Home/Nebraska Supreme Court/Swanson v. Dalton

Swanson v. Dalton

131 N.W.2d 704, 178 Neb. 55, 1964 Neb. LEXIS 55
Nebraska Supreme Court·Decided December 18, 1964·No. 35752·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

White, C. J.

This is an action to establish boundaries, under section 34-301, R. R. S. 1943, between adjoining riparian owners of accretion land along the Missouri River in *57 Knox County, Nebraska. The land in dispute is a short distance west of the confluence of the Niobrara and the Missouri Rivers.

Aerial photographs, surveys, and plats prepared from the records were introduced in evidence. From them an approximate composite picture may be put together as to the development of the accretion land involved since 1863, the time of the original government survey. This includes the results of a government survey of 1917 which established the shoreline and the extent of the development of deeded accretion land to that date.

A sketch, prepared from the various exhibits and the evidence, is included herein for illustrative purposes and appears on the following page. The railroad track gives a rough approximation of the shoreline of the Missouri River in 1863 at the time of the original survey. Bluffs and high ground are generally parallel and south of these tracks. The plaintiff’s deeded land, including the triangular Tract A of deeded accretion land, is in Section 1, Township 32 North, Range 7 West. The defendants’ deeded patented and deeded accretion land lies in Sections 6 and 7, Township 32 North, Range 6 West, immediately to the east. It appears from the evidence that at the time of the original survey in 1863, the river frontage in these adjoining sections was approximately equal. The 1917 survey established that the Missouri River had moved gradually north. The shoreline had become irregular. This movement north, until 1917, was almost entirely in Section 1, the plaintiff’s land. An inspection of the 1917 shoreline shown on the sketch will demonstrate this. After the 1917 survey, the plaintiff’s predecessors in title became the owners of deeded accretion land shown as triangular Tract A on the sketch. Defendants’ predecessors in title also became the owners of deeded accretion land in Sections 6 and 7 immediately to the east. The issues in this case arise from a dispute as to the division of the land accreting to the north and the east since these acquisitions. This is the land in

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Swanson v. Dalton, 131 N.W.2d 704, 178 Neb. 55, 1964 Neb. LEXIS 55 (Neb. 1964).

131 N.W.2d 704 (Swanson v. Dalton) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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