United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Vermont v. New York, 417 U.S. 270 (1974)

Vermont v. New York

No. 50, Orig.

Decided June 3, 1974

417 U.S. 270

Syllabus

On a bill of complaint by Vermont charging New York and a paper company with polluting Lake Champlain, impeding navigation, and creating a public nuisance, this Court will not approve a consent decree proposed by the Special Master to be entered without further argument or hearing and calling for the appointment of another Special Master to police its execution and propose to the Court resolution of any future issues, since there have been no findings of fact or rulings either as to equitable apportionment of the water involved or as to whether New York and the paper company are responsible for a public nuisance, and since the proposed new Special Master's procedure would materially change the Court's function in interstate contests so that, in supervising execution of the decree, it would be acting more in an arbitral than a judicial manner, and might be considering proposals having no relation to law or to the Court's Art. III function.