Nebraska v. Iowa case brief

Nebraska v. Iowa

FACTS

• Iowa (D) admitted into the union in 1846, western boundary was in the middle of the Missouri river.
• Nebraska (P) admitted in 1867, same boundary.
• Between 1851 and 1877, changes took place in the course of the channel.  
• A very different bed was occupied than which flowed in the prior years.

ISSUE

-Where is the boundary between two states located when accretion takes place when the boundary has been established as the bed of a river?

HOLDING

-The Law of Accretion controls the Missouri river as elsewhere, boundary varies with the river.
-The Ox-bow, however, became a fixed and unvarying boundary due to avulsion, unless the waters return to their former bed.

RULES

-When grants of land border on running water and the banks are changed by accretion, the riparian owner's boundary line still retains the stream.
-At common law the person whose land is bounded by a stream of water which changes course gradually, they shall still hold the same boundary which also includes the accumulated soil.
-If the change is violent and visible, and arises from a known cause, the original thread of the stream continues to mark the estate's limits.
-ACCRETION: leaves the boundary still in the center of the channel.
-AVULSION: has no effect on the boundary, leaves it in the center of the old channel.

Definitions

Accretion is the gradual deposit by water of solid material, such as mud, sand or sediment, producing dry land which was before covered with water.
Avulsion is the sudden change of the stream banks such as that which occurs when a river forms a new course by going through a bend, the sudden abandonment by a stream of its old channel and the creation of a new one, or a sudden washing away from one of its banks of a considerable quantity of land and its deposit on the opposite bank.

Class: Property Law
Subjects: Avulsion, Accretion, boundary dispute