City of St. Louis v. Laclede Gaslight Co.
| Decision Date | 12 November 1888 |
| Citation | 9 S.W. 581,96 Mo. 197 |
| Parties | City of St. Louis, Appellant, v. Laclede Gas Light Company |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from St. Louis Court of Appeals.
Affirmed.
Leverett Bell for appellant.
C. & C E. Gibson for respondent.
Black J. Ray, J., absent. Sherwood, J., takes no part in the disposition of this cause.
This is an action of ejectment to recover a strip of land claimed to be a part of Howard street. Thomas J. Payne and his four brothers inherited this and other property, and the brothers conveyed to him. Thereafter, and in 1831, Thomas J. Payne made a deed to Samuel McKee by which he conveyed two parcels of land each fronting on the Mississippi river and extending back westward, one, one hundred and thirty-four and the other one hundred and sixty seven feet. There was a strip of land fifty-eight feet wide between the abovedescribed parcels; and by the same deed, Payne conveyed to McKee the undivided one-half of this third strip; and this is the parcel of land now in dispute. This deed from Payne to McKee was signed by both parties, and they granted to each other, their heirs and assigns, the free passage and right of way over this third parcel. A plat of the three parcels is attached to the deed, with a certificate of the surveyor thereon by which he says he surveyed from Payne to McKee two lots of ground with a street between them.
After the date of that deed, and in 1832, Thomas J. Payne made and filed a plat of Payne's addition by which the parcel of land in suit is designated as Howard street; the plat undertakes to dedicate the property to public use. In 1859 the heirs of McKee conveyed to McDowell and Rapp, who made a deed of trust on the same property to secure a part of the purchase price, and under which the McKee heirs purchased back the property in 1862. In 1866, they sold to Schulenburg, who conveyed to the defendant in 1872. These deeds convey the two parcels of land with covenants of warranty and also the ground covered by Howard street produced, the property in suit, but without covenants of warranty.
The defendant, though thus claiming through the heirs of McKee objected to some of the deeds to Thomas J. Payne from his brothers, because of alleged defective acknowledgments, and put in evidence subsequent quit-claim deeds from the same brothers; but it will be assumed, for all the purposes of this case, that the deeds to which defendant made the objections are good and sufficient. Samuel McKee and Thomas J. Payne then became tenants in common of the parcel of land in dispute in 1831, before Thomas J. Payne made the plat and thereby attempted to dedicate...
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