Mayor Aldermen of the City of Mobile v. Miguel Eslava

• Decision Date: 01 January 1842
• Parties: The MAYOR and ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF MOBILE, Plaintiffs in error, v. MIGUEL D. ESLAVA, Defendant in error
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

41 U.S. 234

16 Pet. 234

10 L.Ed. 948

The MAYOR and ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF MOBILE, Plaintiffs in error, v. MIGUEL D. ESLAVA, Defendant in error.

January Term, 1842

ERROR to the Supreme Court of Alabama. The plaintiffs in error instituted an action, called, in the language of the laws of Alabama, 'a plea of trespass to try titles,' against Miguel D. Eslava, the purpose of which was the recovery of possession, and damages for the detention, of a certain lot of ground, in the city of Mobile, bounded north by ground in the possession of Thomas Terry, east by Commerce street, south by Church street, west by Water street; and extending from the east side of Commerce street to the channel of the river.

The cause was tried in the circuit court, in November 1837, and a judgment on the verdict of a jury was rendered for the defendant. The plaintiffs took a bill of exceptions to the charge of the court, and afterwards, prosecuted a writ of error to the supreme court of Alabama; where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed. The plaintiffs took out this writ of error to the supreme court of the United States.

The bill of exceptions stated, that the lot in controversy was held by the defendant, under the following circumstances: By an act of congress, passed in 1818, the lot of ground whereon Fort Charlotte, in the town of Mobile, had been situated, was directed to be surveyed and laid off into lots, with suitable streets and avenues, conforming as near as may be to the original plan of the town; and the lots thus laid off were directed to be sold, under the authority of the president of the United States. The lots were surveyed and laid off, and were afterwards sold. By an original plan of the town, a street known as Water street was run on the margin of Mobile river, continuous with and fronting the same. This street was run on part of the site of Fort Charlotte, where the lots are laid out; another street, known as Church street, was laid off on the site of the fort. The lots were sold by the United States, agreeable to the plan; no lots were laid off, and none were sold by the United States, east of Water street. Under the Spanish government, and while the United States held possession of Fort Charlotte, there was an open unobstructed space from high-water mark on the river to the channel, except a wharf used for the commerce of the fort.

The lot in dispute was situated on the east side of Water street, directly opposite to the lot sold by the United States, part of the site of the fort, within the open space between high and low-water mark, and part of it within the boundary of the picket fence that formerly surrounded the fort. After the purchase of the lots laid out on the site of Fort Charlotte, by 'the lot company,' a survey was made by the company, and a larger quantity of ground was included in the survey. The defendant held under a purchase from the lot company. There is a regular oceanic tide in the river Mobile, the ebb and flow of which is about eighteen inches. In 1822, Water street and the lot in dispute were between high and low-water mark. The city of Mobile, at the cost of the city, filled up Water street to some extent, and confined the water at high-tide to the eastern edge of Water street. No evidence was offered to prove the lots in front of Fort Charlotte were known under the Spanish government as water lots, on which improvements had been made.

The plaintiffs, in the circuit court, claimed title under the act of congress of 20th May 1824, entitled 'an act granting certain lots of ground to the corporation of the city of Mobile, and to certain individuals in the said city.' Considerable sums of money were expended by the purchasers of the lots on the site of Fort Charlotte, to fill up the lots between Water street and low-water mark; and the passage along Water street could only be made, until it was filled up by the corporation of Mobile, by logs laid along the street. The lot in dispute had been filled up at a heavy expense, and the tenant of the defendant in error had, according to an entry on the books of the corporation, in 1823, filled up a stagnant pond at the end of Church street, which had been occasioned by the improvement on the lot. One witness testified, that the stakes in front of the lot, when sold by the United States, ran to the east of Water street, so that a portion of the property, when purchased from the United States, would have been within the staked lines of the lot. Evidence was offered by the defendant, to prove that in 1828, and for every year until 1836, taxes on the lot had been paid to the corporation of Mobile; tha tin 1833, the person in possession of the lot had been required by the mayor of Mobile, to fill up two places upon it with earth or shalls; and about the same time, the corporation had advertised the lot for sale, for unpaid taxes, which were afterwards paid.

