White

An appeal is taken by the State of California from a judgment in favor of plaintiffs Osborne and Aileen White which quieted title to 38 acres of valuable tidelands of Petaluma River (sometimes called Petaluma Creek). Tidelands are the “land lying between the ordinary high and low tide lines.” (People v. California Fish Co., 166 Cal. 576, 583 [ 138 P. 79 ].) The plaintiffs claimed title through a patent issued to their predecessors in interest by the State of California.

I. The Case

At the point where Petaluma River flows over the subject tidelands two or three miles upstream from San Francisco Bay, the river historically has been subject to tidal action of the Pacific Ocean, and therefore constitutes tidewater. It is “an arm of the bay” and since 1853 has been declared by law to be a navigable stream. (Compiled Laws of California, 1850-1853, ch. CXCVII, p. 916; Har. & Nav. Code, § 104.) It has also been navigable in fact; as recently as 1965, according to a publication of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, January 1, 1967, Water Resources Development in California, 305,000 tons of freight were carried on the river.

In 1870 one John Reagan filed an application…