Lamprey v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 1 district · 98 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 108 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The incalculable mischiefs that would follow if the riparian owner is liable to be cut off from access to the water, and another owner sandwiched in between him and it, whenever the water line had been changed by accretions and relictions, are self-evident, and have frequently been animadverted on by the courts. These considerations apply to riparian ownership on lakes as well as streams. * * * The owners of lands bordering on them have often bought with reference to access to the water, which usually constitutes an important element in the value and desirability of the land. If the rule contended for by the appellants is to prevail, it would simply open the door for prowlin'g speculators to step in and acquire title from the state to any relictions produced in the course of time by the recession of the water, and thus deprive the owner of the original shore estate of all riparian rights, including that of access to the water. The endless litigation over the location of the original water lines, and the grievous practical injustice to the owners of the original riparian estate that would follow, would of themselves be a sufficient reason for refusing to adopt any such doctrine.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Kirwan v. Murphy · Murphy v. Kirwan

2. ““Our conclusion therefore is that upon both principle and authority, as well as considerations of public policy, the common law is that: the same rules as to riparian rights which apply to streams apply also to lakes, or other bodies of still water. “In this state we have adopted the common law on the subject of waters, with certain modifications, suited to the difference in conditions between this country and England, the principal of which are that navigability in fact, and not the ebb and flow of the tide, is the test of navigability, and that we have repudiated the doctrine that the state has any private or proprietary right (as had the king) in navigable waters, but that it holds them in its sovereign capacity, as trustee for the people, for public use. “In accordance with the rules of the common law, we therefore hold: That, where a meandered lake is nonnavigable in fact, the patentee of land bordering on it takes to the middle of the lake; that, where the lake Is navigable in fact, its waters and bed belong to the state, in Its sovereign capacity; and that the riparian patentee takes the fee only to the water’s edge, but with all the rights incident to riparian ownership on navigable waters, including the right to accretions or relictions formed or produced in front of his land by the action or recession of the water. Of course, it is a familiar principle that these riparian rights rest upon title to the bank or shore, and not upon title to the soil under the water.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hobart v. Hall

3. ““But if, under present conditions of society, bodies of water are used for public uses other than mere commercial navigation, in its ordinary sense, we fail to see why they ought not to be held to be public waters, or navigable waters, if the old nomenclature is preferred. Certainly, we do not see why boating or sailing for pleasure should not be considered navigation, as well as boating for mere pecuniary profit.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Muench v. Public Service Commission