| Finally, this Court in Maryland v. West Virginia, 217 U.S. 577 (1910), decreed that West
Virginia, as successor in interest to Virginia, is entitled to the same rights respecting the Potomac
River that Virginia enjoys under the Compact of 1785 and the Black-Jenkins Award of 1877.
The Potomac River between Maryland and West Virginia extends from 54 miles above the
furthest tidal reach to 267 miles above the tidal reach. Nonetheless, Maryland conceded in that
case that the Compact of 1785 was binding. It never contended, as it does now 90 years later,
that those rights were somehow inapplicable above tidewater. Maryland's concession in that
case, and this Court's determination that Virginia's compact rights apply far above tidewater,
dispose of Maryland's contrary claim in the present dispute with Virginia.
Maryland bases its present position on two early Maryland state court decisions. In the
first, a Maryland chancellor observed in dictum in 1829 that nothing in the Compact was
intended to apply above tidewater. His commentary ignored the plain language of the Compact.
In the second case, the Maryland Court of Appeals in 1926 adopted the earlier reasoning of the
chancellor, inexplicably failing to mention either the Black-Jenkins Award of 1877 or this
Court's 1910 decision in Maryland v. West Virginia.
Summary judgment is appropriate on this issue based on the plain language of the
Compact of 1785, the Black-Jenkins Award of 1877 and this Court's decision in Maryland v.
West Virginia.
BACKGROUND
American historians identify the Mount Vernon conference of 1785 as one of the key
events that led to the Annapolis Convention in September 1786 and, later, to the Constitutional
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