I use the term “meander line'” in a few of my posts and so I thought I would take a moment to try and explain it.
I’m NOT a lawyer but here goes. Background: The crown, the predecessor in the chain of title to the original 13 colonies, owned the land below navigable water including lakes, streams, rivers and tidally influenced waterways. At that time all commerce moved by waterways and this is how the crown controlled and taxed that. When we won the war for independence the states took ownership of everything the crown owned. There was no federal governmment. Going forward, something called the “equal footing” clause of the constitution required that new states were granted statehood on “equal footing” with all others including the original 13. Thus these “submerged” lands (NOT the over flowed lands and swamps) were given to the states, like Florida, with amounts to a deed restriction, the “Public Trust Doctrine”, and were to be used for public use and enjoyment including things like bathing, fishing and rights of navigation. But where were these Sovereign submerged lands when Florida entere the union in 1845?
The lands owned by the state were surveyed, as in by a land surveyor. This was done for many reasons, and around North Palm Beach was done in 1858. To calculate acreage for transfers of the uplands to private owners, taxation of same, and to know ABOUT where the state owned lands below the water (aka Sovereign submerged lands) were separated from the privately held uplands. For this purpose a land surveyor (although not called such at that time) was hired to established the “meander line”. This is an “about here” line for many reasons. For starters, Florida has a shallow gradient along the shore line. Where does the swamp end and the navigable water begin. What if the surveyor showed up at low tide instead of high. Lots of variables. And they were asked survey huge tracks, for a contract price, BUT were allowed to do so with margins of error measured in several (66′) chains.
This is how the meander line is described in a 1924 TIIF deed (“thence following the meander of the shore”) to those who would create Palm Beach Isles Plats 1,2 and 3 and Pine Point on Singer Island…
Although the meander line IS sometimes shown as a hard line (meets and bounds as above) it can also be shown as an irregular line. If one looks at these historic surveys you will note that where it is shown the acreage of the lots are shown as +/- XXX acres.
The “about here” location of the meander line, ordinary mean high water mark, can be shown by either manner. Waterward of this line the state owns the land below the water as sovereign submerged lands. The reason for the +/- is becasue the line is said to be “ambulatory” meaning that it can and does move so long as that movement is slow , imperceptible and generally NOT caused by human actions. NOTE that there IS a method for a survey to go out and locate more accurately the mean high water line and ask the state to approve it the ‘new’ mean high water line. This was done fairly recently in places like Harbour Isles.
So, to sum it up. The meander line is an “about here” line used on surveys that shows that the approximate location of the historic boundary of sovereign submerged lands (owned by the state) and uplands which may be owned by the state or a private party. It is also and indication that the property enjoys “Riparian Rights“.
The Meriam definition is: “a usually irregular surveyed line following the outline of a body of water that is used to measure abutting property and is not a boundary line.” It’s important because it let’s the uplands abutter know that they own land with a boundary that may move. And, in Florida that they enjoy riparian rights.
It is worth noting that there have been a VERY few court cases where the courts held that the meander line IS the property line.
The Mean High Water line is defined in FL 177 as:
“Mean high water” means the average height of the high waters over a 19-year period. For shorter periods of observation, mean high water means the average height of the high waters after corrections are applied to eliminate known variations and to reduce the result to the equivalent of a mean 19-year value. I finally figured out why 19 years is used. This is referred to as the tidal epoch and has to do with the “wobble” of the moon and it’s effects on the tides
“Mean high-water line” means the intersection of the tidal plane of mean high water with the shore.
