When this bill was filed, and an application made for an injunction, an order was made that a copy of the bill should be served on the defendants, and that they should show cause, on a day named, why an in-unction should not issue. The defendants availed them
The bill is purely an injunction bill, and asks that the defendants may be perpetually restrained from demolishing a dam, and water works connected with it, at the mouth of Little Timber creek, in the county of Camden.
Little Timber creek is a small creek emptying into the river Delaware, about five miles below the city of Camden. The tide, when not obstructed, ebbs and flows about two miles up the creek. Some time in, or previous to fhe year 1760, the owners of the meadow land adjacent to the creek, for the purpose of improving their meadows by the exclusion of the tide water, built a dam of about a quarter of a mile wide at the mouth of the creek, with sluices and other fixtures.
In November, 1760, the legislature of the then colony of New Jersey passed an act to enable the owners of meadows along the creek to support and maintain this dam and fixtures erected for the aforesaid purpose. The act, after reciting the erection of the dam and its purposes, enacted, that the said bank, dam, and all other water works already erected, or which should thereafter be found necessary to be erected for the more effectual preventing the tide from overflowing the meadows lying on the said creek, should be erected, supported, and maintained at the equal expense of all the owners and possessors of the meadows, that each of the said owners or possessors then, or thereafter, might hold on the said creek between certain points in the act designated. It further enacts, that the natural watercourse of the creek should be kept clear, and specified the manner in which it should be done. It then provides for the election, by all the land owners yearly, of two managers, and empowers these managers to assess the owners and possessors of the meadows in such sum or sums of money as shall bo by them, or the survivor of them, deemed necessary for the supporting,
The legislature, at its last session, passed an act declar- ■ ing Little Timber creek to be a public highway, in all respects as fully as it was before the said creek was dammed at its mouth; and' the township committee is authorized and required, at the expense of the township, to remove the dam, and thereby open the navigation of the creek, on the first day of September next. It is to enjoin the township committee of the township of Union, • in the county of Camden, from discharging the duty imposed upon them by this act, that this bill is filed.
In the first place, it is insisted that the dam at the mouth of Little Timber creek destroys the navigation of a navigable stream where the tide ebbs and flows, and that the legislature have no right or power to authorize such an obstruction.
It appears, from the pleadings, that at certain states of the tide, this creek, if unobstructed, is navigable by small flat bottomed boats for at least two miles from its mouth. It does not appear that it ever has been used for the pur
The flux and reflux of the tide is prima fade evidence of a navigable river, but it is not conclusive evidence. Miles v. Rose and anothor, 5 Taunt. 706. The strength of this prima fade evidence, says Bagley, J., in the case of Rex v. Montapue, arising from the flux and reflux of the tide, must depend upon the situation and nature of the channel. If it is a broad and deep channel, calculated for the purposes of commerce, it would be natural to conclude that it has been a public navigation; but if it is a petty stream, navigable only at certain periods of the tide, and then only for a very short time and by very small boats, it is diflieult to suppose that it ever has been a public navigable channel.
Commonwealth v. Breed, 4 Pick. 460. An information in the nature of a quo warranto was filed by the direction of the legislature, alleging that Breed, the respondent, had erected and still maintains a bridge across a navigable arm of the sea, between Chelsea and Belle Island, whereof the passing of vessels is obstructed, and reqiiiring him to answer by what authority he claims to keep up and maintain the bridge. The respondent set up a law of Massachusetts, passed in the year 1816, which authorized him to build a bridge convenient for the accommodation of the proprietors of Belle Island; that it should be built with a draw not less than fifteen feet wide; that the proprietor should, at all times when necessary, have the draw raised, at his own expense, for the convenient passing of vessels through the same.
