State ex rel. Columbia Bridge Co. v. City of Columbia

Citations

• 27 S.C. 137
• 3 S.E. 55
• 1887 S.C. LEXIS 108

Syllabus

<p>1. For the purpose of creating the town (now city) of Columbia, and establishing it as the seat of government, the legislature by statute directed certain commissioners to lay off a tract of land of two miles square near Friday’s Ferry, on the Oongaree River, into 'lots of half an acre each, with streets, &c., which land was vested in said commissioners and their successors for the use of the State. These commissioners made and filed their map showing three sides of this square laid off, but leaving the western or river-side boundary open. Held, that under the requirements of the statute, and upon the presumption that the commissioners did their duty, the western boundary was not the river bank, but a straight line from the N. W. to the S. W. point, and thatjso much of said river as was included in such line was within the corporate limits of the city of Columbia.</p> <p>2. Where a stream not navigable is laid down as a boundary, the grant extends to the centre of the stream ; and this same rule applies where land is taken for some public purpose under the right of eminent domain, particularly where the land is so acquired by regular purchase.</p> <p>3. The municipal charter of Columbia embraced all the territory which the act directed the commissioners to lay off, and not merely such land as should be laid off by them.</p> <p>4. The common recognition of a boundary by the citizens, and acquiescence therein by the municipality, will be adopted by the court as determining the true boundary only where such boundary is otherwise vague and indefinite; and boundaries may be defined by long use, confirmed by legislative recognition. But failure to tax property is not an admission by the city that such property is without the city limits ; and legislative authority to build a bridge “over the Oongaree River, opposite the town of Columbia, at the western extremity of Gervais Street,” was not a legislative recognition that the eastern bank of said river was the western bo