Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. City of St. Louis

• Decision Date: 24 June 1889
• Parties: CONNECTICUT MUT. LIFE INS. CO. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

11 S.W. 969

98 Mo. 422

CONNECTICUT MUT. LIFE INS. CO. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 24, 1889.

ADVERSE POSSESSION.

Plaintiff sued to restrain the city of St. Louis from removing, as an obstruction, without compensation, a certain building erected six years before the dedication of the street on which it was situated, alleging that he had claimed title to, and had been in adverse possession of, the building and the land on which it was situated for more than 30 years before suit. Defendant contested under section 3227, Rev. St. Mo. 1879, which provides that nothing contained in any statute of limitation shall extend to any lands appropriated to any public use. Held, that this statute is prospective, and does not apply to cases where right of entry accrued before it was enacted. BLACK, J., dissenting.

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; SHEPARD BARCLAY, Judge.

Dyer, Lee & Ellis, for appellant. Leverett Bell, for respondent.

BRACE, J.

This is an action to restrain the city of St. Louis from removing as an obstruction, without compensation, so much of a brick building on the south side of Market street in said city as projects beyond the line of said street, of which, as at present located, the plaintiff and those under whom it claims had been in the open, notorious, peaceable, continuous, and adverse possession and occupancy, claiming title thereto, for more than 30 years before this suit was commenced. The building was erected in 1840. The street was dedicated in 1846, and in improving it the city conformed the structure of the street and sidewalk to this projection, and the premises have ever since remained in the same situation in relation to the street.

The only question is whether the city's right is barred by the statute of limitation. Section 3227, Rev. St. 1879, provides that "nothing contained in any statute of limitation shall extend to any lands given, granted, sequestered, or appropriated to any public, pious, or charitable use, or to any lands belonging to this state." This section was first enacted in 1865. Gen. St. p. 746, § 7. This section is prospective in its operation, and does not apply to cases where the right of entry had accrued before it was enacted. Directors v. Goerges, 50 Mo. 194; McCartney v. Alderson, 54 Mo. 320. As to right of entry by political subdivision of the state or municipal corporations upon lands held for a public use prior to the enactment of that section, the statute of limitations has been held to apply, the same as to individuals, by an unbroken chain of authority. County of St. Charles v. Powell, 22 Mo. 525; Callaway Co. v. Nolley, 31 Mo. 393; Directors v. Goerges, supra; McCartney v. Alderson, supra. It has also been held in a number of cases that before the enactment of that section of the statute the plea was good even against the state. Abernathy v. Dennis, 49 Mo. 468; Wickersham v. Woodbeck, 57...