Panama Ice & Fish Co. v. Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay Railway Co.

Citations

• 71 Fla. 419

Syllabus

<p>1. The statute, section 643 General Statutes of 1906, does not vest in riparian owners an unqualified fee in the lands below high water mark and out to the edge of the channel in navigable streams, bays of the sea, or harbors, of this State. So long as such submerged lands remain unimproved by the construction of wharves, or unreclaimed by filling in from the shore and converting the water into land, the risparían owner, though the legal title is in him, has in so far as the statute is concerned, no greater right to the beneficial use of such submerged lands and the waters above them, than any other citizen except for the purpose of protecting from invasion the right to improve which the statute gives.</p> <p>2. The State may fix the exterior lines of a navigable river if the rights of the people to the use of the waters and the shores of the tfiver are not thereby substantially impaired; and rights in the submerged lands not within the reasonably fixed exterior lines of the river may be granted by legislative authority if such grant does not impair the rights of the whole people to the use of the waters for any purpose expressed or implied by law.</p> <p>3. The rights granted by the riparian statute of 1856 relate to the space between the shore line and the edge of the channel of navigable streams, bays or harbors, and such rights are not controlled by the direction of lines dividing the uplands.</p> <p>4. As the rights granted by the riparian Act of 1856, Sections 643, 644, General Statutes of 1906, extend to “all lands covered by water lying in front of any tract of land'lying upon any navigable stream or bay of-the sea or harbor, as far as thé edge of the channel,” and the right of action given the grantees to prevent encroachments extends to “all such submerged lands in the direction of their lines continued to the channel,” the right of action extends to the space between lines drawn at right angles from the shore line “to the edge of the channel,” where th