City of Wellington v. Blecha
City of Wellington v. Blecha
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action was brought by the city of Wellington against John Blecha to enjoin him from obstructing a street of that city. Upon the application of Permelia Ann Henderson, she was made a party defendant in the action. On a trial the court found that the street had been dedicated as a public street, that obstructions had been placed upon the street, and entered judgment enjoining the defendants from encroaching on the street by the placing of buildings or other structures upon it. Defendants appeal.
The controversy involves the platting of the North addition to the city of Wellington. The tract of land which was a part of the Osage Indian reservation was entered by the probate judge of Sum
On October 17, 1872, the probate judge made and acknowledged the plat of the addition, and on the same day he made and delivered to the Wellington Town Company a deed conveying the tract, which included the lots numbered from 1 to 42, the designations on the plat indicating a street 40 feet wide along the north side of the addition, and‘the lots were marked as if they were 144 feet long, extending from Fifteenth street to the street on the north of the addition, and which is generally spoken of as Sixteenth street. The evidence shows, however, that the North addition, instead of being 184 feet wide, is only 155 feet at the east end, and gradually narrows as it approaches the west. In the deed to the town company, which was composed of six persons, as occupants, reference was made to the plat as filed in the office of the register of deeds, but the plat was not filed in the office of the register of deeds until October 28, 1872. On the day in which the plat was filed the town company conveyed to R. A. Davis several of the lots involved here. Blecha, who acquired a deed to several of the lots on August 30, 1919, traces his title to them through a number of conveyances in which reference was made to the recorded plat of the addition. It appears that the plat was duly acknowledged and certified by the probate judge, and it is admitted that the addition covers all the land between Fifteenth street and the section line on the north side of the tract entered by, and which had been patented to, the probate judge as trustee. The owner of the addition for whom the probate judge was acting owned no land north of the section line. While there was an inaccuracy in the dimensions or measurements of the lots, there could be no doubt as to the exterior lines of the addition. The street as platted extended the full length of the addition along the north end of the lots, and there is evidence that the street as laid out, on which defendants’ lots fronted, has since been traveled and used by the public. While the figures on the plat indicate that the lots are 144 feet long between Fifteenth street
Considerable is said about the delay of the probate judge in filing the plat, and that his deed to the town company was executed before the plat was filed. By the terms of the deed to the town company that company took title subject to the plat. The company was the actual owner of the addition, and the deed came from their own trustee. They made no complaint, and indeed could not complain, that there was a shortage in the lots, and it appears that no deed was made by them to strangers until the plat had been filed. At the instance of the owners, a strip of land forty feet wide was set apart and dedicated to the public for use as a street, and that part of it in front of the lots in question has been accepted and used as a street for years. If the town company had platted land to which they had the absolute title and had dedicated a street to the public, and in doing so had placed figures on the plat indicating that lots fronting on the street were of greater area than there was ground within the platted lines, it could hardly be contended that the owners could claim that the lots extended into the dedicated street
We conclude that the plat definitely located the street, and that there was a valid dedication of the street to the public, and that having been recognized and used as a street for many years the owners'of the lots fronting on the street have no right to encroach upon or obstruct it.
We find nothing material in the errors assigned on the rulings made during the trial nor any error in the judgment rendered by the court.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.