US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Messrs. Gerard Brandon, of Natchez, Miss., John Dale, of Vidalia, La., Robert Ash, of Washington, D. C., and Percy Saint, of New Orleans, La., for complainant.

Messrs. H. H. Creekmore, Rufus Creekmore, Rush H. Knox, and Elmer C. Sharp, all of , Miss., for defendant.

PER CURIAM.

This cause coming on for hearing by this Court upon the report of Thomas G. Haight, special master appointed by this Court, and herein filed, and upon the exceptions filed herein by the state of Mississippi, defendant, to said report of the special master, including the findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations for a decree, and also upon all pleadings and exhibits thereto heretofore filed by both complainant and defendant, and also upon all depositions of witnesses and documentary and record evidence adduced, preferred, filed, and submitted both by complainant and defendant and upon all briefs of counsel both for complainant and defendant heretofore filed and submitted, and thereupon, on February 2, A. D. 1931, this Court having rendered

Page 283 U.S. 791, 792

an opinion sustaining all the findings and recommendations

of the special master, and directing that a decree should be entered as recommended by the special master, and the Court being fully advised in the premises:

It is thereupon considered, and now ordered, adjudged, and decreed by this Court, as follws, to wit:

1. That the bill of complaint has been sustained by sufficient and legal evidence, and that complainant, the state of Louisiana, is at law and in equity entitled to the relief prayed for.

2. That the report of Thomas G. Haight, special master, be and the same is hereby approved, sustained, and confirmed by this Court, and that the exceptions to said report filed by the state of Mississippi be and the same are hereby overruled.

3. That immediately prior to the avulsion of 1912-13 the boundary line between the state of Louisiana and the state of Mississippi between latitude 32 39 on the north and the division line between Issaquena and Warren counties, Miss. (as extended westward), on the south, was at the place and line which was the thread of the main channel of the Mississippi river as it then ran; and that, the current having since ceased to flow in part of said channel as it existed prior to said avulsion, because of the new channel produced thereby, at this time the true boundary line between the state of Louisiana and the state of Mississippi, in that part and so much of the above area as was affected by the avulsion (between said north and south points), is the middle of the navigable channel of the Mississippi river as said channel was located at the time when the current ceased to flow therein because of the new channel produced by the avulsion of 1912-13.

4. That Samuel S. Gannett, geodetic and astronomic engineer, of Washington, D. C., is hereby named and appointed as commissioner, with power, authority, and in- [283 U.S. 791, 793]

Full Text of Opinion