitioners hold record title to 42 acres of Mississippi land underlying a bayou and a number of streams, which, although several miles north of the Gulf Coast and nonnavigable, are nonetheless influenced by the tide since they are adjacent and tributary to a navigable river flowing into the Gulf of Mexico that is affected by the tide's ebb and flow. Petitioners brought a quiet title suit after the State issued oil and gas leases for the property in question on the theory that it had acquired at the time of statehood and held in public trust all land lying under any waters influenced by the tide, whether navigable or not. The State Supreme Court affirmed the Chancery Court's decision finding that the State had fee simple title to the property, rejecting petitioners' contention that the State had acquired title only to lands under navigable waters.

Held:

1. Since the States, upon entering the Union, were given ownership over all lands beneath waters subject to the tide's influence—see, e.g., Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 14 S.Ct. 548, 38 L.Ed. 331; Knight v. United States Land Assn., 142 U.S. 161, 12 S.Ct. 258, 35 L.Ed. 974—the lands at issue passed to Mississippi at the time of statehood, even though the waters under which they lay were not navigable in fact. Pp. 473-481.

(a) Petitioners' contention that, under the English common-law rule, the Crown's ownership of lands beneath tidewaters actually rested on the navigability of those waters rather than the ebb and flow of the tide, is not persuasive, since the cases relied on by petitioners did not deal with tidal, nonnavigable waters, while Shively v. Bowlby, supra, and its progeny, clearly establish how this Court has interpreted the common law. Although none of the latter cases actually dealt with lands such as those involved here, this Court has never suggested that its rule that the States owned all the soil beneath waters affected by the tide was anything less than an accurate description of the governing law. Pp. 477-478.

(b) Petitioners' contention that subsequent cases from this Court developing the American public trust doctrine make it clear that navigability—and not tidal influence—has become the sine qua non of the public trust interest in tidelands in this country, is also not persuasive. Although The Propeller Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 How. 443, 13 L.Ed. 1058, and Barney v. Keokuk, 94 U.S. (4 Otto) 324, 24 L.Ed. 224, did extend admiralty jurisdiction and public trust doctrine to navigable freshwaters and the lands beneath them, those cases did not simultaneously withdraw from public trust coverage the lands beneath waters influenced by the ebb and flow of the tide which had been consistently recognized by this Court as being within the doctrine's scope. Pp. 478-480.

(c) Petitioners' position is weakened by their concession that the States own the nonnavigable tidelands bordering the oceans, bays, and estuaries. While it is obvious that these waters are part of the sea, and that the lands beneath them are state property, ultimately, the only proof of this fact can be that the waters are influenced by the ebb and flow of the tide. Moreover, although there is a difference in degree between the waters in this case, and nonnavigable seashore waters that are affected by the tide, there is no difference in kind since both types of waters are connected to the sea and share those geographical, chemical, and environmental qualities that make lands beneath tidal waters unique. The ebb-and-flow rule has the benefit of uniformity, certainty, and ease of application, and will not be abandoned now, after its lengthy history, in favor of one of the unpersuasive and unsatisfactory alternatives offered by petitioners. Pp. 480-481.

2. The contention that the State Supreme Court's decision is inequitable and would upset various kinds of property expectations and interests which have matured since the State joined the Union is without merit. By consistently holding that the public trust in lands under water includes "title to all land under tidewater," and by describing uses of such lands not related to navigability, Mississippi cases have clearly and unequivocally indicated the State's claims to tidelands, whether navigable or not, such that any contrary expectations cannot be considered reasonable. Affirming the judgment below will not upset land titles in all coastal States, as petitioners contend, but will simply confirm prevailing ownership rights both in States having the same rule as Mississippi and in other States that have granted all or a portion of their tidelands to adjacent upland property owners. Indeed, it would be far more upsetting to settled expectations to reverse on the ground that the scope of the public trust is limited to lands beneath navigable tidal waters, since many lands titles, interests, and rights have been created on the basis of the ebb-and-flow rule. The fact that petitioners have long been the record titleholders, or paid taxes on the lands in question, cannot divest the State of its ownership, since the State Supreme Court held that, under Mississippi law, the State's ownership could not be lost via adverse possession, laches, or any other equitable doctrine. There is no reason here to set aside the general principle ceding the development and administration of real property law to the individual States. Pp. 481-484.

