## Facts

- A town grant allowed Prior to plant and cultivate oysters on designated submerged lands in Stamford Harbor below the low-water mark.
- Swartz owned upland abutting the harbor and built a wharf extending from above the high-water mark, across the low-water mark, and further into the harbor.
- The water at the low-water line was too shallow for practical vessel access.
- Swartz extended the wharf to reach deeper, navigable water and dredged channels connecting the wharf to navigable portions of the harbor.
- Prior claimed the wharf extension and dredging interfered with oyster grounds covered by his municipal privilege.

## Issues

1. Whether an upland owner’s riparian right to build a wharf is limited to the low-water mark or extends beyond it to reach navigable water, subject to state regulation.
2. Whether a municipal privilege to plant oysters below the low-water mark can restrict an upland owner’s riparian wharfing right.
3. Whether an oyster-planting privilege below the low-water mark constitutes a protectable property interest that supports liability for interference by lawful wharf construction and related channel work.

## Decision

- The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors affirmed judgment for Swartz.
- The court held the riparian right to wharf out is measured by access to navigable water and is not confined to the low-water mark.
- The court concluded Prior’s oyster-planting privilege was subordinate to the state’s control of tide lands and navigation and did not bar Swartz’s reasonable wharf and channel improvements.
- The court found no actionable invasion of a legally protected interest held by Prior on these facts.

## Legal Principles

- An upland owner adjoining tidal waters has a common-law riparian right to construct wharves in front of the upland to reach navigable water, subject to state-imposed regulation.
- The state holds submerged lands and navigable waters in trust for the public; private shoreline rights exist only subject to the state’s paramount authority to regulate for navigation and other public uses.
- A municipal license or privilege to plant oysters on submerged lands below the low-water mark is a limited right and does not confer an absolute interest capable of excluding riparian improvements that the state may recognize as consistent with navigation.
- The boundary of the wharfing-out right is functional (reaching navigable water) rather than fixed at tidal lines, provided the exercise of the right remains within lawful limits and does not contravene state regulation.

## Conclusion

The court upheld an upland owner’s right to extend a wharf beyond the low-water mark as reasonably necessary to reach navigable water, and held that an oyster-planting privilege on submerged lands below low-water mark yields to the state’s public-trust authority and to riparian wharfing rights recognized and regulated by the state.


Prior v. Swartz, 25 A. 398 (Conn. 1892)