Home/North Dakota Supreme Court/Tavis v. Higgins

Tavis v. Higgins

157 N.W.2d 718, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 117
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 9, 1968
DocketCiv. 8363
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 157 N.W.2d 718 (Tavis v. Higgins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tavis v. Higgins, 157 N.W.2d 718, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 117 (N.D. 1968).

Opinion

STRUTZ, Judge,

on reassignment.

This is an action brought in the district court of Burleigh County to quiet title to certain real estate described in the plaintiff’s complaint as Lot 5 and the South Half of the Southeast Quarter (Sj^SEi4) of Section 18, Township 138, Range 80.

In an attempt to make the problems which faced this court somewhat more understandable, we have had two composite maps prepared, outlining the locations of the river in relation to the land in dispute, as such locations are established for different years by the evidence.

Map No. 1 shows the land as it originally was platted, when the Missouri River was confined to the area inclosed in the unbroken lines indicated by the General Land Office surveys. These surveys apparently were conducted on a piecemeal basis, over a period of years, since the solid lines inclosing the river show that various parts of the boundaries of the stream were established by surveys during the years 1872, 1874, 1878, and 1892. However incomplete the early surveys may have been, the purpose of the map is to show the land in dispute as it originally existed in Bur-leigh County and as it was affected by the meandering of the Missouri River from time to time in relation to the land in Morton County held by the defendants, or their predecessors in interest, who claim the plaintiff’s land as accretion to such Morton County lands.
Map No. 2 shows the land in dispute as it now exists. The Missouri River may be seen to have reverted to approximately its original channel — as-shown by the early surveys on Map No. 1 — as against the 1938 U. S. Aerial Survey showing the land to have been almost completely inundated by the eastward meandering of the river.

These maps show the property described in the plaintiff’s complaint as the dotted area in Section 18, rectangular in shape and designated as “Lot 5” and “S14SE14.” As will be seen from these maps, the “island” to which the defendants claim title is that area on the maps designated by the perpendicular lines. If the defendants’ contentions have been established by the record, then this “island” would extend to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River as it is shown by the U. S. Aerial Survey to have existed in 1938. It will be noted from these maps that the river washed away or submerged much of the property claimed by the plaintiff in this action and that, when it reached its 1938 location, most of the plaintiff’s land either was displaced or was inundated and that only a small tract in the extreme southeast corner of the South Half of the Southeast Quarter (S14SE14.) remained. (See Map No. 2.) Thereafter, the

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 N.W.2d 718, 1968 N.D. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tavis-v-higgins-nd-1968.