491 So.2d 508 (Miss.1986), affirmed.

WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and BRENNAN, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. O'CONNOR, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which STEVENS and SCALIA, JJ., joined, post, p. 485. KENNEDY, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Eugene Gressman, Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Kathy D. Sones, Jackson, Miss., for respondents.

Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

The issue here is whether the State of Mississippi, when it entered the Union in 1817, took title to lands lying under waters that were influenced by the tide running in the Gulf of Mexico, but were not navigable in fact.

I

As the Mississippi Supreme Court eloquently put it: "Though great public interests and neither insignificant nor illegitimate private interests are present and in conflict, this in the end is a title suit." Cinque Bambini Partnership v. State, 491 So.2d 508, 510 (1986). More specifically, in question here is ownership of 42 acres of land underlying the north branch of Bayou LaCroix and 11 small drainage streams in southwestern Mississippi; the disputed tracts range from under one-half acre to almost 10 acres in size. Although the waters over these lands lie several miles north of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and are not navigable, they are nonetheless influenced by the tide, because they are adjacent and tributary to the Jourdan River, a navigable stream flowing into the Gulf. The Jourdan, in the area involved here, is affected by the ebb and flow of the tide. Record title to these tracts of land is held by petitioners, who trace their claims back to prestatehood Spanish land grants.

The State of Mississippi, however, claiming that by virtue of the "equal-footing doctrine" it acquired at the time of statehood and held in public trust all land lying under any waters influenced by the tide, whether navigable or not, issued oil and gas leases that included the property at issue. This quiet title suit, brought by petitioners, ensued.

The Mississippi Supreme Court, affirming the Chancery Court with respect to the lands at issue here,¹ held that by virtue of becoming a State, Mississippi acquired "fee simple title to all lands naturally subject to tidal influence, inland to today's mean high water mark. . . ." Ibid. Petitioners' submission that the State acquired title to only lands under navigable waters was rejected.

We granted certiorari to review the Mississippi Supreme Court's decision, 479 U.S. 1084, 107 S.Ct. 1284, 94 L.Ed.2d 142 (1987), and now affirm the judgment below.

II

As petitioners recognize, the "seminal case in American public trust jurisprudence is Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1 [14 S.Ct. 548, 38 L.Ed. 331] (1894)." Reply Brief for Petitioners 11. The issue in Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 14 S.Ct. 548, 38 L.Ed. 331 (1894), was whether the State of Oregon or a prestatehood grantee from the United States of riparian lands near the mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria, Oregon, owned the soil below the high-water mark. Following an extensive survey of this Court's prior cases, the English common law, and various cases from the state courts, the Court concluded:

"At common law, the title and dominion in lands flowed by the tide water were in the King for the benefit of the nation. . . . Upon the American Revolution, these rights, charged with a like trust, were vested in the original States within their respective borders, subject to the rights surrendered by the Constitution of the United States.

* * * * *

"The new States admitted into the Union since the adoption of the Constitution have the same rights as the original States in the tide waters, and in the lands under them, within their respective jurisdictions." Id., at 57, 14 S.Ct., at 569.

Shively rested on prior decisions of this Court, which had included similar, sweeping statements of States' dominion over lands beneath tidal waters. Knight v. United States Land Association, 142 U.S. 161, 183, 12 S.Ct. 258, 264, 35 L.Ed. 974 (1891), for example, had stated that "[i]t is the settled rule of law in this court that absolute property in, and dominion and sovereignty over, the soils under the tide waters in the original States were reserved to the...