State v. Fain
| Citation | 273 S.C. 748,259 S.E.2d 606 |
| Decision Date | 24 October 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 21070,21070 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina |
| Parties | STATE of South Carolina, Appellant, v. Earl FAIN, Jr., Earl Fain, III, James B. Fain and Remer Y. Lane, Respondents. |
Atty. Gen. Daniel R. McLeod, Asst. Atty. Gen. Edward B. Latimer, Paul H. Infinger and William C. Moser, Columbia, and Edward D. Buckley, Charleston, for appellant.
Dowling, Dowling, Sanders & Dukes, Hilton Head Island, and James P. Harrelson, of Harrelson & Gregory, Walterboro, for respondents.
This is a quiet title action instituted by the State (appellant) to extinguish a cloud on its claimed title to certain tidelands situated on the Combahee River in Colleton County. Respondents, by way of answer, asserted title to the real property in dispute and demanded that appellant's claim to title be extinguished by the court. The case was tried before a jury and, at the conclusion of the evidence, motions were made by each party for a directed verdict. The lower court granted a directed verdict in favor of respondents, denying the motion of the State, from which ruling this appeal has been taken. We reverse and remand for further proceedings in conformity with the views herein expressed.
The property to which the State's claim is asserted lies approximately twenty-six miles upstream on the Combahee River from Fields Point, a National Ocean Survey Station located near the juncture of the Combahee River with the Coosaw River, which is, at that point, the inter-coastal waterway. The area in dispute was formerly under dike and, in the remote past, used for rice cultivation for an indeterminate number of years. The dikes and trunks in the canals have apparently not been intact for many years, and the unenclosed property in question has reverted to a natural state not dissimilar to any open tidewater area. The mean tidal fluctuation in the area is 3.1 feet. Intervening between this area and the channel of the Combahee River are disjointed remnants of a deteriorated dike, which was artificially constructed and of ancient origin. This dike was constructed parallel with the Combahee River and near its channel. Portions of the remnants of this dike protrude at intervals above the mean high water mark, but access to the disputed area from the river channel is free and open for both boaters and the ebb and flow of the tide. Other than runoff of rain from adjacent fastlands, the tidelands in dispute have no independent source of water other than the waters of Combahee and the ebb and flow of tide in that river.
Respondents assert title to the disputed areas by virtue of a direct and unbroken chain to three contiguous grants of title from the King of England: two to respondents' predecessor-in-title, John Palmer (being dated, respectively, January 12, 1705 and September 12, 1705) and the other to respondents' predecessor-in-title, Mary Hutson (being dated December 12, 1746), the grants, in the aggregate, totaling 1732 acres. Although each of the grants recite the attachment of a plat to the grant, there are no such plats of record nor have any been otherwise located.
In this action we are concerned only with the southern boundary of the granted land, which boundary is designated in the grants as the Combahee River. The trial judge found, and there has been no appeal from such finding, that the Combahee River is a tidal, navigable stream. He further held that the "bank" of the Combahee River is clearly defined by the remnants of the above-referenced deteriorated dike protruding above high water and that this "bank" constitutes the southern boundary of respondents' grant. The effect of this decision was to grant to respondents the disputed tidelands since all of such lands lie immediately to the north of the line designated by the lower court as the boundary.
It is undisputed that the land in question is covered by water at each high tide, and that the Combahee River is a tidal, navigable stream. In view of the above, respondents are confronted with the fundamental principle of tidelands law in this jurisdiction that
in the case of a tidal navigable stream the boundary line is the high water mark, in the absence of more specific language showing that it was intended to go below high water mark, and the portion between high and low water mark remains in the State in trust for the benefit of the public.
State v. Hardee, 259 S.C. 535, 539, 193 S.E.2d 497, 501 (1972); See also Hobonny Club, Inc. v. McEachern, S.C., 252 S.E.2d 133 (1979); Cape Romain Land and Improvement Co. v. Georgia-Carolina Canning Co., 148 S.C. 428, 146 S.E. 434 (1928); State v. Pacific Guano Co., 22 S.C. 50 (1884).
In addition to the above principle of tidelands law, it is well settled that the State comes into court with a presumption of title, and, if an individual is to prevail, he must recover upon the strength of his own title, of which he must make proof. State v. Hardee, supra; State v. Pinckney,22 S.C. 484 (1884). It is further a settled rule of construction that a grant by the government to a subject is construed most strongly against the grantee and in favor of the grantor. State v. Pacific Guano Co., supra. Giving due adherence to these principles, it necessarily follows that respondents in no event can prevail in this case on their grants alone. The grants are lacking in any language disclosing an intent to convey lands below high water mark and, as previously stated, the grants are not supported by plats.
Respondents offered at trial extrinsic testimony as to the history of the region during the period of almost three hundred years since the grants. Such testimony was offered in support of their theory that the lands in question were highlands at the time of the grants and that it was, thus, the intent of the grantor to convey the tidelands in dispute. This testimony was offered through a number of expert...
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