Knowles v. District of Narragansett
Knowles v. District of Narragansett
Opinion of the Court
For reasons of appeal from said decree he says: " That there was no highway at the place referred to in said petition and order, but the locus in quo was a part of the appellant’s farm to which he had and now has valid title ; that no highway was ever built or constructed on the ground or at the place where a highway was alleged to have .existed in said petition and where the same was assumed to be ordered to be opened and the obstructions removed by said decree ; that the place where said decree directed the supervisor of highways to remove all obstructions was not a highway and the place from which said obstructions were removed was not a highway but was a part of the appellant’s farm. ”
He therefore prays that said decree be declared null and ordered revoked.
Several reasons at once appear why the appellant states no *341 case. First, if the locus in quo was a part of a public highway in said district, the district council had the right to order it opened and any obstructions existing therein to be removed. And from such an order no appeal lies under the statute, and for the very good reason that no one could be legally aggrieved by the making or execution of such an order. As said by this court in Gannon v. Doyle, 16 R. I. 727, “In contemplation of law a person cannot be deemed to be aggrieved by a judgment in a proceeding in which he is not interested.”
The appellant’s counsel well states the law in his brief as to the rights of the surveyor of highways in the premises, assuming that the locus in quo was not a public highway. He says: “The surveyor derived no authority from said order, and was simply a trespasser.”
As the case is not properly before us for the reasons above given, any attempt on our part to settle therein the title to the strip of land in question, as,evidently desired by the appellant, if not indeed by both parties, would be as futile and of as little effect as was the action of the district council in the making of the order in question, if said land was not a part of a public highway. In other words, title to real estate cannot be settled in a moot case.
-The appeal’ must therefore be dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Charles H. Knowles, Appellant, vs. District of Narragansett
- Status
- Published