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High court rules state, not hunting club, owns submerged island Friday, Mar 7, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Game and Fish Commission, not a hunting club, owns a submerged island in the St. Francis River near Trumann, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a 5-2 ruling, the high court reversed a Poinsett County circuit judge's decision that the Hatchie Coon Hunting and Fishing Club owned the 46-acre island. The state Court of Appeals had affirmed the lower court's decision. Hunters and anglers from Memphis, Tenn., purchased the island in 1892 as part of 700 acres they bought in northeastern Arkansas. Since the early 1980s, the island has been virtually covered by a shallow layer of water after the Game and Fish Commission raised water levels of the river. Hunters used the island for duck hunting. In the mid-1990s, the club began asking hunters who were not members of the club not to hunt on the island. Some complied and others refused, saying they had been hunting the island since the 1960s. The hunting club claimed ownership of the island and said the changing course of the river had separated the island from the club's other property. The hunting club filed suit in 2001 against several duck hunters who hunted on the island. A circuit judge later ruled the club owned the island. The state appeals court affirmed the lower court ruling last year. At the time, Judge Wendell Griffen wrote there was indirect evidence the island was part of the 700-acre tract of land the club bought from the state in 1892. The state asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling, arguing it took possession of the island when it raised the river's water levels in the 1980s to control flooding. In its ruling Thursday, the Supreme Court noted that the club did not start paying property on the property until 2001. "Here, Hatchie Coon did not act until the early to mid-1990s to lay claim to the submerged island and to force the removal of the public hunters from the island, which was after the seven-year period to support the state's claim to adverse possession had passed," Justice Robert L. Brown wrote. Joining Brown in the majority were Chief Justice Jim Hannah and Justices Tom Glaze, Don Corbin and Annabelle Clinton Imber. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Paul Danielson said the club proved its ownership when it requested the state Game and Fish Commission raise water levels in the area. He said the club's agreeing to allow the water to be raised superseded the state's claim to adverse possession of the island. "Hatchie Coon specifically welcomed the interest of the commission in the area, and Hatchie Coon specifically offered its assistance to the commission in its efforts. How much more specificity is required to demonstrate consent to the Commission's efforts?" Danielson wrote. |
