McKnight v. Broedell

• Decision Date: 13 December 1962
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 21325.
• Parties: Earl O. McKNIGHT, and Verna McKnight, his wife, Plaintiffs, v. Frances M. BROEDELL, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

212 F. Supp. 45

Earl O. McKNIGHT, and Verna McKnight, his wife, Plaintiffs, v. Frances M. BROEDELL, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 21325.

United States District Court E. D. Michigan, S. D.

December 13, 1962.

Robert C. Winter, David P. Wood, Clark, Klein, Winter, Parsons & Prewitt, John C. Cook, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs.

Donald P. Schuur, Patrick J. Keating, Schuur & Keating, John H. Yoe, City Atty., St. Clair Shores, Detroit, Mich., for defendant.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Nicholas V. Olds, Jerome Maslowski, Warren R. Snyder, Asst. Attys. Gen., Lansing, Mich., submitted brief for the State of Michigan as amicus curiae in support of defendant.

FREEMAN, District Judge.

This is a diversity action to foreclose a contract for the sale of land in a plat adjoining Lake St. Clair executed on February 2, 1956, between the plaintiffs, as vendors, and the defendant and her late husband, as vendees, based on a failure to make required payments of principal and interest due on and after January 17, 1958. The defendant in her answer and counterclaim for cancellation of the contract and other relief asserts that the State of Michigan claims ownership to a portion of the lands described in the contract and, consequently, plaintiffs cannot convey a marketable title.

Defendant initially maintained that the State was an indispensable party and a motion to dismiss based on that ground was denied without prejudice, which motion was renewed orally at the opening of the trial and is again denied, since defendant now concedes in her briefs that the State is not an indispensable party. A motion of defendant to permit the State of Michigan to voluntarily submit to the jurisdiction of the Court and to be impleaded as a party defendant was also denied with the consent of the State for the reason that a state is not a citizen of any state and, therefore, if made a party in a diversity action would destroy jurisdiction. However, the State of Michigan was allowed to and did participate in the instant case as amicus curiae and, in such capacity, attended the trial, aided defendant in her case and filed a brief after trial.

The State of Michigan claims ownership to that part of the land described in the contract which allegedly was in 1923 a part of the bottom of Lake St. Clair, a navigable body of water serving as one of the tributaries of the Great Lakes, and which the State contends is within the ordinary high-water mark of the lake, having been filled in sometime subsequent to 1923, thereby converting same into land suitable for building purposes.

The premises described in the land contract are part of the recorded plat of West's Venetian Gardens Subdivision, "being a subdivision of part of * * * lot No. 5 of Abbott's Subdivision of Private Claims 599 and 623." On June 1, 1811, President James Madison executed two land patents confirming and granting to the heirs of James Abbott, plaintiffs' predecessors in title, the lands covered by said Private Claims 599 and 623, pursuant to surveys made by one Aaron Greeley in 1810, each patent containing approximately 640 acres according to such patent descriptions. The exhibits indicate that all of said subdivision purports to be a part of Private Claim 623.

In the case of People v. Broedell, 365 Mich. 201, 112 N.W.2d 517, an action by the State of Michigan to enjoin Broedell, the defendant in the instant case, from filling in or making improvements on two lots fronting on the shore of Lake St. Clair lying only a few feet south of and in another plat adjoining the lots in the instant case, the Michigan Supreme Court held that if the lots were within the confines of Private Claim 623 as patented to Abbott's heirs on June 1, 1811, no title passed from the United States to the State of Michigan upon its admission into the Union in 1837, even if submerged land at the time, "because then it no longer belonged to the United States but to the Abbott heirs or their successors in title." The lands in question are admittedly within the northerly, westerly and southerly lines of the patent to Private Claim 623, which patent described all four boundaries by courses and distances, the easterly line being described therein as follows: "thence along the border of said lake (Lake St. Clair) S 2° W 54 chains 75 links; thence S 12° E 20 chains 46 links to the P.O.B."

Plaintiffs contend that the westerly line of Private Claim 623 is presently Harper Avenue, formerly known as French Claim Road, and by measuring from Harper Avenue along the north and south lines of the patent the distances stated in the patent description, the patented lands extend easterly into the present waters of Lake St. Clair, a distance of approximately 1300 feet beyond the easterly line of West's Venetian Gardens Subdivision, which thus fixes the easterly line of the patent to Private Claim 623 as of June 1, 1811.

