34 The Compact of 1785 statute against the use of fish pots. The injunction was accordingly denied. The Middlekauff case therefore was a square affirmation of Binney's case. The Court went on to say that none of the other cases cited to it (including State v. Hoofman) appeared to have concerned the river above tidewater, and that they therefore were not determinative of the point here involved; this was to say, that is, that Binney's case and the Hoofman case were not inconsistent on the point of the Compact having reference only to tidewater. N. Washington Airport v. Smoot Sand Co. (1930). This case was decided in the Circuit Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit (44 Fed. (2d) 342) . It was a suit to enjoin a tres pass upon land located between the high and low water marks on the Virginia side of the Potomac, opposite the District of Columbia. The question was raised whether the Federal District Court in Virginia had jurisdiction ex tending to the low water mark; stated otherwise, the ques tion was as to where the boundary lay. In an opinion written by Judge Parker, the Court ruled that the jurisdiction of the Virginia court went to the low water mark (meaning, therefore, that the boundary line was at low water mark). The Court referred to Article 7 of the Compact, which gave to the citizens of each state "full property in the shores of the Potomac River adjoining their lands . . . and the privilege of making and carrying out wharves and other improvements." This article also gave fishing rights in common, except that citizens of one state were not to hinder or disturb the fisheries on the shore of the other. Article 7 of the Compact, said the Court, is A clear recognition of the fact that the shores on the Virginia side of the river were under the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia. It would have been absurd to have confirmed the right of property in the Virginia shores to the citizens of Virginia and at the same time to have reserved to the State of Maryland politi- |
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