Atlantic City v. Groff
Atlantic City v. Groff
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff in error brought ejectment against the defendant in error to recover a piece of land fifty feet wide by two hundred feet long, being an extension of New York avenue northerly from the north line of Baltic avenue. Prior to March 1st, 1894, New York avenue extended, to the northerly line of Baltic avenue, and the plaintiff in error claims that, by virtue of a deed given on that day, the owner of the locus in quo dedicated it to public use for a street as an extension of New York avenue. This deed, with various acts of the then owner, were introduced in evidence to prove dedication, and the defendant, on her part, also introduced in evidence acts by the owner of the locus in quo tending to' show the exercise of ownership and a purpose inconsistent with its dedication, and, this evidence being submitted to a jury, resulted in a verdict for the defendant, and this writ of error brings up the judgment entered upon this verdict.
The claim of the plaintiff is that the words “to the intended New York avenue line; thence southwardly, along said intended New York avenue line,” operated as a dedication by the grantor in that deed and the owner of the premises in question of the locus in quo to public use as a street.
That the plaintiff did not regard these words as a complete dedication appears from the fact that it introduced evidence of other facts and acts by the grantor in that deed while still owning the locus in quo, from which, with this deed, the jury was asked to infer the dedication.
If it is unequivocally manifested by the instrument or act under which dedication is claimed that it is the intention of the then owner to dedicate, it will be for the court to so- de
The facts and circumstances relied upon to prove the existence of an intent to dedicate on the part of the dedicator must be of a positive and unequivocal character. If the dedication is made to depend upon á written instrument, the language of the instrument must positively and distinctly show an intention to dedicate, and the dedication must arise at once from the dedicatory act, or, if some time be specified, then at that time.
The language used in the deed is not positive and unequivocal. “The intended New York avenue line” might mean that at some future time the grantor in the deed would dedicate the locus in quo for a public street. It might also mean that the public authorities were intending to extend New York avenue northerly beyond Baltic avenue, so as to embrace the locus in quo, or this language might be regarded merely as a description. A mere reference to a street or road, or a recital of its existence simply for the purposes of location and description or to give the boundaries of the land conveyed, is not sufficient to make a dedication. In the present ease the description in the deed given by Champion to the defendant, “beginning in the northerly line of Baltic avenue where the same would be intersected by the easterly line of New York avenue if continued across said Baltic avenue,” is only description, and not dedication.
We think, therefore, that this description in the deed from Champion to Siebert was a fact, with other facts offered in evidence, to be submitted to the jury to determine whether, when this language was used, the grantor in that deed and the then owner of the locus in quo intended by it to dedicate the premises in question for a public street.
Siebert, the grantee, in the deed in which it is claimed that the .dedication arises, was asked, “What conversations, if any,
Exception was also taken to the admission of the deed from Champion to Groff, the defendant, for the locus in quo. This was the foundation of the defendant’s title, and was a fact bearing upon Champion’s intention to dedicate, and so was competent.
Other exceptions were taken to the admission of testimony to rebut the evidence of dedication, upon the- ground that the deed from Champion to Siebert of itself dedicated the land for a public street, but, as that deed was itself only one fact going to show dedication, all evidence- of facts by the grantor tending to show no dedication were competent evidence for the defendant.
We find no error, and the judgment below is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ATLANTIC CITY, IN ERROR v. CATHARINE GROFF, IN ERROR
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published