Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Ohio

Re: Water runoff from one property to another

Dear Watercourse Inquirer:

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to provide you with a complete legal answer without complete information. However, here's a bit of the law that applies to changed watercourses:

149 Ohio App.3d 560; Kern v. Clear Creek Oil Co.;

Page 560

KERN et al., Appellees and Cross-Appellants, v. CLEAR CREEK OIL COMPANY et al., Appellants and Cross-Appellees.

[Cite as Kern v. Clear Creek Oil Co., 149 Ohio App.3d 560, 2002-Ohio-5438]

2002-Ohio-5438

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Fifth District, Ashland County.

No. 02 COA 013.

Decided Oct. 7, 2002.

WISE, Judge.

***

{35} ''As a general rule, where a waterline is a boundary of given land, that line remains the boundary no matter how it shifts. * * * Similarly, where the bank of the stream is called for and the bank is added to by slow and gradual accretion, the boundary is the new bank at low water. If, however, a watercourse which has been the boundary line changes its channel suddenly, it ceases to be the boundary, and the boundary remains where the watercourse was.'' 2 Ohio Jurisprudence 3d (1998) 64-65, Adjoining Landowners, Section 58.

{36} Further, in the second paragraph of the syllabus of Jefferis v. E. Omaha Land Co. (1890), 134 U.S. 178, 10 S.Ct. 518, 33 L.Ed. 872, the United States Supreme Court held:

{37} ''Where a water line is the boundary of a given lot, that line, no matter how it shifts, remains the boundary; and a deed describing the lot by its number conveys the land up to such shifting water line; so that, in the view of accretion, the water line, if named as the boundary, continues to be the boundary, and a deed of the lot carries all the land up to the water line.'' ***

I strongly urge you to contact experienced counsel to assist and advise you, since once you change a natural watercourse or boundary, you may be required to maintain it. Good luck!

Sincerely, J. Norman Stark.