Robert Cooper Grier

“ It was therein admitted by the defendant that the place between the said wharves was 'an ancient public dock or highway.' This fact, and the case having been submitted to Judge Sprague, and decided by him in favor of the plaintiff before the case was sent to the Rhode Island district, I was disposed to decide the same way, unless I saw it was manifestly erroneous. ”

“ We stated in what cases it ought to have weight, and in what it could have little or none, as where the former verdict was the result of an erroneous instruction on the law by the court.
As the additional count, on which the plaintiff relied, was rather equivocal or ambiguous, as to what was meant by a 'highway or town way' to the sea or low-water mark, we decided that public officers of a town have no power to lay out a town way between high water and the channel of a navigable river. A board of pilots may mark by buoys the best channel for vessels in a bay ”

“ City of Boston
1853, June. Argued before Judge Pitman on the agreed statement of facts; verdict guilty; damages and costs, $2,026.87 up to 13th September, 1850; judgment on sixth count; motion for new trial; pending which, the case of Lecraw v. City of Boston was decided by this court, as reported in 17 How.; case continued by agreement.
1855, June. New trial granted; plaintiff amends writ and declaration by adding a count, which is the subject of comment by this court in the present opinion; verdict not guilty ”