Davis v. United States, 12414.

• Decision Date: 26 February 1951
• Docket Number: No. 12414.,12414.
• Citation: 185 F.2d 938
• Parties: DAVIS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

185 F.2d 938 (1950)

DAVIS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 12414.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

December 11, 1950.

Writ of Certiorari Denied February 26, 1951.

Clifton Hildebrand, Oakland, Cal., for appellant.

Frank J. Hennessy, U. S. Atty., C. Elmer Collett and Antoinette E. Morgan, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before MATHEWS, STEPHENS and ORR, Circuit Judges.

STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, having been convicted in the District Court of violating Section 526l, Title 46 U.S.C.A. The Motorboat Act of 1940, claims reversible error for the reasons (1) that the District Court had no jurisdiction of the subject matter because the act charged occurred on waters not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and (2) that the trial court instructed the jury that the waters of Lake Tahoe (the waters in suit) constitute navigable waters of the United States instead of submitting that issue to the jury as one of fact.

The Motorboat Act of 1940 is titled:¹ "An Act to amend laws for preventing collisions of vessels, to regulate equipment of certain motorboats on the navigable waters of the United States, and for other purposes." and provides that:² "No person shall operate any motorboat or any vessel in a reckless or negligent manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person." and provides for penalties for the violation of this command.³

Article I, § 8, Clause 3, of the United States Constitution provides: "The Congress shall have Power * * * To regulate Commerce * * * among the several States * * *."

Article III, § 2, Clause 1, of the United States Constitution provides: "The judicial Power shall extend * * * to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; * * *".

It is appellant's view that the Motorboat Act of 1940 derives sanction under the admiralty and maritime jurisdictional clause of the Constitution rather than under the commerce clause thereof, and that the Motorboat Act of 1940 does not apply to any body of water which is not connected with the sea. It is admitted that Lake Tahoe has no outlet to the sea.

The Motorboat Act of 1940 amended the Motor Boat Act of 1910.⁴ Both were placed under the administration of the Secretary of Commerce⁵ and the 1940 Act provided for supervising inspectors who should provide regulations under approval of the Secretary of Commerce, and that the Secretary should establish regulations for the enforcement of its provisions by officers authorized to enforce the navigation laws of the United States.⁶

Chief Justice Hughes for the Supreme Court said in Kelly v. State of Washington, 1937, 302 U.S. 1, 58 S.Ct. 87, 89, 82 L.Ed. 3.

"* * * It cannot be doubted that the power of Congress over interstate and foreign commerce embraces the authority to make regulations for respondents' tugs * * * Has Congress exercised that authority and, if so, to what extent?

"The federal acts and regulations with respect to vessels on the navigable waters of the United States are elaborate. They were well described in the argument of the Assistant Solicitor General as a maze of regulation. Provisions with respect to steam vessels are extremely detailed * * Provisions as to motor-driven vessels are far less comprehensive and establish only a limited regulation * * *

"In 1910, Congress enacted the Motor Boat Regulations Act * * *".

We take the following from the Congressional Record:

⁷"Mr. Vandenberg. Mr. President, Calendar No. 728, Senate Bill 2259, to amend laws for preventing collisions of vessels, to regulate equipment of certain motor-boats on the navigable waters of the United States, and for other purposes, which is the same as Calendar No. 898, a House bill on the same subject, (the statute in suit) has been on the calendar since June last. It is a Department of Commerce measure.

⁸"Mr. King. Let me inquire of the Senator from Michigan whether the chairman of the Committee on Commerce is favorable to this substitution?

"Mr. Vandenberg. All the authorities involved are in agreement — the chairman of the Committee on Commerce, the Department of Commerce, and all others who are interested * * *".

