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当你拥有与水接触的土地时,河岸的权利:环境的混合, 海军部和州法- 2013年6月

June 19, 2013

By James T. Lang.

为什么人们要为“水上”的房产支付额外的费用??  除了环境和风景, 拥有与河流相连的土地的, bay, 小溪或海洋包括宝贵的河岸产权.  2012年,弗吉尼亚州最高法院写道:

沿海或沿岸性质的财产往往是实质性的, if not the greatest, element of its value. 无论船舶所有人是否利用其海上通道进行航行,都是如此, fishing, bathing, or the view.

林恩黑文沙丘公寓协会诉. City of Virginia Beach, 284 Va. 661, 673, 733 S.E.2d 911, 917 (2012).

这些河岸权利被认为是一种财产权, 没有公正的补偿就不能被剥夺的财产权, and the right is exercised within the “riparian area” which begins at the mean low water mark at the property and extends into the water body to the “line of navigability”.  Taylor v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 102 Va. 759, __, 47 S.E. 875, 880 (1904).  河岸区边界的划定方法如下:

measure the length of the shore and ascertain the portion thereof to which each riparian proprietor is entitled; next measure the length of the line of navigability, and give to each proprietor the same proportion of it that he is entitled to of the shore line; and then draw straight lines from the points of division so marked for each proprietor on the line of navigability to the extremities of his lines on the shore. Each proprietor will be entitled to the portion of the line of navigability thus apportioned to him, 还有公寓的部分, or land under the water, within the lines so drawn from the extremities of his portion of the said line to the extremities of his part of the shore.


Groner v. Foster, 94 Va. 650, 652-53, 27 S.E. 493, 494 (1897), cited with approval in, Carr v. Kidd, 261 Va. 81, 86, 540 S.E.2d 884, 887 (2001).  These riparian rights are a specific set of five benefits that accrue to the owner of land adjacent to a navigable river, bay, creek or the ocean:

The right to be and remain a riparian proprietor and to enjoy the natural advantages thereby conferred upon the land by its adjacency to the water.

The right of access to the water, including a right of way to and from the navigable part.

The right to build a pier or wharf out to navigable water, subject to any regulations of the State.

冲积权:冲积物或冲积物的权利.

[And,] [t]he right to make a reasonable use of the water as it flows past or laves the land.


Taylor v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 102 Va. 759, 773, 47 S.E. 875, 880-81 (1904),cited with approval in, Scott v. 伯韦尔湾改善协会, 281 Va. 704, 710, 708 S.E.2d 858, 862 (2011).   

Thus, for example, 相邻的土地所有人可以对其邻居建造码头的行为提出异议, 如果码头侵占了土地所有者的河岸区域, as was done in Carr v. Kidd, 261 Va. 81, 540 S.E.2d 884 (2001). 

重要的是,土地所有者并不拥有河岸地区水下的土地. 除非联邦授予它[1], 所有“海湾之床”的所有权, rivers, creeks and the shores of the sea within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth [is] the property of the Commonwealth”. Virginia Code section 28.2-1200; see also, 43 U.S. Code section 1311 (Submerged Lands Act confirms “title to and ownership of the lands beneath navigable waters within the boundaries of the respective States, 以及这些土地和水域内的自然皇冠搏彩APP下载 . . . 归属于和分配给各国”); Martin v. Waddell, 41 U.S. 367年(1842年)(美国独立战争发生的时间), 每个州的人民都获得了以前属于王室的水下土地的所有权。).

因此,例如,当大会批准租赁10英亩的土地. 约克河上的泰勒河岸区, 哪个租约赋予承租人牡蛎和安装自流井的权利, 泰勒驱逐承租人的法律行动没有成功. Taylor v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 102 Va. 759, 773, 47 S.E. 875, 880-81 (1904).

This does not mean, however, that the Commonwealth of Virginia has unfettered discretion to manage the submerged lands in a manner contrary to the public interest. This is so because the submerged lands are held by the Commonwealth in trust for the public interest, 这一原则是由美国建立的.S. 1892年,伊利诺斯州向最高法院递交了,000 acres of submerged land comprising the harbor for the City of Chicago to the Illinois Central Railroad Company. 法院驳回并撤销了转让,认为:

The control of the state 对于目的的信任是永远不能失去的, 用于促进公众利益的地块除外, or can be disposed of without any substantial impairment of the public interest in the lands and waters remaining.

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The state can no more abdicate its trust over property in which the whole people are interested, 比如通航的水域和下面的土壤, 使它们完全处于私人团体的使用和控制之下, except in the instance of parcels mentioned for the improvement of the navigation and use of the waters, or when parcels can be disposed of without impairment of the public interest in what remains, than it can abdicate its police powers in the administration of government and the preservation of the peace. In the administration of government the use of such powers may for a limited period be delegated to a municipality or other body, but there always remains with the state the right to revoke those powers and exercise them in a more direct manner, 一个更符合它的愿望的人. 与公共财产相关的信托, 或特殊字符的属性, like lands under navigable waters; they cannot be placed entirely beyond the direction and control of the state.

伊利诺伊州中央铁路公司诉. State of Illinois, 146 U.S. 387, 453-454 (1892).

In addition to meeting its public interest responsibilities when managing its submerged lands, the Commonwealth of Virginia must also manage the submerged lands in a manner consistent with the public navigational servitude, 认为通航水域被视为国家的公共财产. The rule here is that “all riparian interests [are] subject to a dominant public interest in navigation.” U.S. v. Willow River Power Company, 324 U.S. 499, 507, (1945).

Within Virginia, persons wishing to place a vessel or a structure on the submerged lands owned by the Commonwealth, 或者侵占那些被淹没的土地, must apply to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for a permit covering the proposed activity, with the failure to do so exposing the wrongdoer to criminal prosecution (Class 1 misdemeanor per Va. Code section 28.2-1203)或民事罚款(每天最高25,000美元). Code section 28.2-1213)为未经授权的侵入或侵占. VMRC has the jurisdiction and the responsibility to balance the merits of the proposed activity, 对相邻土地所有者河岸权利的影响, the effect on navigation, 对海洋和渔业皇冠搏彩APP下载的影响, the effect on tidal wetlands, 对水质和公众利益的影响, 所有这些都在第28章中有概述.2, Chapter 12 of the Code of Virginia, the regulations of the VMRC, and the Court precedents.  

Finally, riparian property rights are held by those who own property in contact with the water. The U.S. Supreme Court and many other Courts follow the rule that property situated near the water, but not in contact with it, does not qualify:

这些权利与河岸所有权无关. They exist with such ownership, and pass with the transfer of the land; and the land must not only be contiguous to the water, but in contact with it. 只有接近而没有接触是不够的. 滨水权附属于可通航水域边界上的陆地, 没有前拥有人的任何声明, 他在转让中指定的财产将是多余的.


伊利诺伊州中央铁路公司诉. State of Illinois, 146 U.S. 387, 445 (1892).

 


[1]One other circumstance where the landowner – not the Commonwealth – could own the land beneath the water in the riparian area is the situation where the waterway was created by excavating land, 所有权人对其拥有单纯所有权, 让它充满水. Conceptually, one example might be a large parcel in private ownership on which the owner digs a canal connecting two navigable waterbodies. The owner does not lose title to the canal bed simply because he or she created a navigable waterway on the property.