United States v. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad

The question for decision is whether the United States must compensate a riparian owner for injury to structures located between high and low water marks, where the damage is caused by the raising of the water level in a navigable stream for the improvement of navigation. The importance of the question, and a conflict in the decisions of this court, led to the grant of certiorari.

The tracks of the respondent railroad and the pole lines of the respondent telegraph company in Wabasha and Winona counties, Minnesota, as relocated in 1910, are, in part, on an embankment on the westerly side of the…