Bailey v. Hipple
Bailey v. Hipple
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The boundaries of a part of lot eight in block seven of D. B. Miller’s addition to the city of Hutchinson, as well as the location and limits of an alley, are the questions involved in this proceeding.
The addition was platted in 1884, and as laid out lot number eight was two hundred and forty-four feet wide and one hundred and sixty-five feet long. Plaintiff alleged that the east one hundred feet of the lot was purchased by Ploma E. Rhoads' and her husband in 1888 when they built the residence now standing on the plaintiff’s lot, that before erecting the building the city engineer made a survey and gave the Rhoadses the boundaries of the lot, and that the house was located and other permanent improvements made in accordance with the corners fixed and the measurements furnished by the engineer, and, further, that the city and its officers had accepted and adopted the survey so made, and, also, that there had been acquiescence in the boundaries so fixed. The east fifty feet of the Rhoads lot was sold to the plaintiff and he has been in the possession of the same for more than twelve years. It is alleged that F. E. and Mary E. Hippie, who owned and occupied lots across the alley and opposite the plaintiff’s lots, questioned the boundaries of his lot and had asserted that he had unduly extended his building and improvements and was occupying five or six feet of the intervening alley, thereby slandering and clouding his title, and he therefore asked that his title be quieted as against the claims of the defendants. Defendants answered and alleged that as the addition was dedicated and platted an alley twenty feet wide was es
Hippie complains and contends that the judgment is not sustained by the evidence. He insists that the result reached is inconsistent not only with the testimony as to monuments and lines of location but also with the plans and plat of the addition. According to the plat the alley is twenty feet wide and Rhoads’ lot, one-half of which is the property of plaintiff, is one hundred feet wide. The judgment narrows the alley to about thirteen feet and widens the Rhoads lot to more than one hundred and six feet, thus making plaintiff’s lot more than fifty-six feet wide. The result appears
“The primary rules for locating city plats upon the ground are, in order of precedence in application, as follows: (1) Find the lines actually run and the corners and monuments actually established by the original survey. (2) Run lines from known, established or acknowledged corners and monuments of the original survey. (3) Run lines according to courses and distances marked on the plat.” (Syl.)
There seems to be little doubt that three of the monuments which were found and corners identified by defendants’ testimony were the ones established when the addition was surveyed and that lines run from these are consistent with the testimony of the defendants as to the location of the lot and alley in question.
The plaintiff insists that the middle of Main street is the proper base line from which measurements should be made, and using that as a starting point the measurements carry the plaintiff’s line six feet farther east and accords with measurements made by an engineer when his sidewalk and curb were built. It is also urged that it is supported by improvements made and trees planted by parties who had no interest in departing from the lines of the original survey. There is testimony, however, that Main street, used as a base line, was not established north of Seventh street when the addition
For these inconsistencies, and for the additional reason that the testimony appears to be insufficient to sustain the judgment it can not be upheld. In a case of this kind special findings as to monuments, base lines and the original survey are essential to a full consideration and determination of the boundaries.
The judgment, is reversed and the cause remanded-for a new trial.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.