PLSO Oregon Surveyor Nov/Dec 2019

20 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 42, No. 6 for voluntary termination on their part of the ongoing legal action. A settlement agreement is certainly al- ways a possibility, for example the case could vanish from the judicial agenda, should the defendants agree to allow some form of limited public access to the lake, which the plaintiffs might deem to be satisfactory, but in view of the fact that both sides appear to have ample re- sources, contention is likely to continue, as long as either side is convinced that their position will prove to be triumphant. Nonetheless, there can be little doubt that if the litigants proceed upon their present course, and at some point this controversy reaches final adjudication, his- torical evidence which plainly falls within the scope of expertise that is vested in the land surveying profession, will play a substantial and potentially crucial role in reaching that ultimate result, whatev- er it may be. The navigability issue will stand unre- solved however, unless these parties pursue this matter to completion, since the Court will not address any such issue unless compelled to do so, which is why legal uncertainty still shrouds title to this historic lakebed, even after the passage of 16 decades of statehood. But assum- ing that this matter is carried forward by the litigants, and eventually returns to the Court, would the Court be justified in tak- ing the position that the originally platted lake was navigable, and holding that the navigability thus bestowed upon it grew by artificial means right along with the lake? Or alternatively, might the Court hold that Sucker Lake was legally naviga- ble in 1859, but that title to its bed could not thereafter be legitimately enlarged by any artificial means, therefore the lake of yesteryear is now surrounded, and effec- tively buried for all legal purposes, by a larger privately controlled body of water, resting directly on top of it, which cannot be crossed by the public at large to reach the submerged original lake, without au- thorization from the private riparian title holders represented by the Lake Oswego Corporation? Thus in 2019, 160 years out from the point in time when Oregon ob- tained fee title to the bed of Sucker Lake, if the state ever obtained any such title at all, the capacity of the state to control the fate of the lake, from a public usage standpoint as a matter of public trust, by virtue of fee bedland ownership, yet re- mains both highly uncertain and legally unconfirmed. x The author, Brian Portwood, is a licensed pro- fessional land surveyor, a federal employee, and a provider of educational material to all those engaged in the land rights industry. continued from previous page T Featured Article The Land Surveyor’s Guide to the Supreme Court of Oregon Volume One—1848 through 1892: Building the Foundation of Our Law. By Brian Portwood Have you obtained your copy of Volume One? If not, visit the PLSO Online Store and get yours today! And then bring it with you to the 2020 PLSO Conference, where author Brian Portwood will lead a discussion session focused on Volume One, while also introducing Volume Two.