Whitaker v. McBride

Background

This case involves landowners whose property borders a river and an unsurveyed island in that river. The dispute arose after the Government made official surveys and sold adjacent bank lands but did not survey a small island of about twenty-two acres. A settler or claimant sought to occupy or obtain that island by homestead or preemption entry, while the riverfront owners claimed the island as part of their riparian rights.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the unsurveyed island belonged to the riparian owners or could be claimed by a settler because the Government omitted it from survey. The Court relied on state law as interpreted by Nebraska’s highest court and on prior decisions about surveys and meander lines. It noted that official government surveys cannot be attacked in private suits, that meander lines do not automatically mark a boundary into open water, and that there was no evidence of fraud or mistake by surveyors. The Interior Department had refused to survey the island, citing precedent, and the Court held that where the Government omitted and declined to survey a river island after surveying and selling adjacent lands, the riparian owners’ title to the channel and small islands on their side is sustained.

Real world impact

The decision means riverfront landowners keep rights to the riverbed to the center of the channel and to small unsurveyed islands opposite their banks when the Government failed or refused to survey them. It also preserves the United States’ separate power to survey and sell public lands, a question the Court did not finally decide here.