City of Pearsall v. Crawford
City of Pearsall v. Crawford
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error instituted this suit against defendants in error to compel them to remove their fence that incloses the alley across block No. 51 in said city, and restraining them from thereafter erecting or placing any fence or other obstruction on or across such alley. Defendants pleaded not guilty and the statute of limitations of 10 years. The court heard the testimony and rendered judgment denying plaintiffs the relief sought, and that defendants recover all costs.
“Under such plea of ‘not guilty,’ the defendant may give in evidence any lawful defense to the action, except the defense of limitation, which shall be specially pleaded.”
All that defendants did was to defend against a claim of dedication of the alley.
The only evidence shown by the conclusions of fact, or suggested by plaintiff, that could be claimed to tend in the direction of a dedication of the alley after title to the same had been secured by limitation was the reference in the deed to H. E. Ferguson by defendants to a map or plat of the block of which the two lots conveyed to Ferguson were a part. The description of the lots did not mention the alley, but merely gave the lots as being “in southeast corner of block No. fifty-one (51) as shown on map or plat of the city of Pearsall, filed in Frio county deed records; said lots being 54/125 feet in dimension.” No mention was made by either of the parties to the deed of the alley, and the court found that it was not the intention of the defendants to dedicate the alley to the public or any member of it.
*328
“Freís may have left the way open for public use under such circumstances as to amount to a license in the public to so use it, until such time as he might see fit to withdraw the land from that use by revoking the license; and the fact that he called for this lane as a boundary in soiling portions of his land is by no means conclusive of his intention to dedicate it to the public, for it is not called for as a public lane or public road, but is called for as ‘what is known as Freís’ lane.’ ”
There is no evidence whatever of an intention to rededicate the alley to the public, but as far back as 1912 defendants had ignored an ordinance of the ■ city council requiring the opening of the alley, and had continued to hold it adversely to the city. As said by Dillon, Mun. Corp. § 1079:
‘An intent on the part of the owner to dedicate is absolutely essential, and unless such intention can be found in the facts and circumstances of the particular case, no dedication exists.”
It is, of course, not a hidden intention, bnt it must ’ be manifested by acts. If the alley had not been fenced and occupied as a garden and lots had been sold with reference to a plat, there might be evidence of intention to dedicate but an owner cannot be deprived of his land unless the intent to dedicate clearly and satisfactorily appears. Defendants did not make and record the plat or map of their block, but bought by it, and immediately repudiated it by fencing the whole block, thereby destroying the alley, and appropriating it to their own use and benefit as against the claims of the city. Dimitation will run against a city as to alleys. Rev. Stats, art. 5683; Guadalupe County v. Poth, 163 S. W. 1050.
The rights of Ferguson in an easement in the alley cannot be considered in this case. The case here is one between plaintiff and defendants, involving the right of the former to an alley across the land of defendants. There was no dedication of the alley to public use. No ease has been called to our attention in which an alley that has been held adversely to a city for over 10 years can be rededicated to public use by a single reference in one deed to a plat on which the alley is shown, without any other fact showing an intent to dedicate.
The judgment is affirmed.
i&sl'or other coses see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
Reference
- Full Case Name
- City of Pearsall v. Crawford Et Ux.
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published