70 Wis. 600 | Wis. | 1888
The plaintiff in error assigns as error that the circuit court erred in its conclusion of lawr that the boundary line between the two lots 1 and 2 of said section 22 should be drawn perpendicularly to the thread of the stream from the point where the meander line intersects the government division line between said lots 1 and 2. The learned counsel for the defendants in error insists that the third finding of fact is a mixed question of law and fact, and that he
The real question in the case is whether the circuit court was right in deciding “that the boundary line between lots 1 and 2, as they extend into said outlet or river, is a line yirawn perpendicularly to the .thread of the outlet or river, from the point where the government lino between said lots strikes the meander line, and not from the point where the extension of such government line between lots 1 and 2 strikes the shore line.” After a careful consideration of the reasons and argument of the learned counsel for the defendants in error in support of the propositions laid down by the circuit court, we feel ourselves compelled to hold that the proposition is not the law applicable to a cáse of this kind. We think the cases in this court, in Minnesota, the supreme court of the United States, and in other courts, express^ hold that the meander lines made by the government surveyors are not to be considered! in determining the actual boundaries of lots which are sold by the government as bouhded upon rivers or other navigable waters. The government plats show on their face no meander lines as different from the actual banks or shore of the rivers upon which such lots are described as lying. The purchaser does not know the meander lines, and does not purchase with any regard to them. He purchases a lot bounded on either two or three sides by straight lines, and
In Wright v. Day, 83 Wis. 260, 263, the court say: “ The meander line of land bordering upon a navigable s:ream or river is never considered the boundary line of the government subdivision on the side next the river, but that the purchaser from the government takes to the margin of the stream or water’s edge, and becomes the unqualified owner of all land lying above ordinary high-water mark of the stream.”
In Jones v. Pettibone, 2 Wis. 308, 320, speaking of the meander line, the court say: “ But this line is not the boundary of the lot, and is run merely to determine the quantity of land contained in it. We are of opinion that the lots extended to the stream, and of course to its center.”
Again, in Boorman v. Sannuchs, 42 Wis. 243, it is said “ that, if the meander line and the actual water line differ, the latter is the true line "of a lot bounded in terms by the meander line.”
In Railroad Co. v. Schurmeir, 7 Wall. 272, the court say: “ Lines intended as boundaries, but which were not actually run and marked, must be ascertained by running straight lines from the established corners to the opposite corresponding corners; but where no such opposite correspond
The foregoing cases we think clearly establish the rule that on all sales of land by the United States, of lots which
The case cited by the learned counsel for the defendants in error as holding a different doctrine [ Wood v. Appal, 63 Pa. St. 210], is not in fact in conflict with the rule as stated above. In that case the court say : “ It is obvious, therefore, when the surveyor, running in towards the river, stops on its bank and makes his corner, he means, in the absence of other evidence found in his return, to indicate his nearest convenient approach to the stream, and thus to mark where his line strikes the stream, and the river front it gives to the owner of the survey.” This was said in a case where the description in the original conveyance was given by the courses, distances, and monuments made by the original survey. The opinion is closed with the following: “Of course, the rule as now laid down applies only to a case where no other intention is disclosed by the return or survey or the deed.” This decision can have very little force in construing the rights of parties who buy of the government without description, except as marked and numbered on a government plat, where the side lines are directed to be straight lines by law, and are shown to be such on the plat, and the river is the boundary on the other side. The government surveyors do not run the meander line for the purpose of showing the river front which the lot has; •that is shown only on the plat by the side lines of the lot.
It is urged by the learned counsel for the defendants in error that this rule ought not to be adopted because'there may be cases where its adoption might work an injury to ■one or the other of the parties. Under the rule contended for by the learned counsel injury might also be done to one or the other party. In the case at bar no such consequences
By the Oourt.— The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause is remanded with instructions to that court to render judgment for the plaintiff in error. .