Clark v. Campau

• Decision Date: 26 October 1869
• Citation: 19 Mich. 325
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: John P. Clark v. Edward Campau et al

19 Mich. 325

John P. Clark v. Edward Campau et al

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 26, 1869

Heard October 21, 1869 [Syllabus Material]

Case made from Wayne Circuit.

This was an action of trespass brought in Justice's court for trespass upon land. Plea, with notice that the title to land would come in question, was interposed, and the case certified to the Circuit Court under the statute.

The declaration was in the usual form. The issue was tried bye the Court without a jury. All the facts being stipulated, and at plaintiff's request, the Court made a special finding as follows:

"That plaintiff is the owner in fee of Private Claim No. 583, and defendant Campau, of Private Claim No. 563, in Springwells Wayne County, which private claims are adjoining, and both of which border upon the Detroit River. That the patents from the United States for these two private claims, issued to the grantors of plaintiff and defendant Campau, respectively bear date the same day and commence and terminate their description of boundary upon the river bank, and are silent as to any riparian ownership. That the easterly line of Private Claim 563 (defendant Campau's), and the westerly line of Private Claim 583 (Clark's) are parallel, and strike the river bank nearly at right angles. That the dividing line between the two claims also runs parallel with the other side line until within three chains, twenty-eight links, of the river bank, when it makes an angle of five degrees easterly, and upon Private Claim 563 of Campau's. That the act complained of as a trespass was done by defendant Campau and defendant Nicholas under his direction and consisted in driving piles upon the land covered by water, between the now bank and the centre of the river. That, if the dividing line between the two Private Claims ought to be projected to the thread of the stream, in its direction, as it touches the river bank running out diagonally, then defendants are guilty of the trespass, as alleged; if said line ought to be projected from the now bank, as near as may be, at right angles and parallel with the easterly line of Private Claim 563, then defendants are not guilty; the locus in quo lying between these two projected lines, and within the triangle formed by them and the thread of the river."

(Image Omitted)

Upon facts as stipulated, the Court found the following conclusions of law:

"First. The said parties are the owners of the land under the river, in front of and adjoining their Private Claims respectively, to the thread of the stream, and entitled to every beneficial use of the same, subject to the public easement in the same.

Second. In projecting the dividing line between these two Private Claims, it does not extend into the river in the same direction as it runs for three chains, twenty-eight links, before it reaches the shore; but in this case the grants under which each party holds, being silent upon this question, should be extended, as near as possible, at right angles with the borders of the river, and parallel with the other side line, so as to give each riparian proprietor, as near as possible, the same width at the thread that he has on the border of the stream."

The Court found the defendants not guilty; the case is settled, signed and certified to this Court in accordance with the statute, at the request of plaintiff.

Judgment affirmed with costs.

D. C. Holbrook, for plaintiff.

H. M. & W. E. Cheever, for defendant.

OPINION

Campbell, J.

Clark and Campau being adjoining land owners on Detroit River, the former claims title to certain land under water extending diagonally across Campau's front, upon the ground that the rights in the water are to be determined by the direction of the boundaries on land. The division line between the two runs in such a direction that Clark's land widens and Campau's narrows as the lots approach the shore, and...