Watson v. Hoene

• Decision Date: 16 March 1888
• Citation: 64 N.H. 416,13 A. 789
• Parties: WATSON v. HOENE et al.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

13 A. 789

64 N.H. 416

WATSON

v. HOENE et al.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Strafford.

March 16, 1888.

Writ of entry. Facts found by the court, July 27, 1848. Reuben Tilton and others were seized of the tracts now owned by both parties, and on that day they conveyed to one Corson, under whom the plaintiff claims, "a tract or parcel of land, with the buildings thereon, situate in said Rochester, on the Main street leading through Rochester village, bounded and described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a stake on said street, sixteen feet and two inches above the westerly corner of said Reuben Tilton's dwelling-house; thence running north, 32 deg. east, on a line with the shed end of the house on said premises, to a stake by the cove at high-water mark; thence north-westerly by said cove to the south-easterly side of a rock, with a ring-bolt in the same; thence turning, and running on a straight line, to said street, at a point twenty-seven and a half feet above the first-mentioned bound; thence south-easterly by said street to the bound begun at." The cove mentioned is a portion of the Cocheco river, making in to the east from the main channel, which at that point flows to the south, at a distance of about 10 rods westerly from the land in question. The remainder of the tract then owned by Tilton and others, and not conveyed by the foregoing deed to Corson, is now owned by the defendants. Three or four years ago the defendants carted earth, and filled in the cove northerly of their own land, and also northerly of a line running from the stake by the cove to the rock with a ring-bolt, described in the deed from Tilton and others to Corson as making the points where the side lines of the premises struck the cove on the north at high-water mark, making new land extending into the cove. The portion of the demanded premises in dispute is that part of the made or filled land included within the side lines of the defendants' premises projected northerly in the same direction over the made land into the cove; and the question is as to the location of the defendants' side lines upon the ground beyond the stake and the ring-bolt.

Worcester & Gafney, for plaintiff. Kimball & Edgerly, for defendants.

BLODGETT, J. Having succeeded to Corson's rights under the conveyance of 1848, which makes the cove a boundary, the plaintiff became a riparian proprietor thereon through the conveyance to himself; and under the well-established rule of law that, when a deed or grant of land is bounded upon a river not navigable, the boundary line extends to the thread of the stream, unless there is a reservation to the contrary, his ownership extended to the center of the cove. It only remains, therefore, to determine the manner in which the side lines of his lot shall be projected or extended into the water. In respect of this matter the defendants properly concede that the lines must be run now the same as if no filling had been done; but they contend that, as the cove is found by the case to be a portion of the Cocheco river, the side lines of the plaintiff's lot should be extended, from the stake and ring-bolt bounds, at right angles with...