Gibbs v. Sweet
Gibbs v. Sweet
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellant persisted in angling in plaintiff’s pond after he had been requested to cease, and this action of trespass resulted. Two lines of defense were resorted to, viz: (1) that the plaintiff had not shown such title as would support the action; (2) that the defendant had by prescription acquired the right to fish in the pond. Bassett pond was a small unnavigable body of water located within the limits of two tracts of land title to which out of the commonwealth was shown under warrants and surveys in the name of Jonathan Hall and Richard Hall, respectively, and patents issued in pursuance thereof to their grantees. The plaintiff offered in evidence deeds and other assurances of record establishing a complete chain of title in fee simple from the grantees of the commonwealth to Orrin L. Hallstead and William Hartley, for 250 acres of these tracts, including the pond and all the land surrounding. The deed to Hallstead and Hartley was dated March 22,1851, and duly recorded on September 16 of the same year. About this time the water of the pond was raised above its natural level by the erection of a dam across its outlet on the eastern side, but it does not appear that the waters were thus forced upon the lands of any other owner. Hallstead and Hartley, by deed dated September 26,1859, and recorded on November 23, following, conveyed to David Letson a tract of land extending across the mouth of this outlet, and also “ all of the said Bassett pond and lands adjoining thereto not conveyed in other deeds; together with the right to raise the water as high
The defendant offered in evidence a quitclaim deed from O. L. Hallstead to William Finn, dated March 1-3, 1874, and recorded on May 30 of the same year, which released to said Finn a strip of ground on the west side of the pond, designating it as all the land belonging to said Hallstead not heretofore conveyed, and calling for Bassett pond as a boundary. He then offered to prove that William Finn and his grantees had been.in actual, open, notorious and adverse possession of the strip of land mentioned in said deed from 1870 to 1895. “ This for the purpose of establishing a basis for the legal inference that the present owner of said tract, being a shore owner on the westerly side of said lake, has the legal title to the land under said lake to the center of the thread of the bottom of said lake.” It is not necessary in this case to enter into an extended discussion of the rights of riparian owners in and under the adjacent waters. It must be accepted as settled in Pennsylvania that where the bed of a stream and the land adjoining are both owned by the same person and he makes a grant calling for the stream as a boundary, it shall in the case of large navigable streams extend to low watermark, and in case of creeks and small unnavigable rivers to the middle of the stream: Ball v. Slack, 2 Wharton, 508; Klingensmith v. Ground, 5 Watts, 458. Even if it were conceded that this principle applies to ponds or artificial bodies of water it has no application under the facts of this case. Whatever may be the rights of the riparian owner they are subject to his disposition as are Other parts of his land, he may reserve them out of a grant, con
The assertion of a right, acquired by prescription, of the defendant in common with others to angle and catch fish in plaintiff’s pond was not supported, by the evidence. The only land of which defendant was owner or lessee was situated at a considerable distance from the pond, and no attempt was made to prescribe in a que estate. There was no assertion that the right was appurtenant to some dominant tenement, and the right was an easement in gross personal to the grantee, if it had any existence. Mr. Justice Sharswood said in discussing a prescriptive right to take fish in the waters of another: “ That kind of user for twenty-one years and upwards, which may be
This pond covered about fifty acres of land, and the water power which it afforded was used by the plaintiff in operating his mill. The defendant was permitted to testify fully as to the manner in which he had fished in the pond, and we will assume for the purposes of this case that the owners of the pond could see any person who fished there. The defendant testified that he had commenced to fish in the pond in J.862, and from that time down until 1895 he had fished there quite often in the summer time, sometimes three or four times a week, and had fished all over the pond; that nobody had ever interfered with him until within the year last named; that other persons had always fished there in the same manner, and that prior to 1895 he had never heard of any objections from the owners of the land. He further testified that, when he first began to fish there, David Letson owned and was in possession of the property; that he and Letson had always been very friendly, and that he had never heard of Letson objecting to any person fishing there, although he did know that Letson had objected to their using his wood that laid around the shore. Taking the testimony of the defendant as true he had at various times, extending over a period of thirty years, fished in the pond with the knowledge of the owners, with whom he had been upon friendly terms, without anything having been said .as to whether he had any right to fish there or
Reference
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- Waters — Fishing—Deed—Trespass—Exclusive right. While at common law an action of ejectment will not lie for the possession of a pool or other piece of water by the name of water only, yet by a grant of a well defined pool or pond there passes to the grantee a right of fishing. When he who makes such a grant is the sole and absolute owner of the pond, and the grant is made without reservation, the right of the grantee to the fishery is exclusive. The proper remedy, under our present system of procedure for any interruption of or intrusion upon such a right, is an action of trespass. Deed — Waters—Pond—Tille—Description. A grant by deed of a tract of land extending across the mouth of the outlet of a pond, and also “all of the said pond and lands adjoining thereto not conveyed in other deeds,” includes all of the land in the entire tract, whether under or out of the water which had not by conveyances become detached from the tract of which tiie margin was a part. Where the owners of a pond have conveyed the pond and the lands thereunder, the riparian rights become severed from the adjacent land, and it is not within the power of such owners subsequently to revive said rights in favor of other land not conveyed by executing a deed calling for the pond as a boundary. Waters — Lake—Adverse possession. Where the title to a lake and the land under it are distinct from that of the shore owner, adverse possession of the one can never give title to or right in the other. Easement — Fishing—Prescriptive right. In an action of trespass for wrongfully fishing in a pond, where it appears that the defendant owns no land near to the pond and makes no attempt to prescribe in a que estate, he cannot eatablish a prescriptive right to fishing in the pond by evidence that he had commenced to fish in the pond in 1802, and from that time down until 1895 he liad fished there quite often in the summer time, sometimes three or four times a week, and had fished all over the pond, that nobody had ever interfered with him until within the year last named, that other persons had always fished there in the same manner, and that prior to 1895 he had never heard of any objection from the owners of the land.