Keyser v. Coe

14 F. Cas. 442, 9 Blatchf. 32, 37 Conn. 597
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 15, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 14 F. Cas. 442 (Keyser v. Coe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keyser v. Coe, 14 F. Cas. 442, 9 Blatchf. 32, 37 Conn. 597 (circtdct 1871).

Opinion

Shipman, J.

This was a bill in equity to enjoin a nuisance. The plaintiff owns and occupies a residence on the shore of Long Island Sound, in the town of Norwalk, in the state of Connecticut, and the defendant owns a small island, called Goose Island, about a mile from the shore. On this island the defendant has an establishment in which he manufactures artificial manures,-from dead fish and other offensive materials, the fumes of which often reach the main-land and the plaintiff’s residence, and create, as the bill alleges, an intolerable odor, exceedingly disagreeable and sickening. The plaintiff brought his bill against the defendant to enjoin this nuisance, in the Superior Court of Connecticut for Fairfield County. The defendant reinoved the cause into this court, and filed a plea to the jurisdiction, alleging that Goose Island is not within the state of Connecticut, and consequently not within the limits of this judicial district; and averring that therefore this court is without jurisdiction. This plea the plaintiff traversed, and the evidence on the issue of fact thus raised having been heard, on the 5th of May last Judge Wood-ruff delivered an oral opinion of the court, finding this fact adversely to the claim of the defendant, and overruling the plea; at the same time stating that a written opinion,.fully embodying the views then expressed, would be filed at a subsequent day. We now proceed to set forth in somewhat more detail the views thus orally presented.

The main question is, whether the subject matter of this suit is within the jurisdiction of the court. The bill alleges [599]*599that the noxious odors complained of are transmitted through the air, from the defendant’s works on the island, to the plaintiff’s residence which is in Connecticut, injuring the health and destroying the comfort of himself and family, and impairing the value of his property. It was suggested on the argument that even if Goose Island, where the noxious odors are generated, he without the district of Connecticut, yet as these odors are. blown to the shore, and there inflict the injury complained of, this court has ample jurisdiction to arrest the evil, the parties being properly before it. This is an interesting question, but the conclusion which we have reached on another and more comprehensive branch of the case, renders it unnecessary that we should pass upon it. We therefore confine ourselves to the question of fact to which the proof was addressed, añd the only one which was discussed on the argument, and that is whether Goose Island is within the limits of the state of Connecticut.

The rules of evidence applicable to controversies touching the boundaries of states do not differ materially from those relating to the boundaries of land between individuals. In both cases resort is made to documents and muniments of title, such as grants, charters, and deeds, and when these fail, to evidence of use and occupation. We have, in this case, tested the question now under consideration by both of these classes of evidence.

The first piece of documentary evidence which claims our attention is the patent of Connecticut, well known in her history as the Warwick Patent. The date of this patent was March 19, 1631.- It is stated by Trumbull, in his history of Connecticut (vol. 1, p. 27), that Warwick derived his title from the Council of Plymouth, by a grant made to him in 1630, and confirmed by a patent from Charles I. The Council of Plymouth held under the great patent of New England, from James I, dated November 3, 1620. Though the descriptive words of the grant in this Warwick Patent of 1631 are peculiar, a careful consideration of them leaves no substantial doubt as to their true meaning, so far as they bear on the present controversy. This descriptive clause is as follows:

[600]*600“All that part of New England, in America, which lies and extends itself from a river there called Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line .near the seashore towards the south-west, west and by south, or west, as the coast lieth towards Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league ; and also all' and singular the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying- and being- within the lands aforesaid, north and south in latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude of and within all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main-lands there, from the western ocean to the south sea, and all lands and grounds, place and places, soil, wood, and woods, grounds, havens, ports, creeks and rivers, waters, fishings, and hereditaments whatsoever lying within said space, and ’ every part thereof; and also all islands lying in America aforesaid, in the said seas, or either of them on the western or eastern coasts, or parts of said tracts of land by these presents mentioned to be given, granted, etc.” It will be noticed that the eastern boundary of the tract here granted is not described except by naming Narragansett river (now called Narragansett Bay)- as the line from which the belt of land included in the grant took its start. The northern boundary is not described at all, but it has universally been understood to be coincident with the southern boundary of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as. fixed by the grant of the Council of Plymouth to Sir Henry Roswel and others, March 19, 1627. The western boundary of the line granted by the Warwick patent it is not necessary to determine in this controversy. It was long a subject of dispute between Connecticut and other colonies, and involved interests of great magnitude, but which do not now concern us. The words in this patent “ from the western ocean,” refer of course to the Atlantic. " This is clear from the fact that the grant to Sir Henry Eoswel and others, already referred to, and dated four years earlier than the Warwick patent, employs the words “from the Atlantic and Western sea and ocean on the east part to the South sea on the west part.” Whether the words “ South sea” in the Warwick [601]*601patent meant what is now called the Pacific Ocean, as has been generally supposed, we do not stop to inquire.

We now come to that part of the southern boundary of the Warwick grant which is germane to the question before the court.. It commenced at Narragansett river, or bay, on the east, and extended westerly “ as the coast lieth toward Virginia,” forty leagues, or an hundred and twenty miles. The words “ upon a straight line” are not used in. the instrument to designate the actual southern boundary, but merely as a line on which the distance between the two termini was to be measured, these termini being Narragansett river on the east, and a point on the coast forty leagues from that starting point. The words.“near the sea-shore” must have been used in the sense of “ along the sea-shore.” But if we were to construe the words “ upon, a straight line” literally, the boundary indicated by it would not support the defendant’s plea to the jurisdiction. For a straight line drawn from Point Judith, the starting point, to Lyons Point, which has long been practically settled as the western terminus, Avould leave Goose Island on the north and within the limits of the grant. But as already stated, we regard the southern boundary indicated by the descriptive words of the grant to be the coast washed by the sea.

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Related

Rowe v. Smith
48 Conn. 444 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1880)

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Bluebook (online)
14 F. Cas. 442, 9 Blatchf. 32, 37 Conn. 597, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keyser-v-coe-circtdct-1871.