California v. Arizona

Background

A Special Master prepared a report after a joint motion by the parties about who owns parts of the bed of the former channel of the Colorado River. The suit involved the State of California, the State of Arizona, and the United States of America. The dispute concerned particular parcels described in Exhibit A and Exhibit B to the decree and whether anyone else had rights or claims to those lands. The decree does not change the political boundary between California and Arizona set by a 1966 congressional compact.

Reasoning

The Court accepted and filed the Special Master’s report and granted the parties’ joint motion to enter a decree. The Court decided that California is the owner in fee simple of the lands described in Exhibit A and that Arizona is the owner in fee simple of the lands described in Exhibit B. The decree declares those parcel boundaries to be permanent and fixes ownership. It also says that the other state and the United States have no right, title, estate, or lien in the parcels awarded to the first state, and enjoins them from asserting such claims, subject to the reservation noted below. The decree expressly does not decide whether a federal navigational servitude exists or what its scope might be.

Real world impact

The ruling establishes clear, permanent title for the listed parcels and prevents the named parties from asserting competing state or federal claims to those same lands. Because the Court left the federal navigational servitude question unresolved, questions about federal navigation rights or related limits on property use could be litigated later. The Court ordered that parties bear their own costs and split Special Master expenses as previously directed.