White, Gratwick & Mitchell, Inc. v. Empire Engineering Co.

Headnote

Riparian rights — owner of river front property and of lands under water in front thereof properly restrained from constructing piers which would interfere with access to property of another riparian owner.

White, Gratwick & Mitchell, Inc., v. Empire Engineering Co., Inc., 211 App. Div. 834 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the fourth judicial department, entered December 8, 1924, unanimously affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon the report of a referee. The judgment restrained and enjoined the defendant from obstructing, filling in and constructing piers upon lands under water between the shore and the United States harbor line in Niagara river in front of defendant’s property. The question was whether the defendant as the abutting and adjacent owner of the property fronting on the Niagara river and of the lands under water in front of its premises may by the construction of piers over such lands extending into the river, impair the means of access to the plaintiff’s

property, abutting on said river, by impairing navigation to it, and destroy its value for dock purposes.