Calhoun v. The Town of Colfax
| Decision Date | 01 January 1900 |
| Docket Number | 13,887 |
| Citation | 29 So. 887,105 La. 416 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | MARY EARL TAYLOR CALHOUN v. THE TOWN OF COLFAX |
APPEAL from the Thirteenth Judicial District, Parish of Grant -- Blackman, J.
White & Thornton, for Plaintiff, Appellant.
John A Williams, for Defendant, Appellee.
This suit involves the right of the Town of Colfax to open for public use certain streets figuring on the map of the town. The town notified plaintiff to remove her fences from these streets, and plaintiff countered by this suit, enjoining the town from trespassing on her land.
Plaintiff claims that the alleged streets are not streets but part and parcel of her land. The defendant town avers that the streets in question have heretofore been dedicated to the public, and that plaintiff is not owner of them.
Plaintiff's only title is by donation from her mother, Mrs. Calhoun. In the act evidencing this donation the property given is stated to be lots and blocks in the town of Colfax. The lots and blocks are not otherwise designated or identified than by number. The numbers are not expressly stated to be those of the town map, but they are such in point of fact, and would otherwise be absolutely meaningless.
Such a description is as specific as a description can be, and by specifically including only the lots and blocks it specifically excludes the streets. Hence, the streets did not pass to plaintiff; and unless the donor, Mrs. Calhoun retained them to herself, they passed to the public by dedication. It is inconceivable that Mrs. Calhoun should have retained ownership of this network of streets, therefore the inference is irresistible that she dedicated the streets to the public. The law is well settled that "a sale of lots with reference to a plat showing a subdivision, defining streets, squares, etc., or describing lots as bounded by streets, will amount to an immediate and irrevocable dedication of the latter binding upon both vendor and vendee." Dillon on Municipal Corporations, 3rd Ed., Vol. 2, par. 640; Lafitte vs. City of New Orleans, 52 Ann. 2099. A conveyance by donation must be held to have the same effect as a sale, the underlying principle being the same.
Furthermore the streets in question had been dedicated to the public previous to this donation to plaintiff. Mrs. Calhoun herself, the donor, had acquired under a description by lots and blocks; and in the deed to her...
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Faunce v. City of New Orleans
... ... public use." See, also, Jaenke v. Taylor, 160 ... La. 109, 106 So. 711; Calhoun v. Town of Colfax, 105 ... La. 416, 29 So. 887; Iseringhausen v. Larcade et ... al., 147 La ... ...
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City of New Orleans v. Carrollton Land Co., Limited
... ... blocks for the purpose of founding a town, is as significant ... of the dedication of such tract to the public for a park, as ... the word ... 2099, 28 So. 327; Land v. Smith, 44 La.Ann. 931, 11 ... So. 577; Calhoun v. Town of Colfax, 105 La. 146, 29 ... So. 887; Conrad v. Land Co., 126 N.C. 776, 36 S.E ... ...
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Town of Pineville v. Yates
...fisc warranted; and finally the property which this defendant owns was sold with special reference to the street. In Calhoun vs. Town of Colfax, 105 La. 416, 29 So. 887, was held that: "describing lots as bounded by streets will amount to an immediate and irrevocable dedication of the latte......
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