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92 Wis. 543

Reysen v. Roate

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided March 10, 1896

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1896-03-10

S. Gilson, Circuit Judge. To the point that ice formed on artificial ponds and nonnav-igable streams belongs to the owner of the soil under the water, they cited Gould, Waters, § 191; 3 Lawson, Rights, Rem. ■& Pr. § 1345; 9 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 860, and notes 3, 4; id. 862; Anderson, Law Diet. 519, 520; Bigelow <o. Shaw, 65 Mich. 341; Brown v. Cunningham, 82 Iowa, 512; Allen v. Weber, 80 Wis. 531.

Relies on Olson v. Merrill · Bigelow v. Shaw

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1896-03-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently October 1933

5 state decisions

2018961900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Winslow, J.

¶1The plaintiff was the lessee of a mill on the Sheboygan river, and of the water power and the rights of flowage appurtenant thereto; but was not a riparian proprietor. on the millpond, nor the owner in fee of the bed of the pond. The defendant entered upon the pond when frozen, and placed timbers thereon, and cut and removed ice therefrom, but did not thereby interfere with the plaintiff’s right of flowage or lessen his water supply., Can the plaint*544iff maintain trespass ? The circuit court held that the action could not be-maintained by the plaintiff, and we are satisfied that the judgment is right. It is settled in this state that the title to the bed of a stream is in the riparian owners, whether the stream be navigable or not. Olson v. Merrill, 42 Wis. 203. Ice which forms on streams or ponds the bed of which is the subject of private ownership belongs to the owner of such bed, and such owner may maintain trespass for its removal. Gould, Waters, § 191, and authorities cited; Bigelow v. Shaw, 65 Mich. 341. The appellant neither owned the bed of the pond, nor did the removal of the ice in any way lessen his water supply or interfere with his rights of fiowage. Therefore it is plain that he had no right of action therefor.

¶2By the Court.— Judgment affirmed.

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