Olson v. Huntamer

Citations

• 6 S.D. 364
• 61 N.W. 479
• 1894 S.D. LEXIS 169

Syllabus

<p>1. For the purpose of determining the quantity of land for which a purchaser must pay, meander lines are run along the margin of non-navigable lakes and ponds, and not for the purpose of limiting to such lines the title of a grantee or claimant under the United States land laws.</p> <p>2. By the settled course of the common law and the latest decisions of the land department, a grantee of real property contiguous to such lake or pond takes to the center thereof, ratably with other riparian owners, if there be such; and a timber culture entryman, who has filed upon a lot bordering upon such a lake or pond, receives, upon a full compliance with the law, a patent from the government, which conveys to him, a fee-simple title to such lot, together with any reliction to the center of the lake, occasioned by the gradual recession or imperceptible drying up of the water therein after the date of his filing.</p> <p>3. Under the law of this state a settler upon public land previously unoccupied, who has placed a timber culture filing thereon, and is in good faith complying with the laws of congress in relation thereto, is entitled, as against third persons, to the possession of all the land that he will ultimately take by his patent; and under sufficient pleadings and proof he may recover damages for the wrongful occupation of the same, and as against trespassers who have forcibly ejected or excluded him therefrom he may recover three times such a sum as would compensate for the detriment thus caused. Comp. Laws, section 4601, 4610.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.</p>