St Anthony Fallsco v. Board of Water Com Rs of City of St Paul, Minn Minneapolis Mill Co v. Same

Decision Date29 November 1897
Docket NumberNos. 23 and 24,WATER-POWER,s. 23 and 24
PartiesST. ANTHONY FALLSCO. v. BOARD OF WATER COM'RS OF CITY OF ST. PAUL, MINN. MINNEAPOLIS MILL CO. v. SAME
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

These actions were brought in a district court of the state of Minnesota, by the respective plaintiffs in error against the defendant in error, for the purpose of recovering damages for injury to their alleged rights as riparian owners and otherwise, at St. Anthony falls, on the Mississippi river, and also for a perpetual injunction enjoining the defendant in error from diverting the waters above so as to prevent them from flow- ing in their natural course in the Mississippi river and down to the water power of the plaintiffs in error respectively.

The plaintiff in error the St. Anthony Falls Water-Power Company was incorporated by an act of the territory of M nnesota approved on the 26th day of February, 1856. The first eight sections of the act relate to the incorporation of the company and to its internal affairs. The ninth section reads as follows:

'Sec. 9. The said corporators are hereby authorized for the purpose of the improvement of the water power above and below the falls of Saint Anthony, in the Mississippi river, to maintain the present dams and sluices, and construct and maintain dams, canals and water sluices, erect mills, buildings or other structures for the purpose of manufacturing in any of its branches, or improving any water power owned or possessed by said company, in such manner or to such extent as shall be authorized by the directors of said company, and may construct dams on the rapids above or below the falls of Saint Anthony, with side dams, sluices and all other improvements in the Mississippi river, upon the property owned or to be owned by said corporators, which may be necessary for the full enjoyment of the powers herein granted: provided, however, that said corporation shall give a free passage for all loose logs that are to be manufactured on Hennepin or Cataract islands, or between them on the falls through any dam or dams they may erect, on the west side of Nicollet or Hennepin islands, and the passage through the pond, above said dam, shall, when needed, be twenty feet wide: provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to authorize said corporation to interfere with the rights of property of any other person or persons whatever.'

The Minneapolis Mill Company was also incorporated by an act of the legislature of the territory of Minnesota approved February 27, 1856, the ninth, eleventh, and twelfth sections of which read as follows:

'Sec. 9. The said corporators are hereby authorized, for the purpose of the improvement of the water power above and below the falls of St. Anthony in the Mississippi river to maintain the present dams and sluices, and to construct dams, canals and water sluices, erect mills, buildings, or other structures for the purpose of manufacturing in any of its branches, or improving any water power owned or possessed by said company, in such manner and to such extent as shall be authorized by the directors of said company, and may construct dams on the rapids above or below the falls of St. Anthony, with side dams, sluices and all other improvements in the Mississippi river which may be necessary for the full employment of the powers therein granted.'

'Sec. 11. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and may be amended by any subsequent legislative assembly, in any manner not destroying or impairing the vested rights of said corporators: provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to authorize said corporation to interfere with the rights or property of any other person or persons whatever.

'Sec. 12. Provided further, that nothing contained in the act entitled an act to incorporate the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company shall be so construed as to allow the said St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company to maintain or construct dams or sluices extending beyond the center of the channel of the Mississippi river from the western bank of Hennepin island, and said St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company are hereby restricted in the exercise of powers and privileges granted by the ninth section of said act to the space between the western bank of said island and the center of said river: provided, the said dam shall always be provided with suitable slides and sluices, so as to admit the passage of logs and timber down the Mississippi river, and that any future legislature may amend or modify this act, or the act to which this section is amendatory: and, provided further, that the Minneapolis Mill Company shall be restricted in its operations to the center of the main channel of the Mississippi river and to the property belonging to said company.'

By the second section of the act of congress approved February 26, 185 (11 Stat. 166, c. 60), authorizing the people of the territory of Minnesota to form a state constitution, etc., it was enacted 'that the said state of Minnesota shall have concurrent jurisdiction on the Mississippi and all other rivers and waters bordering on the said state of Minnesota, so far as the same shall form a common boundary to said state and any other state or states now or hereafter to be formed or bounded by the same; and said river and waters, and the navigable waters leading into the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of said state as to all other citizens of the United States, without any tax, duty, impost or toll therefor.'

Section 2, art. 2, of the constitution of Minnesota, has the same provision for the jurisdiction of the state over the Mississippi and other rivers and waters bordering on the state as is provided for in section 2 of the above act of congress.

The complaints in the two cases are substantially similar, the two companies owning on different sides of the Mississippi river at about the same point, and the complaint in the case of the Minneapolis Mill Company contained the following, among other, allegations: It alleged the incorporation of the plaintiff in error, under the acts above mentioned, and also the incorporation of the defendant pursuant to an act of the legislature of the state of Minnesota approved February 10, 1881, which has been amended by various acts supplemental thereto.

Plaintiff further alleged that pursuant to the provisions of its charter it acquired large tracts of land bordering upon the Mississippi river, and on the southwesterly bank thereof, lying within the present limits of the city of Minneapolis and county of Hennepin, and that by reason of the fall in said river at that point, which amounts to some seventy feet in the course of a thousand feet, there was created a natural water power of great extent and value; that the plaintiff, pursuant to the provisions of its charter and in accordance with the natural right inherent in the ownership of lands abutting upon the waters of said river, constructed dams and water sluices at great expense, for the purpose of making the water power available for manufacturing and other purposes to which the same was adapted, and by meeting those erected by the other company, and that by the erection of these dams on the opposite side of the river the plaintiff had made available the water power of the river to the extent of about 50 feet fall, leaving still unoccupied a further fall of about 20 feet; that in pursuance of its charter, and in accordance with its rights as riparian owner, plaintiff in error had made contracts with different parties for the construction of mills and manufacturing establishments in convenient proximity to its water power, and for a valuable consideration had furnished and was furnishing water power to these different establishments which have use for the power, and that the same is of great value to the plaintiff; that it has reserved to itself large rents and income by leasing to other parties the right to use certain portions of the water.

And the plaintiff alleged that by reason of its ownership of the land bordering upon the river it had acquired and still owned all the riparian rights incident to the ownership of lands bordering upon the Mississippi river, which was stated to be a natural water course, in which there naturally flowed a large quantity of water derived from the river and also from numerous tributaries above, and that by reason of its riparian rights the plaintiff was entitled to have and require the natural flow of the waters of the river in the channels, both east and west in said river, adjacent to the lands at said falls, without diminution or diversion of such natural flow by any person whatever.

It was further averred that one of the tributaries of the Mississippi river is a natural water course and stream known as Rice creek, which drains waters fr m a large extent of territory within the state, and which are gathered together and have a natural flow or outlet through said creek into the Mississippi river, 8 or 10 miles above the water power of the plaintiff; that Rice creek, in its natural course, flows through a small lake in the county of Anoka, designated as Baldwin lake, and from thence to its connection with the Mississippi river; that the amount of water flowing in that creek and lake varies with the different seasons of the year, the ordinary amount being about 30,000,000 gallons per day.

It is then further alleged that the defendant, acting under the provisions of the act of the legislature above mentioned, approved February 10, 1881, authorizing the city of St. Paul to purchase the franchises and property of the St. Paul Water Company, and creating a board of water commissioners, had acquired title to a portion of the land bordering upon Baldwin lake, and had erected thereon pumping works and machinery for the diversion of the waters of the lake into a certain other lake...

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