Buford v. Smith

21 S.W. 168, 2 Tex. Civ. App. 178, 1893 Tex. App. LEXIS 42
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 31, 1893
DocketNo. 79.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 21 S.W. 168 (Buford v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buford v. Smith, 21 S.W. 168, 2 Tex. Civ. App. 178, 1893 Tex. App. LEXIS 42 (Tex. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinion

HEAD, Associate Justice.

In August, 1889, the Commissioners Court of Cooke County established a second class public road known as the Rock Bluff and County Line road, the northern terminus of which is at Red River, on land owned by appellant. Since the establishment of said road, appellee, without any license from the Commissioners Court of Cooke County, has been engaged in operating a ferry across Red River, landing his passengers upon that part of appellant’s land condemned for use as a public road under the laws of this State as aforesaid, and appellant instituted this suit to recover the land, and also to enjoin appellee from its use for said ferry purposes. The court below gave appellant judgment for the land, but refused the injunction; and from the judgment refusing the injunction appellant prosecutes this appeal.

*179 This question has been so ably and exhaustively treated in an opinion delivered by Justice Dillon, while a member of the Supreme Court of Iowa, in the case of Prosser v. Wapello County, 18 Iowa, 327, that it would be a waste of time upon our part to attempt to add anything to what is there said, and we shall content ourselves with copying at length from that opinion as follows:

‘ ‘ This brings us to the next question, and that is, whether the location of a county road on the land does, to the extent of its width on the bank of the river, deprive the land owner of his riparian rights as above defined.

“And here we feel compelled to yield our doubts to the almost if not quite uniform current of authority, and to hold that it does not. The argument is this: By the location of the road the public acquire simply the right of way over the soil; the bare right of passage and its incidents, nothing more. Deaton v. Polk County, 9 Iowa, 594; Trustees v. Railway, 3 Hill (N. Y.), 567; Sir John Lade v. Shepherd, 2 Strange, 1004; Mayor v. Ward, 1 Wils., 110, 111.

“ The property or freehold still remains in the owner of the land; how completely so, the case last cited, with others there referred to, strikingly illustrate.

1 '■ This question has arisen in several cases, and among others in Pipkins v. Wynns, before cited (2 Dev., N. C., 402), and which overruled Rayner v. Dowdy, 1 Murph., 279. Speaking of this subject, Henderson, C. J., says: 1 For the uses and purposes of a highway it (the highway) is the sovereign’s—the public’s; for all other purposes it is the former proprietor’s. The right of using it as a landing place for a ferry has never been taken from him; and although there is scarcely a perceptible difference between stepping from a boat on the land and stepping from land to land, yet that has never been taken from the former proprietor for such purposes, as he has never been compensated for the right (limited as above stated) of transporting persons across the watercourse, as that was not considered when the price of taking the land for a highway was fixed; and although it is of little value without the franchise, yet the ownership of the land gives him the preferable right to call for the franchise when the ferry becomes necessary. This right is valuable, for, unless there are good reasons to the contrary, the sovereign must grant it to the owner, as sovereigns are bound to be just. * * * If it be asked, what is to be done if the owner of land, where a ferry is necessary, refuses to receive the franchise, it is answered, to pay him for the land and grant it to another. * * * Let it not be taken for a road and used as a ferry.’ It was accordingly held, that compensation must be made to the owner of the fee for the use of the soil for the ferry right, although there is a public road leading to the river on both sides.

“And such is substantially the decisions in Tennessee (Memphis v. *180 Overton, 3 Yerger, 387) and in Pennsylvania. Thus in Chambers v. Furey, 1 Yeates (1792), 167, it was decided that the dedication or laying out of ground as a public road gave no right to the defendants, the owners of a ferry, to land upon or receive freight from the plaintiff’s freehold on the banks of a navigable river, without his consent. That the owner of a ferry has no right to land his passengers or boat on a public highway without the consent of the owner of the soil, see, also, Cooper v. Smith, 9 Sergeant & Eawle, 31 (1822); not even (it was held in a subsequent case) at the terminus of a highway between high and low water mark. Chess v. Manoun, 3 Watts, 219 (1834); and see Bird v. Smith, 8 Watts, 434; also, the thoroughly considered case of Pearsall v. Post, 20 Wendell, 111-131, in which the doctrine of the Pennsylvania cases above cited is approved. There is ,a dictum contra per Bailey, Judge, in Peter v. Kendal, 6 Barnewald & Cresswell, 703.

“ Whether the decision in Chess v. Manoun, above cited, is reconcilable with McManus v. Carmichael, 3 Iowa, 1, is a question of some difficulty. See, on this subject, Prosser v. Davis, infra.

‘ ‘ Without committing ourselves to the entire correctness of all the positions taken in these cases, which we have referred to as illustrating the subject, we feel free in holding:

“1. That the dedication or taking of land for a public highway does not, in cases where the owner retains the fee and the public have only an easement, deprive such owner of his preferable right to a ferry, if one is established.

2. That a ferry license to a stranger will not authorize him, against the consent of the owner, or without compensating him therefor, to use the termini of such highway, certainly above high water mark (see on this point, Prosser v. Davis, infra), for the purpose of fastening boats and of receiving and discharging freight and passengers. Such a use is not a public use, so much as it is a use by the licensee or holder of the franchise for his own gain and advantage. Like the use of an ordinary road for railway purposes, such a use for ferry purposes would be an additional burden or servitude, for which compensation must be made to the owner. Milburn v. Cedar Rapids, etc., 12 Iowa, 246, 259. Forcibly illustrative of this question, see Mahon v. Railway, 24 N. Y., 658; Carpenter v Railway, 24 N. Y., 655; Wager v. Railway, 25 N. Y., 526; Bissell v. Railway, 23 N. Y., 61; Fletcher v. Railway, 25 Wend., 462; Davis v. Mayor, 14 N. Y., 526; Williams v. Railway, 16 N. Y., 97-106, reviewing Chief Justice Gibson’s opinion, contra, in Philadelphia v. Railway, 6 Whart., 25; and see, where owner parts with fee, Aldrich v. Wallace, 8 Dana (Ky.), 289; 16 N. Y., 97; arguendo, Wager v. Railway, 25 N. Y., 526-533.”

This decision was approved by the same court in the case of Prosser v. Davis, 18 Iowa, 367, and it is there held, that on the application of the *181 riparian owner the proprietor of a ferry will be enjoined from landing his boat on the land of such owner that has not been condemned to that use and the owner compensated therefor.

It follows, therefore, that we are of opinion that the court below erred in not granting the injunction as prayed for by appellant.

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Bluebook (online)
21 S.W. 168, 2 Tex. Civ. App. 178, 1893 Tex. App. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buford-v-smith-texapp-1893.