Quaere whether this Court can go behind successive
findings of the Secretary of the Interior and the state court that
a lake was properly meandered and the lands within its area were
not swamp. In this case, no reason appears for so doing.
By the law of Iowa, riparian owners take only to the water's
edge, and grants of the United States follow the state rule, and
convey no land under an unnavigable lake.
The title to the bed of a meandered lake formerly within the
public domain of the United States, for which no patent has been
issued either remains in the United States or has passed under the
Swamp Land Act to the state.
Under such circumstances, a state has, by virtue of its
sovereignty, an interest sufficient to entitle it to maintain an
action against one intruding without title.
13 Ia. 398 affirmed.
The facts, which involve the title to a meandered lake in the
State of Iowa, are stated in the opinion.
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a petition brought by the State of Iowa to enjoin the
defendant from draining the waters of Goose Lake, in Greene County,
Iowa. The defendant, now
Page 226 U. S. 461
plaintiff in error, set up title, on the ground that the
so-called lake, a tract of several hundred acres, was swamp land
and was granted to the state by the Act of September 28, 1850, c.
84, 9 Stat. 520, Rev.Stat. ยง 2479; that it passed to Greene County
by an act of the legislature of January 13, 1853, and thence by
mesne conveyances to this defendant. After a trial, the court of
first instance entered a decree for the plaintiff, and the decree
was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 143 Ia. 398.
The material facts are few. In the original survey by the
government in 1853, the lake was meandered, which meant under the
instructions to surveyors then in force that it was a lake or deep
pond, and no patent ever has issued from the United States. In
1903, the plaintiff in error applied to the Secretary of the
Interior to have the land surveyed as swamp land, but the
application was refused on the ground that it did not appear
sufficiently that there was not a lake there, as indicated at the
time of the survey. If the question of fact was open under
76 U. S. Joseph)
Railroad Co. v. Smith, 9 Wall. 95, the state courts found that
Goose Lake was an unnavigable body of water proper to be meandered,
and we see no sufficient reason for going behind these successive
findings, if we had power to do so.
Cedar Rapids Gas Light Co.
v. Cedar Rapids, 223 U. S. 655,
223 U. S. 668.
See French v. Fyan, 93 U. S. 169;
McCormick v. Hayes, 159 U. S. 332. It
follows that the plaintiff in error shows no title. By the law of
Iowa, the riparian owners took title only to the water's edge, and
therefore the grants of the adjoining land by the United States did
not convey the land under the lake.
Hardin v. Jordan,
140 U. S. 371;
Hardin v. Shedd, 190 U. S. 508;
Whitaker v. McBridge, 197 U. S. 510,
197 U. S. 512.
It follows that the bed of the lake either still belongs to the
United States or must be held to have passed to the state.
The question as to the title to the bed is treated as open
Page 226 U. S. 462
in
Hardin v. Shedd, 190 U. S. 508,
190 U. S. 519,
and
Whitaker v. McBride, 197 U. S. 510,
197 U. S. 515,
and there is no need to decide it now. It is enough to say that, by
virtue of its sovereignty, the State of Iowa has an interest in the
condition of the lake sufficient to entitle it to maintain this
suit against an intruder without title, whether the state owns the
bed or not. This principle has been affirmed and acted on by the
Court so recently that it does not require further argument here.
Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co., 206 U.
S. 230,
206 U. S. 237;
Hudson County Water Co. v. McCarter, 209 U.
S. 349,
209 U. S. 356.
See also Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S.
46,
206 U. S. 93;
McGilvra v. Ross, 215 U. S. 70,
215 U. S.
79.
Decree affirmed.