Board Regents Normal School v. Painter

• Decision Date: 22 December 1890
• Citation: 102 Mo. 464,14 S.W. 938
• Parties: BOARD REGENTS NORMAL SCHOOL DIST. No. 3 v. PAINTER.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

14 S.W. 938

102 Mo. 464

BOARD REGENTS NORMAL SCHOOL DIST. No. 3 v. PAINTER.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

December 22, 1890.

DEDICATION TO PUBLIC USE — ALIENATION.

Land having been conveyed to the inhabitants of a town "for the establishment of a public school," "provided that it shall forever remain affected and appropriated to the public use intended," the town has no power to convey it to the regents of a state normal school, applicants for admission to which are required to sign a declaration of intention to teach in the public schools of the state.

Appeal from Cape Girardeau court of common pleas; ROBERT L. WILSON, Judge.

F. E. Burrough, for appellant. B. F. Davis, for respondent.

BLACK, J.

The plaintiff, as a body corporate, brought this action of ejectment to recover outlot H in the city of Cape Girardeau. The lot in question is the eighth and last parcel of land described in the following deed, dated the 11th September, 1820: "Be it remembered that the undersigned, heirs and legal representatives of Louis Lorimier, deceased, namely, Louis Lorimier, Daniel F. Steinback, Victor Lorimier, and Thomas S. Rodney, as guardian of Thomas Jefferson Rodney and Polly Rodney, for and in consideration for the sum of one dollar, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and for divers other good considerations, and more particularly for the convenience and encouragement of the inhabitants of the town of Cape Girardeau, and owners of lots in or near the same, have given, granted, sold, aliened, quitclaimed, and conveyed, and they do hereby give, grant, sell, alien, quitclaim, convey, and confirm, unto the inhabitants of the town aforesaid, collectively, for their use, benefit, and behoof forever, the several lots or parcels of land hereinafter described, viz.: (1) The place known and designated in the plan of said town as the `Public Square,' bounded * * * as originally laid off, and containing four acres; (2) lot No. twenty-two, in range C, bounded * * * including a spring; (3) lot No. twenty-two, in range A, bounded * * *; (4) all the vacant space between the river Mississippi and the front of ranges A, B, G, and H, designated on the map by the name of `Front Street' or `Aquamet,' and generally all the ground appropriated to streets and alleys throughout the whole town, as represented in the plan thereof; (5) the space on the river above the town, in front of outlot No. one, containing two acres and a half, more or less; (6) a hundred feet square in outlot No. two, and adjoining North street, so as to afford a convenient access to the spring used in that part, and to include said spring; (7) six acres of land, (as laid off in the map of outlots,) situated part in outlot No. two, and part in outlot No. thirty-two, and now used as a grave-yard, with the condition that the western half thereof shall be and remain appropriated to the Roman Catholic Church; (8) an outlot marked `H,' containing about three acres and a quarter, bounded eastwardly by Pacific street, and westwardly by John Scripp's purchase of six acres, on the north by outlot `G,' and on the south by outlot `I,' which lot, including a large spring, is destined for the establishment of a public school, — together with all and singular the right, title, * * * provided always that the several tracts or parcels of land granted to the town of Cape Girardeau, and the citizens thereof, shall remain forever affected and appropriated to the public use to which they are respectively intended, and that they, nor any part of them, shall never become private property. In testimony whereof," etc. The plaintiff put in evidence the foregoing deed, and an ordinance of the city of Cape Girardeau, approved 24th September, 1873, which provided "that the mayor of the city of Cape Girardeau be, and he is hereby, authorized to offer to donate to the regents of the Southeast Missouri Normal School said described lot, as an additional inducement to locate said school in said city, and he is authorized to make a deed to said regents of said normal school, under the seal of said city, turning over, confirming, and quitclaiming all right of the city to said lot to said regents of said school for said purpose, always provided said Southeast Missouri Normal School shall be located in the city of Cape Girardeau, and which said lot may be sold and disposed of as the said regents may see proper, to further the erection of the buildings necessary for said school within said city." Also a deed, dated 13th November, 1873, executed pursuant to said ordinance, and purporting to convey lot H to the regents of the Southeast Missouri Normal School. The plaintiff produced further evidence to the effect that the school was located in the city of Cape Girardeau in 1872 or 1873. The same evidence shows that the building was not located on...