Defendant, in support of her position that plaintiffs cannot convey a marketable title, contends that the patent to Private Claim 623 only conveyed to the patentees and their successors in title, including plaintiffs, land to the border of Lake St. Clair; that they take as riparian or littoral owners; that, as such, they own land only to the ordinary high-water mark of the lake, "whether that mark may move east or west," and the filled-in portion of the land claimed by the State of Michigan being lakeward of such high-water mark, the plaintiffs are not the owners thereof, and such claim by the State has cast a reasonable doubt upon plaintiffs' title so as to make it unmarketable under applicable Michigan law.

These contentions present the primary issue in this case, viz.: is the easterly line of the patent to Private Claim 623 a fixed boundary as of June 1, 1811, as claimed by plaintiffs, or is it a movable line, as indicated by the "ordinary high-water mark" of Lake St. Clair, as such mark may exist at any given time, as claimed by defendant?

The defendant vendee admittedly has the burden of proving her claim that plaintiffs' title is unmarketable. See Dwight v. Cutler, 3 Mich. 566; Daily, et al. v. Litchfield et al., 10 Mich. 29; Allen v. Atkinson, 21 Mich. 351; Baxter v. Aubrey, 41 Mich. 13, 1 N.W. 897. However, the defendant is not required to show that such title is actually bad in order to sustain her burden in this respect, as pointed out by the Michigan Supreme Court in the case of Bartos v. Czerwinski, 323 Mich. 87, at p. 92, 34 N.W.2d 566, at p. 568, where the test to be applied is set forth as follows:

"A title may be regarded as unmarketable if a reasonably careful and prudent man, familiar with the facts, would refuse to accept the title in the ordinary course of business. It is not necessary that the title be actually bad in order to render it unmarketable. It is sufficient if there is such a doubt or uncertainty as may reasonably form the basis of litigation. * * * A purchaser of property entitled to a `marketable title' may not be required to accept a conveyance if the title is in such condition that he may be required to defend litigation challenging his possession and interest."

As to plaintiffs' emphasis that the contract provided that defendant had examined an abstract of title "and is satisfied with the marketability of the title shown thereby," see Barber v. Lang, 237 Mich. 98, p. 101, 211 N.W. 70, p. 70 where the Court said:

"If the abstract as offered failed to show on its face a merchantable title as agreed upon, the purchaser was not bound to accept a conveyance, even though he may have had previous knowledge of the defects in title, which were, however, of such nature as required some action to be taken by the seller to remedy them."

The parties agree that the primary issue involving the location of the easterly line of the patent confirming title to Abbott's heirs in Private Claim 623, depends in the first instance on the construction of such patent. Plaintiffs argue that the Michigan Supreme Court has construed the patent in this respect in People v. Broedell, supra, which decision governs the instant case. Defendant contends that the patent was not construed in that case and that the trial court, to whom the case was remanded to determine whether the lands therein involved were within the patent description, must necessarily construe the patent as it relates to the location of the easterly line in order to make the required finding.

This precise issue was not considered or decided by the Court in Broedell. In that case the Court merely held that if the lots involved were within the boundaries of the patent covering Private Claim 623, then no title passed from the United States to the State of Michigan upon its admission into the Union in 1837, even if such lots were submerged land at that time, because then such land no longer belonged to the United States.

The parties recognize that a patent is conclusive as against the Government and also as against parties claiming under it and cannot be collaterally attacked by admission of parol evidence to vary or contradict its terms. See Knight v. United Land Association, 142 U.S. 161, 12 S.Ct. 258, 35 L.Ed. 974. Therefore, plaintiffs' contention that to accept as the easterly line of the patent in question the present ordinary high-water mark, would violate rights guaranteed to the patentees, plaintiffs' predecessors in title, by Jay's Treaty of 1794, 8 Stat. 116, is not tenable.

The question as to the extent of a grant by a federal patent, that is, as to the limit of the land conveyed thereby, is necessarily a federal question, since it is a question which concerns the validity and effect of an act done by the United States and involves the ascertainment of a right asserted under federal law. Borax Consolidated, Ltd. v. Los Angeles, 296 U.S. 10, 56 S.Ct. 23, 80 L. Ed. 9.

It is established law that upon the acquisition of territory from a foreign country, the United States acquires title to tideland (land between the high and low...