Attorney General v. Boston & Lowell Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Information in equity, filed October 25,1872, by the attorney general, at the relation of the harbor commissioners, under the St. of 1866, c. 149, § 5, to prevent the defendant from filling up flats and building a sea wall and driving piles thereon, in Miller’s River, a navigable river, within the tide waters of the Commonwealth.
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Information in equity, filed October 25,1872, by the attorney general, at the relation of the harbor commissioners, under the St. of 1866, c. 149, § 5, to prevent the defendant from filling up flats and building a sea wall and driving piles thereon, in Miller’s River, a navigable river, within the tide waters of the Commonwealth. Hearing before Devens, J., upon information, answer, general replication and proofs, by whose report, as after-wards amended by agreement of the parties, the case appeared to be as follows: The defendant owned, as annexed to its upland under the Colonial Ordinance of…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, C. J.
The colony ordinance of 1647, which is the source of private title in flats below high water mark, provides that the proprietors “ shall not by this liberty have power to stop or hinder the passage of boats or other vessels, in or through any sea, creeks or coves, to other men’s houses or lands.” Anc. Chart. 148, 149. And it is within the authority of the Legislature, for the benefit and security of public navigation, to regulate and restrain the building of wharves or other structures upon the flats under navigable waters wherever the tide ebbs and flows. Commonwealth v. Alger, 7 Cush. 53.…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- General v. WoodsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
3Cited by3 opinions
- City of Grand Rapids v. PowersMichigan Supreme Court · 1891
- Henry v. City of NewburyportMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1889
- Commonwealth v. Boston Terminal Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1904