The act of 20th May 1824, by its first section, declared, 'that the right and claim of the United States to the lots known as the Hospital and Bakehouse lots, containing about three-fourths of an acre of land, in the state of Alabama; and also all the right and claim of the United States, to all the lots not sold or confirmed to individuals, either by this or any former act, and to which no equitable title exists in favor of any individual, either by this or any former act, between high-water mark and the channel of the river, and between Church street, and North Boundary street, in front of the said city, be and the same are hereby vested in the mayor and aldermen of the said city,' &c. The second section of the act declared, 'that all the right and claim of the United States to so many of the lots east of Water street, and between Church street and North Boundary street, and now known as water lots, as are situated between the channel of the river, and the front of the lots known under the Spanish government as water lots, in the said city of Mobile, whereon improvements had been made, be and the same are hereby vested in the several proprietors or occupants of each of the lots heretofore fronting on the river Mobile, except in cases where such proprietor or occupant has alienated his right to any such lot now designated as a water lot,' &c.

Upon which, the judge charged the jury, that if the lots specified in the patents 10, 11, 12, &c., were proved to have been bounded by high-water mark, at the time purchased, then they came within the terms of 'lots known under the Spanish government as water lots, as used in the act of congress;' and if proved that the lot claimed was east of Water street, and in front of the lots covered by the patents, and that it had been improved before the passage of the act; it was vested in the proprietors and occupants of the lots held under the patents: and this, although Water street did intervenue between the lots claimed and those held under the patents.

The case was arged by Test, for the plaintiffs in error; and by Johnson and Sergeant, for the defendant. The decision of the court was given upon the construction of the act of congress of 1824, entirely. The arguments of the counsel on all the other questions which were discussed, are, therefore, necessarily omitted.

Test said, the act of congres of 1824 is the foundation of the title set up by the plaintiffs; and if they are not entitled to hold or recover under that act, they have no title whatever. The act was a pure commercial regulation, having in view the promotion of the commercial branch of the national industry. It is a part of the history of the country, that Mobile was once one of the most sickly places on the globe. It was surrounded by islands and marshes, and the banks of the river were flat and swampy; and from this cause, it was frequently visited by the most fatal diseases. Thus it remained for years after the country was acquired by the United States.

One of the regulations of the Spanish government was, that the lands granted to individuals never extended into the river, or even to it; but the grantee was bound to leave a bank or ridgeway along the river margin. Wharfs or landing-places were always established by public authority; and the ground, part of which is now in dispute, had remained unimproved, until the act of 1824 was passed. The growing population of the city of Mobile, and the fact, that it was the outlet of the great and increasing productions of the state of Alabama, made it an object of particular interest with the government of the United States. As no grants of land had been made beyond high-water mark, and the improvement of the low grounds between high and low-water mark was essential to the health of the city, congress passed the act of 1824, giving to the owners of lots running to the river, the ground in front of the same, on which improvements had been made. The lots between Church street and North Boundary street, intended as the most northern street of the city, were those comprehended in the provisions of the act of congress. It was clearly intended by the act of congress, to give to the city, for the purpose of improving and erecting wharves and landing places, all the land on the shores of the river, from Church street to the northern boundary of the city; and not to confine the city to the width or location of Water street, nor to that part of the city where streets had been laid out; for that would not have provided a remedy commensurate with the evil. To the city was given, by the act, all the land below high-water mark, on which no improvements had been made, so that not a remnant should be left from one end of the city to the other. The lot in controversy in this case lies, without doubt, in the part of the city to which by any construction of the terms of the statutes describing the property granted, applies. In other cases, it may be necessary to ascertain what was meant by North Boundary street; but it is not in this.

Thus, the title...