Hill v. Newell

Citations

• 86 Wash. 227
• 149 P. 951
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 894

Syllabus

<p>Public Lands — Lands Under Waters — Grants—Beds and Shores —Title. Under the Federal grant to the state, and the assertion of title by Const., art. 17, § 1, to the beds and shores of navigable streams, the title of the state is paramount and absolute, and not restricted to the power of regulation for the purposes of navigation.</p> <p>Navigable Waters — Riparian Rights — Title to Beds — Abandonment of Stream. Riparian owners upon a navigable stream acquire no title to portions of the beds and shores abandoned by the state in improving and straightening the stream, under 3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 8173a, granting to the commercial waterway district the title to the beds and shores that cease to be a part of the stream; since the state’s title is paramount, and riparian rights are subject to the rights of navigation, and extend only to the use and accustomed flow of water, unless new lands result from accretion, reliction, or avulsion.</p>