The solicitor general replied, that the statute granted the respondent the privilege of erecting a bridge for the private accommodation of passing and repassing to( and from the island, the same being the private estate of the respondent, and that the grant was not for any public easement or convenience; that it was the intent of the
Rowe v. Granite Bridge Corporation, 21 Pick. 844. The ■company were authorized to construct a road from Milton to Dover, and to locate, build, and construct a bridge across Neponset river, in continuation of the line of the road. The plaintiff was the owner of a piece of salt meadow in Milton. He alleged, that from time immemorial, there had been a creek commencing at the highest part of the marsh, and passing through it to Neponset river, which creek was of sufficient depth and width to admit boats, gondolas, and light craft to pass up and down the creek in common tides, and that such craft might be used to advantage in removing the crops of hay from the marsh; that the defendants had laid out their road over the marsh '■and across the creek, and were proceeding to fill up the creek. An injunction was asked to restrain the defendants. The court decided, that a creek in a salt meadow, in order to be deemed navigable, must not be merely sufficient to float a small boat at high water, but must be navigable generally and commonly to some purpose useful to trade and agriculture. O. J. Shaw, in giving the opinion of the court, says, “ It is not every ditch in which the salt water ebbs and flows through the extensive salt marshes along the coast, and which serve to admit and drain off the salt water from the marshes, which can be
In the case of Thompson, Wilson, & others, plaintiffs in error, v. The Blackbird Creek Marsh Company, defendants, 2 Peters 245. Blackbird creek, in the state of Delaware, was navigable for steamers of upwards of ninety tons bur-then. Under an act of the state of Delaware, the defendants constructed a dam across the creek, by which the navigation was obstructed. The court decided that the act of the legislature authorizing the dam was not in violation of the constitution of the United States.
There can, I think, be no doubt that the legislature had the power to authorize the erection of a dam at the mouth of Little Alloways creek. There is nothing in the case to show that it ever was a navigable stream, or that a boat of any size ever passed up it.
The defendants further insist, that the dam having been originally made and constructed without the authority of the state, the true construction of the act of 1760 is to give to the defendants not a grant of any right which belonged to the state, but a mere license to continue a nuisance already existing, and that this license was revocable at pleasure.
It may well be questioned, upon the case presented to the court, whether this dam was originally a nuisance, and whether it could not be maintained without legislative sanction. If it was not a navigable river, then it might be obstructed without the authority of the legislature; and although the fact of the ebb and flow of the tide is prima facie evidence of its being a navigable river, it may be
But while it is true that the dam was not originally erected under the act of 1760, the construction of this act contended for by the defendants cannot be admitted. The dam has been maintained under that act for nearly a century. The act did not authorize the owners of the meadows simply to continue the dam, but it gave the authority of the state to compel its continuance. It has not been continued by the voluntary act of individuals, but they have been compelled to maintain it by the power and force of law. This act created a quasi corporation, provided for the annual election of managers, conferred upon them power to assess property, and clothed them with authority to enforce these assessments. How then, with any propriety, can it be said, that this act was a license only to continue a nuisance already existing ? ’Whether this act can be repealed at pleasure, so as to deprive parties who have acquired rights under it, is the important question upon which this ease turns.
The act of the legislature, passed the 17th March, 1854, which authorizes and requires the township committee of the township of Union to remove the dam, is in violation of the constitution of the United States, which declares, that no state shall “pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts.” It is a virtual repeal of the act of 1760. The last named act was a grant. It granted valuable powers to the owners of meadows along Little Timber creek. In the Dartmouth College case, Justice Story remarks : “ A grant of franchise is not, in point of principle, distinguishable from a grant of any other property. If, therefore, this charter were a pure donation, when the grant was complete, and
The act of 1854 is also repugnant to the constitution of the state of New Jersey. Art. 1, § 16, declares private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. And Art. 4, § 7, part 9, individuals or private corporations shall not be authorized to take private property for public use, without just compensation first made to the owners. The dam and water works in question are private property. They have been constructed, maintained, and paid for by the owners of the meadow along the creek. They have been acquired under the express sanction of law. The value of the meadow is destroyed by the execution of the law in question, and thus may be said, with propriety, to be taken from the owners. A partial destruction, a diminution of their value, is the taking'of private property. This act cannot be carried into effect without a violation of the constitution of the state.
But suppose the conditions of the act to have been violated, and that the grant has been forfeited, the forfeiture must be declared by due process of law. The legislature have no right to condemn the defendants unheard, and deprive them of their property in this summary way. If they can do it in this case, then they may repeal every act of incorporation on the statute book upon the same pretext.