Peeples v. Port of Bellingham

Washington Supreme Court

Peeples v. Port of Bellingham

613 P.2d 1128, 93 Wash. 2d 766, 1980 Wash. LEXIS 1322

CourtWashington Supreme Court

DecidedJune 26, 1980

Docket46255

StatusPublished

Cited by39 cases

This text of 613 P.2d 1128 (Peeples v. Port of Bellingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Peeples v. Port of Bellingham, 613 P.2d 1128, 93 Wash. 2d 766, 1980 Wash. LEXIS 1322 (Wash. 1980).

Pincite

Opinion

Williams, J.

Petitioners, titleholders of 2 1/2 acres of Blaine Harbor tidelands, seek review of a Court of Appeals decision affirming the trial court's judgment quieting title in the Port of Bellingham by adverse possession. Peeples v. Port of Bellingham, 21 Wn. App. 821, 588 P.2d 757 (1978). We reverse.

The record in this case reveals the following undisputed facts:

In 1946, the tidelands in question were purchased at a tax sale by petitioners' predecessors in interest. Petitioners were assessed and paid property taxes on the subject property during the 10-year period prior to this action. The property abuts railroad property on the shoreward (easterly) side. Platted but undeveloped streets run along the southeasterly and northwesterly edges of the property.

By quitclaim deed in 1956, the City of Blaine conveyed these tideland lots along with adjacent ones to the Port of Bellingham, in contemplation of a major improvement program to Blaine Harbor. The improvement program, which *768 was begun in 1957, envisioned an expansion of Blaine Harbor and ownership of the entire harbor area by the Port of Bellingham.

The accompanying 1962 aerial photograph (Exhibit 23) illustrates the harbor area with improvements; the tidelands in question appear as marked in the upper right hand corner.

As part of the 1957 improvement program, the port constructed a rock breakwater down the southeast side of the subject property on platted but undeveloped Martin Street. No portion of the breakwater was placed on the subject property or on the half of Martin Street that abuts the property.

The port also constructed a bulkhead down the center of platted but undeveloped "H" Street on the northwest side of the property. The trial court found that no portion of the bulkhead or the fill deposited behind it was placed on the property, but merely ran along the northerly side of the tract. Finding of fact No. 12. 1

There was a line of dolphins or piles parallel to and about halfway between Martin Street and "H" Street. The surveyor's map revealed that one of the dolphins was located just inside the seaward edge of the property; the others were outside the seaward boundary. It was the recollection of the port manager that the port did not install the dolphins or have them installed, nor did it make any use of them. A port commissioner was not sure, but thought *769 the dolphins might have been put in during construction of the breakwater.

The breakwater contractor dredged an 80-foot channel through part of the subject property in order to float in rock barges. The dredging was a "one-time" use and no further use was contemplated. The port made no further *770 use of the channel, though sporadic use was made by fishing boats as winter moorage. There was no agreement between the port and boat owners as to this moorage, which apparently occurred intermittently between 1957 and 1970. The port manager testified: "[Tjhere were many, many years when there was nothing there."

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