§ 26-246 — Designation of disputed lines in local jurisdiction.

When the boundaries of lands or grounds not within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state, lawfully designated for the planting or cultivation of oysters, clams or mussels, between adjoining proprietors, have been lost or become uncertain, or when the shellfish commission authorized to stake out such lands or grounds has, in the designations or descriptions thereof, described such boundaries so as not to agree with or correctly locate the boundaries actually fixed by them, and such adjoining proprietors cannot agree to establish the same, one or more of them may bring a petition to the superior court for the judicial district in which such lands or grounds, or a portion of them, are situated, and said court may order such lost and uncertain bounds to be erected and established; and may appoint a committee of not more than three disinterested property owners, who shall give notice to all parties interested, as the same appear, in such lands or grounds, to appear before them, and having been sworn, shall inquire into the facts and erect and establish such lost and uncertain bounds, and ascertain the true line between such adjoining proprietors, and reestablish and relocate the same where the shellfish commission marked and placed the same, and may employ a surveyor to assist them if necessary. Such commission shall report to the court the facts relating to such matters, and the original designations and descriptions of such lands and grounds, and of all their doings in the premises; and, if said court finds such parties were duly notified, it may confirm such doings and by its decree fix and locate such boundary lines between such adjoining proprietors, and certified copies of the report and decree shall be recorded in the oyster records of the town in which such lands are, or on which such original designations of such grounds are recorded, and the lines and bounds so erected and established shall be the bounds and lines between such adjoining proprietors. This section shall not apply to any designation of oyster ground which contains a map thereof, or which refers to such map lodged on file in the town clerk's office, or to oyster grounds within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state.

Legislative History

(1949 Rev., S. 5081; P.A. 76-436, S. 605, 681; P.A. 78-280, S. 1, 127; P.A. 81-472, S. 140, 159; P.A. 86-225, S. 6.) History: P.A. 76-436 replaced court of common pleas with superior court, effective July 1, 1978; P.A. 78-280 replaced “county” with “judicial district”; P.A. 81-472 made technical changes; P.A. 86-225 transferred functions of oyster-ground committees to shellfish commissions. The divisional line must be of adjoining grounds and the map must be absolutely accurate; these are jurisdictional questions. 51 C. 188. Admissibility of evidence. 74 C. 374.