State ex rel. Board of State Land Commissioners v. McGilvra

Citations

• 84 Wash. 487
• 147 P. 40
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1236

Syllabus

<p>Public Lands — Shore Lands — Preference Privileges — Appeal— Cancellation — Statutes. The “cancellation act” of 1899 (Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 6751-6753), providing for the withdrawal and cancellation of preference rights to purchase “tide lands” of the first class, and authorizing the dismissal of appeals taken from the board of state land commissioners in which no trial has been had for a period exceeding two years, applies also to, and is incorporated into the “shore land act” of 1907, Laws 1907, p. 4 et seq., providing for the disposition of “shore lands” on Lakes Washington and Union, with a preference right of purchase to abutting owners “under existing laws,” in view of the constant reiteration of the last quoted words, and § 5 of the act (Laws 1907, p. 6), wherein it is declared that “the provisions of any existing law of this state relating to the selection, survey . . . and disposition of the state’s granted, school, tide, oyster and other lands or harbor areas, or any other law of this state applicable thereto, shall control and govern,” the sale and disposition of the shore lands covered by the act, except as modified by the provisions of the act; there being no provision in the “shore land act” itself for the cancellation of preference rights or the dismissal of appeals in proceedings thereunder, except as the act incorporates “existing laws.”</p> <p>Public Lands — Shore Lands — Preference Privileges — Appeal— Cancellation — Tolling Statute. The statutory withdrawal and eoneellation of preference privileges to purchase tide lands, for delay in prosecuting appeals from the board of state land commissioners, declared by Rem. & Bal. Code, § 6751, and the authority to the Attorney General given by Id., § 6752, to move the dismissal of such appeals, cannot be abrogated or suspended by independent litigation touching such shore lands nor by any agreement of the state land commissioner to allow the appeals to rest in statu quo.</p>