Hubbard v. Bell

Citations

• 54 Ill. 110

Syllabus

<p>1. Water courses not navigable—ownership of riparian proprietor's. By the common law, a water course which is not navigable, belongs, its banks and bed, to the riparian proprietors.</p> <p>2. Water courses—as public highways—rigtvts of riparian owners. Merely because a water course may, in times of periodical freshets, for a few days or weeks, be capable of floating mill logs, but in its natural state, and during a greater portion of the year, is incapable of such floatage, the stream can not be regarded as a highway for that purpose at any time. The bed and the banks of such a stream, it not being navigable, belong to the riparian proprietors, and are wholly and absolutely private, and, there being no claim of prescription or user, not subject to the servitude of the public interest in that regard, nor to be considered as a public highway by water.</p>