## Facts

- Mather owned upland property bordering tidal or navigable waters in Connecticut.
- Chapman, acting as a member of the public, entered and used the strip of shore between the ordinary high-water mark and the low-water mark.
- Mather sued in a property/trespass-type action, claiming exclusive ownership and control of the shore down to the water’s edge.
- The trial court treated the disputed foreshore as outside Mather’s private fee and rejected his claim of exclusive title below the ordinary high-water line.
- Mather appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors.

## Issues

1. Whether, in Connecticut, a riparian/littoral owner’s title on tidal or navigable waters extends below the ordinary (mean) high-water mark so that the foreshore is privately owned.
2. Whether the State, rather than the adjacent upland owner, holds the land between ordinary high and low water in trust for public use, defeating a private trespass claim based on title to that area.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the judgment for Chapman.
- The court held that a riparian/littoral proprietor’s title on tidal or navigable waters terminates at the ordinary (mean) high-water mark.
- The shore waterward of that line, including the foreshore between high and low water, is held by the State in trust for the public.
- Because Mather lacked fee title below the ordinary high-water mark, he could not maintain a trespass claim premised on exclusive private ownership of that strip.

## Legal Principles

- In Connecticut, private littoral/riparian title on tidal or navigable waters generally extends only to the ordinary (mean) high-water mark.
- The foreshore and submerged lands waterward of the ordinary high-water mark are held by the State subject to public-trust uses (including navigation and fishing).
- “High water mark,” “mean high water mark,” and “ordinary high water mark” are treated as the same boundary for separating private upland title from public-trust lands.

## Conclusion

The court fixed the boundary between private shorefront ownership and state-held public-trust lands at the ordinary (mean) high-water mark, leaving the foreshore outside the upland owner’s fee and barring a trespass claim based on asserted private title below that line.


Mather v. Chapman, 40 Conn. 382 (Conn. 1873)