Description

Water Boundaries IV – 1.5 Contact Hours
The case-in-chief is Borax v. Los Angeles, United States Supreme Court 1935. This case is perhaps the seminal decision on water boundaries, especially with regard to the states that were formed out of the great Public Domain. The reason this case is so important on the issue of water boundaries is that it confirmed that the line of demarcation between the upland owner and the submerged sovereign ownership beneath navigable waters, where the tide ebbs and flows (the tidelands), “extends to the high-water mark.” This case also settled the question as to how the ’high-water mark’ is to be determined. It is an average of all the high waters as measured for a period of 18.6 years, “as nearly as possible.” The 18.6 years represents a complete moon-tidal cycle. The federal government owned all of the lands in the Public Domain above the high-water mark, holding the tidelands in trust for the future states. Therefore, at least for the 30 states created out of the Public Domain, this decision has universal application. This is a 2-Page Letter covering 1 Court Opinion consisting of 9 pages. This 11-Page document has a 10-Question examination based on the text of the newsletter and the attached cases.

OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.