Thompson v. Fort Miller Pulp & Paper Co.

14 Misc. 477
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1920
StatusPublished

This text of 14 Misc. 477 (Thompson v. Fort Miller Pulp & Paper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thompson v. Fort Miller Pulp & Paper Co., 14 Misc. 477 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1920).

Opinion

Borst, J.

The plaintiff is the owner of a farm located a short distance southerly of Fort Edward on the westerly bank of the Hudson river. The defendant owns a manufacturing plant on the easterly side of the river two miles below the farm of the plaintiff. The latter contends that the defendant has, by means of a dam, known as the “ Fort Miller dam,” which it has caused to be erected across the river opposite its plant, raised the water in the river so that at times it overflows some thirty acres of land in plaintiff’s main farm and about three acres of her land on an island in the river opposite the main farm and at a point in the river known as Crocker’s Reef.” The plaintiff seeks in this action to compel the removal of the dam and the recovery of damages.

Much of history, legislative and judicial, has been [479]*479written with reference to the various dams located in the Hudson river at this point. By chapter 43, Laws of 1804, the defendant’s predecessor in title received from the state the right to erect, on the east side of the Hudson river at the point in question, a wing dam, but “ that it shall not be lawful to extend such dam so far into said river from the east bank as the late dam extended by thirty feet.” This right, so far as the evidence shows, has never been lost to defendant and its predecessors in title. As the dam was limited to the east side of the river, it obviously gave no right beyond the center of the river or what might be properly urged as its east side. No evidence is given tending to show how far the dam referred to in the act as the “ late dam ” extended into the river. Defendant’s counsel, however, states in his brief that the dam erected from the east side, pursuant to the act, was on the site of the present dam and extended very nearly to the center of the river. From the time of the passage of this act the different dams located at this place have been the subject of attention and are noted in New York Canal History published by authority of the state, reports of the canal board, and numerous acts of the legislature, which it is not deemed necessary to enumerate.

At one time the state maintained a dam at the point in question but whether it utilized the wing dam of the defendant’s predecessors in title from the east shore is not clear. The latter evidently had some rights in the maintenance of the state dam as there appears'from the canal reports to have been paid to them by the state, when the state dam was removed or abandoned, a considerable sum of money as damages claimed to have been sustained by them by the removal of the state dam. Damages were also paid by the state to other people whose lands were affected by the erec[480]*480tion and maintenance of the state dam. In Harris v. Thompson, 9 Barb. 350, some of the history of the numerous assaults made upon the dams at this place by the upper riparian owners is given.

The defendant bases its right to maintain the dam in the river upon two patents and the Vandenburgh deed, which are now considered. The defendant’s mills and easterly end of its dam are located within the bounds of the tract of land known as the Schuyler Patent,” granted by George II to Johannes Schuyler and others, July 18,1740. The material portion of the description in that patent, so far as the present case is concerned, is that which relates to its westerly boundary and reads then down the stream of the said river (including six islands lying in the said river opposite to this tract) to the place where this same tract of land first began.”

As the place of beginning in the description in the patent was at the bank of the river, the words “ then down the stream of the said river,” it is evident, refer to the bank of the river, that is, along the stream of the said river. Otherwise, the description would not come back to the place of beginning. Applying the rule that in the construction of such a patent that must prevail which is most favorable to the state (People v. N. Y. & Staten Island Ferry Co., 68 N. Y. 71, 77; West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. v. Peck, 189 App. Div. 286), it must be held that the defendant owns no part of the river bed on its easterly shore.

The westerly portion of the dam is located in the Kayaderossoras patent granted by Queen Anne to Naning Harmense and others, November 2, 1708. The descriptive language of this patent, in so far as material here, is “ thence along the said river down southerly'to the northeasterly bounds of Sarachtoga.” This description clearly excludes the bed of the river.

[481]*481In July, 1882, defendant’s predecessors acquired by deed from Nicholas Vandenburgh, riparian owner on the west side above the Harris dam hereafter referred to, and in the Kayaderossoras patent, “ the right to build a dam across said river, or any part of it, opposite the said farm, (Vandenburgh) and to abut the same against the west bank of said river on said farm and to keep and maintain the same there forever.” In this deed appears the following recital: “ whereas the parties of the second part own certain real estate and riparian rights upon the east side of the Hudson River nearly opposite and south of the Vandenburgh farm.” In this is a concession by defendant’s predecessors in title that their ownership was confined to the east side of the river. It is not claimed by the Vandenburgh deed that the defendant or its predecessors obtained any right to dam the river as against the plaintiff or her predecessors in title.

The Hudson river at the place in question is a navigable stream and while plaintiff had the right to the use of its waters as' an incident to the ownership of its bank and with the consent of the state to maintain a dam in its bed, it had no right to dam its waters to the prejudice of the plaintiff. Harris v. Thompson, supra; West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. v. Peck, supra; United Paper Board Company v. Iroquois Pulp & Paper Co., 226 N. Y. 38; Smith v. City of Rochester, 92 id. 463; People v. Page, 39 App. Div. 110; City of Rochester v. Erickson, 46 Barb. 92; Adams v. Popham, 76 N. Y. 410.

It must, therefore, be held that defendant, under the evidence presented, has no title to the bed of the river and that its right to maintain a • dam in the river is confined to its easterly half, which rests upon the permission of the state given by the act of 1804.

Since about the year 1861, the situation with refer[482]*482ence to the dams at the point in question has been as follows: On the west side, Harris and Burt had built a wing dam extending from their mill diagonally up the river some three or four hundred feet and to within a few feet of the center of the river and very nearly up to the present dam. On the east side, Nichols, defendant’s predecessor in title, had a wing dam extending very nearly to the center of the river and on the site of the present dam. The river ends of the two dams were a short distance apart, that from the easterly side being twenty to forty feet furthest up the stream. The river channel was then, and is now, much the deepest at the east side of the river. Later, the Harris wing dam was carried away and has never been rebuilt.

After the conveyance from Vandenburgh and in the year 1882, the defendant’s predecessor extended their easterly wing dam to within thirty feet of the west shore.

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Related

Adams v. . Popham
76 N.Y. 410 (New York Court of Appeals, 1879)
Galway v. Metropolitan Elevated Railway Co.
28 N.E. 479 (New York Court of Appeals, 1891)
McCann v. . Chasm Power Co.
105 N.E. 416 (New York Court of Appeals, 1914)
Amerman v. . Deane
30 N.E. 741 (New York Court of Appeals, 1892)
United Paper Board Co. v. Iroquois Pulp & Paper Co.
123 N.E. 200 (New York Court of Appeals, 1919)
People v. New York & Staten Island Ferry Co.
68 N.Y. 71 (New York Court of Appeals, 1877)
Kilbourne v. Board of Supervisors
33 N.E. 159 (New York Court of Appeals, 1893)
People v. Page
39 A.D. 110 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1899)
Gerow v. Village of Liberty
106 A.D. 357 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1905)
West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. v. Peck
189 A.D. 286 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1919)
Harris v. Thompson
9 Barb. 350 (New York Supreme Court, 1850)
City of Rochester v. Erickson
46 Barb. 92 (New York Supreme Court, 1866)

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Bluebook (online)
14 Misc. 477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thompson-v-fort-miller-pulp-paper-co-nysupct-1920.