Avondale Land Co. v. Town of Avondale

• Decision Date: 16 June 1896
• Citation: 111 Ala. 523,21 So. 318
• Parties: AVONDALE LAND CO. ET AL. v. TOWN OF AVONDALE. [1]
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

21 So. 318

111 Ala. 523

AVONDALE LAND CO. ET AL. v. TOWN OF AVONDALE. ^[1]

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 16, 1896

Appeal from city court of Birmingham; H. A. Sharpe, Judge.

Bill by the town of Avondale against the Avondale Land Company and another to enjoin the converting of a tract of land, claimed to be a public park, to private use. Decree for complainant and defendants appeal. Affirmed.

The bill in this case was filed by the town of Avondale, a municipal corporation, against the appellants, the Avondale Land Company and J. J. Calmont, and prayed to have a certain tract of land, described in the bill, adjudged and declared to be a public park, and that the defendants be enjoined from converting said park from a public to a private use, and from interfering with the public in the use thereof. Upon the submission of the cause on the pleadings and proof, the chancellor granted the relief prayed for. The respondents appeal from this decree, and assign the rendition thereof as error.

R. H Pearson and Arnold & Evans, for appellants.

Wm. C Ward, for appellee.

McCLELLAN J.

The question in this case is whether the Avondale Land Company which originally owned the site of the present town of Avondale, dedicated a certain lot, parcel, or tract of land situated on said site to the public as a park; and this question is purely one of fact, there being really no disagreement of counsel as to the law applicable to it. The case was fully argued at the bar, and the evidence has since received careful consideration by the court, a consideration which has only served to deepen the impression made upon us at the argument into the conviction now to be announced, that the land in controversy was efficaciously dedicated by the land company to the inhabitants of the town of Avondale and the public generally as and for the uses and purposes of a public park. No extended discussion of the facts is deemed necessary or will be entered upon.

We find the evidence overwhelming to the establishment of the following facts: (1) That the Avondale Land Company purchased five or six hundred acres of land previously utilized only for the purposes of agriculture and husbandry, with a view to having it laid off into streets, avenues, alleys, parks, and lots, and selling the lots, and building up a town on the land; that, accordingly, a survey of the tract was made, and thereby the lines of alleys, streets, avenues, and lots were established all over the site, except certain 40 acres, which were of a character specially adapted to the purposes of a park, and a great part of which was ill adapted for any other uses; that the lines of the streets next to this parcel, as elsewhere on the tract, were thus fixed and established; and that the whole tract was then platted by the company, and a map was made, showing all the lines of the survey, all the alleys, streets, avenues, blocks, and lots into which the tract, except this 40 acres, was divided for the purposes of sale and the use of the public when the town should spring up, and showing also this 40-acre parcel thereon bounded by streets, but with no divisional lines...