Scranton v. Wheeler

Citations

• 179 U.S. 141
• 21 S. Ct. 48
• 45 L. Ed. 126
• 1900 U.S. LEXIS 1857

Syllabus

<p>The prohibition in the Constitution of the United States of the taking of private property for public use without just compensation has no application to the case of an owner of land bordering on a public navigable river, whose access from his land to navigability is permanently lost by reason of the construction, under authority of Congress, of a pier resting on submerged lands away from, but in front of his upland, and which pier was erected by the United States, not with any intent to impair the right of riparian owners, but for the purpose only of improving the navigation of such river.</p> <p>It was not intended, by that provision in the Constitution, that the paramount authority of Congress to improve the navigation of the public waters of the United States should be crippled by compelling the Government to make compensation for an injury to a riparian owner’s right of access to navigability that might incidentally result from an improvement ordered by Congress.</p> <p>The state courts of Michigan having recognized this action as a proper one under the laws of that State for the relief sought by the plaintiff, this court has jurisdiction to consider the questions of a Federal nature decided herein.</p>