In the exercise of its commercial power, Congress may enact (quoting from The Daniel Ball, 1870, 10 Wall. 557, at 564, 77 U.S. 557 at 564, 19 L.Ed. 999) "* * * all appropriate legislation for the protection or advancement of either interstate or foreign commerce, and for that purpose such legislation as will insure the convenient and safe navigation of all the navigable waters of the United States, whether that legislation consists in requiring the removal of obstructions to their use, in prescribing the form and size of the vessels employed upon them, or in subjecting the vessels to inspection and license, in order to insure their proper construction and equipment. `The power to regulate commerce,' this court said in Gilman v. Philadelphia, `comprehends the control for that purpose, and to that extent necessary, of all navigable waters of the United States which are accessible from a State other than those in which they lie. For this purpose they are the public property of the nation, and subject to all the requisite legislation of Congress.'" (Emphasis ours.)

It is our view that the statute under consideration was passed as a commerce measure under the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Title 18 U.S.C.A., 3231, provides:

"The district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States.

"Nothing in this title shall be held to take away or impair the jurisdiction of the courts of the several States under the laws thereof."

We conclude that the district court had jurisdiction in this case under Section 526l of the Motorboat Act of 1940, if the waters of Lake Tahoe are navigable waters of the United States.

In Law v. Smith, 9 Cir., 1923, 288 F. 7, at page 9, this court took judicial notice of the fact that Lake Tahoe is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, that it is about 21 miles long and from 8 to 12 miles wide, and lies at an altitude of about 6225 feet above sea level. We also know that the lake is transected lengthwise by the California-Nevada state border.

F. W. Brenzel, witness for the prosecution, was the only witness produced at the trial to testify as to the use and natural features of the lake. He testified to the following effect: The "Tahoe" and other boats, for several years prior to around 1943, carried mail, provisions and passengers around the lake, contacting points on the Nevada and on the California sides. Sightseeing boats still operate on the lake, contacting points in both states, however carriage of mail and articles of commerce has virtually ceased. While the depth of the lake varies, it has a depth of about 1200 feet at its deepest point.

We go to The Daniel Ball, supra,⁹ for light on the issue of navigable waters of the United States. "* * * Those rivers must be regarded as public navigable rivers in law which are navigable in fact. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water. And they constitute navigable waters of the United States within the meaning of the acts of Congress, in contradistinction from the navigable waters of the States, when they form in their ordinary condition by themselves, or by uniting with other waters, a continued highway over which commerce is or may be carried on with other States or foreign countries in the customary modes in which such commerce is conducted by water."

In United States v. Appalachian Power Co., 1940, 311 U.S. 377, 61 S.Ct. 291, 85 L.Ed. 243, the definition applied in The Daniel Ball was extended. The Court stated 311 U.S. at page 407, 61 S.Ct. at page 299, 85 L.Ed. 243:

"To appraise the evidence of navigability on the natural condition only of the waterway is erroneous. Its availability for navigation must also be considered. `Natural or ordinary conditions' refers to volume of water, the gradients and the regularity of the flow. A waterway, otherwise suitable for navigation, is not barred from that classification merely because artificial aids must make the highway suitable for use before commercial navigation may be undertaken * * *".

The Supreme Court case just quoted from reversed the finding of the District Court, affirmed in the Court of Appeals, to the effect that New River, the body of water in question, was not a navigable water of the United States. The decisions on the subject were exhaustively reviewed, and no useful purpose would be served by further elaboration of past authority on the subject, other than to mention a few of the principles particularly applicable to the instant case.

Quoting further from the Appalachian Power Co., case,¹⁰ it is said:

"Nor is it necessary for navigability that the use should be continuous. The character of the region, its products and the difficulties or dangers of the navigation influence the regularity and extent of the use. Small traffic compared to the available commerce of the region is sufficient. Even absence of use over long periods of years, because of changed conditions, the coming of the railroad or improved highways does not affect the navigability of rivers in the constitutional sense. It is well recognized too that the navigability may be of a substantial part only of the waterway in question. Of course, these evidences of non-navigability in whole or in part are to be appraised in totality to determine the effect of all. With these legal tests in mind we proceed to examine the facts to see whether the 111-mile reach of this river from Allisonia to Hinton, across the Virginia-West Virginia state line, has `capability of use by the public for purposes of transportation and...