North Carolina v. Tennessee
Headline: Confirms and establishes a permanent boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee along surveyed monuments and a map, making the commissioners’ marked line final and requiring shared costs.
Holding: The Court ordered that the true boundary line between the States of North Carolina and Tennessee between the specified points is the line shown in the commissioners’ report and attached map, and each state pay half the costs.
- Makes the commissioners’ mapped line the official boundary between the states for the described stretch.
- Establishes physical monuments and marked trees as the boundary markers.
- Requires each state to pay one-half of the case costs.
Summary
Background
The dispute involved the States of North Carolina and Tennessee about the true boundary between the two states at certain specified points. In October Term 1914 the Court appointed three commissioners—D. B. Burns, W. D. Hale, and Joseph Hyde Pratt—to retrace, remark, and re-establish the boundary. The commissioners conducted a field survey in 1915, set numbered monuments and marked trees, and produced a detailed written report and an accompanying map signed October 20, 1915.
Reasoning
The Court considered a motion to confirm the commissioners’ report, a motion that was concurred in by counsel for the defendant state. The core question was whether the Court should accept the commissioners’ work as the official description of the boundary between the states for the points described. The Court ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the real, certain, and true boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee between those points is the line delineated in the commissioners’ report and on the attached map. The decree makes the report and map part of the Court’s judgment.
Real world impact
The ruling makes the commissioners’ survey, monuments, and attached map the official boundary description between the two states for the stretch described in the report. The Court also directed that each state pay one-half of the costs in the case. The decree therefore fixes the physical markers and the map as the authoritative record for the boundary between the specified points.
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