Seaman v. Smith

Walker, J. This record presents the question as to what answers the call for Lake Michigan, as a boundary line, in the various deeds in a chain of title, held by the plaintiff below. If high water mark is the point at which his land terminates, then this judgment should be reversed; but if, on the contrary, the line where the water usually stands when unaffected by storms and other disturbing causes, is the boundary, then the judgment must be affirmed. The question of which was the true line, was alone discussed upon the argument. The great lakes of the north, present questions affecting riparian rights, that are different from those arising under boundaries on the sea, upon rivers, or other running streams. They have neither appreciable tides nor currents, nor are they affected, like running streams, by rises and falls produced by a wet or dry season. Yét the rules that govern boundaries on the ocean, govern this case. A grant giving the ocean or a bay as the boundary, by the common law, carries it down to ordinary high water mark. Cortelyou v. Brundt, 2 J. R. 357. The doctrine, it is believed, is well settled, that the point at which the tide usually flows is the boundary of a grant to its shore. As the tide ebbs and flows at short and regular recurring periods, to the same points, a portion of the shore is regularly and alternately sea and dry land. This being unfit for cultivation or other private use, is held not to be the subject of private ownership, but belongs to the public. When the adjacent owner’s land is bounded by the sea or one of its bays, the line to which the water may be driven by storms, or unusually high tides, is not adopted as the boundary. On the contrary, the ordinary high water mark indicated by the usual rise of the tide, is his boundary. The principle, however, which requires that the usual high water mark is the boundary on the sea, and not the highest or lowest point to which it rises or recedes, applies in this case, although this body of water has no appreciable tides. Here, as there, the highest point to which storms or other extraordinary disturbing causes may drive the water on the shore, should not be regarded as the point where the owner’s rights terminate, nor yet should it be extended to the lowest point to which it may recede from like disturbing causes. But it should be at that line where the water usually stands when unaffected by any disturbing cause. The portion of the soil which is only seldom covered with water, may be valuable for cultivation or other private purposes. And the line at which it usually stands, unaffected by storms and other causes, represents the ordinary high water mark on the ocean, and the point between the highest and lowest water marks produced by. the tides. Again, where is the lake, as called for by the deed ? A fair and reasonable construction of the language, running to the lake and with the lake, would mean to that place where its outer edge is usually found. The mind would not understand that the highest point on the shore to which it had ever attained, or the lowest to which it - had receded, was understood by the parties. Nor do we perceive any public necessity for adopting any other rule of construction, than the language naturally and reasonably imports. These great bodies of water, having no currents, like rivers and other running streams, cannot present the same reasons why the boundary should be extended beyond the water’s edge, where it is ordinarily found, that apply to running bodies of water. Where such streams are called for as a boundary, the thread of the current is held to be the line, from each side. Such a rule could not, for the want of a current, be adopted in this case. It would not be sanctioned either by analogy to the rule, or by reason. And if the outer edge of the water be passed, owing to the approximation of these bodies to a circular shape, it would be found exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain where the boundary should be fixed, or the shape it should assume. We are therefore clearly of the opinion, that the line at which the water usually stands, when free from disturbing causes, is the boundary of land in a conveyance calling for the lake as a line. This was the rule upon which the court below acted, and the judgment must be affirmed. Judgment affirmed.