Columbia River Packers' Ass'n v. McGowan

219 F. 365, 134 C.C.A. 461, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1660
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided November 16, 1914·No. No. 2396·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). There, are three questions relating to the jurisdiction of the lower court involved in this case:

First. Is Sand Island, with its south shore or tide lands on that shore, within the territorial limits and jurisdiction of the state of Washington ?

If this question is answered in the negative, the next question is:

Second. Is the land under the waters of the Columbia river passing to the south of Sand Island within the concurrent jurisdiction of the courts of the state of Washington with respect to this controversy?

If this question is answered in the negative, the final question is:

Third. Had the lower court equitable jurisdiction by reason of having acquired jurisdiction of the person of the defendants ?

.Tf any one of these questions is answered in the affirmative, the jurisdiction of the lower court must be sustained. If they are all answered in the negative, the jurisdiction of the court fails.

[1] 1. The boundary between the states of Oregon and Washington was established by Congress in the act providing for the admission of Oregon into the Union, approved February 14, 1859 (11 Stat. 383, c. 33), and by the act providing for the admission of Washington, approved February 22,1889 (25 Stat. 676, c. 180). By order of the President of the United States, dated August 29, 1863, Sand Island, at the entrance of the Columbia river, was reserved from sale, and has ever since been retained by the United States as a military reservation. By the act of the Legislature of Oregon passed October 21, 1864, that state granted to the Unjted States all the right and interest of the state of Oregon in and to the land in front of Ft. Stevens and Point Adams, situate in the state of Oregon, and subject to overflow between high and low tide, and also to Sand Island situate at the mouth of the Columbia river in that state. These statutes were the subject of construction by the Supreme Court of the United States with respect to the boundary line between Oregon and Washington in the case of Washington v. Oregon, 211 U. S. 127, 29 Sup. Ct. 47, 53 L. Ed. 118. It was there held that the line followed the middle of the north channel passing to the north of Sand Island, placing that island within the territorial jurisdiction of the state of Oregon. „

The defendants in their answer to the supplemental bill admitted that a suit had been brought in the United States Supreme Court by the state of Washington against the state of Oregon for the purpose of determining the boundary line between those states, and that a decision in that suit had been rendered as set forth in the supplemental bill; but they denied that by that decision it had been established that the boundary line between the states was to the north of Sand Island. That contention is renewed in fhe brief filed by the defendants on this appeal! In support of it, it is urged that the Supreme Court fixed the boundary as “the center of the north channel, changed only as it may be from [371]*371time to time through processes of accretion.” The defendants assert that the boundary thus fixed was an indefinite roving line, controlled by the fluctuations of the shifting sands of the river; that the testimony-in this case showed that the so-called north channel no longer existed to the northward of Sand Island, but had entirely shifted its waters and course to the southward of Sand Island, the territory to the northward of Sand Island having shoaled up by accretion to such an extent that at ordinary low tide a man could walk from Sand Island to the Washington shore. In the decision on the petition for rehearing rendered in the boundary suit on March 8, 1909 (Washington v. Oregon, 214 U. S. 215, 29 Sup. Ct. 632, 53 L. Ed. 969), the Supreme Court considered this very question. It was there said:

“Whatever changes have come in the north channel, and although the volume of water and the depth of that channel have been constantly diminishing, yet, as all resulted from processes of accretion, or, perhaps, also of late years from the jetties constructed by Congress at the month of the river, the boundary is still that ehannel, the precise line of separation being the varying center of that channel.”

This is a complete answer to the claim of the defendants that the boundary as fixed by the Supreme Court in its first decision in the boundary suit is not the present boundary between-the two states. It follows that since the admission of Oregon into the Union, in 1859, Sand Island has been part of the territory of that state.

[2] 2. The next question to be determined is whether the courts of the state of Washington have been vested with concurrent jurisdiction over this controversy.

By section 1 of the act of Congress of March 2, 1853 (chapter 90, 10 Stat. 172), all that part of the territory of Oregon lying north of the “main channel of the Columbia river” was organized into the territory of Washington, and by section 21 of the same act it is provided that:

“The territory of Oregon and the territory of Washington shall have concurrent jurisdiction over all offenses committed on the Columbia river, where said river forms a common boundary between said territories.”

Section 1 of the act of Congress admitting Oregon into the Union (Act Feb. 14, 1859, c. 33, 11 Stat. 383), after describing in detail the boundaries of the state, provided:

“Including jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases upon the Columbia river and Snake river, concurrently with states and territories of which those rivers form a boundary in common with said state.”

In section 2 it is said:

“The * * * state of Oregon shall have concurrent jurisdiction on the Columbia and all other rivers and waters bordering on. the said state of Oregon, so far as the same shall form a common boundary to said state, and any other state or states now or hereafter to be formed or bounded by tbe same.”

The act of Congress admitting Washington into the Union, and the Constitution of that state, are silent on the subject of concurrent jurisdiction. There is therefore a question whether the state of Washington has, by appropriate concurrent action, acquired concurrent jurisdiction of the waters of the Columbia river; but we pass that question to [372]*372consider whether in any view the courts of Washington have jurisdiction over the locality in c.ontroversy.

In Nielsen v. Oregon, 212 U. S. 315, 29 Sup. Ct. 383, 53 L. Ed. 528, one Chris Nielsen was a resident and inhabitant of the state of Washington, and a citizen of the United States. He had a license from the fish commissioner of Washington to operate a purse net on the Columbia river, and was found on the waters of the Washington side of that river fishing with a purse net. He was arrested for violating a law of the state of Oregon prohibiting the taking of fish in that manner. By the law of the state of Washington in force at that time fishing with a purse net was lawful by those having a license so to do from the fish commissioner of that state. Nielsen was tried and convicted in the courts of Oregon for violation of the law of that state.

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Columbia River Packers' Ass'n v. McGowan, 219 F. 365, 134 C.C.A. 461, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1660 (9th Cir. 1914).

219 F. 365 (Columbia River Packers' Ass'n v. McGowan) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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