Devin v. City of Ottumwa

• Decision Date: 22 April 1880
• Citation: 53 Iowa 461,5 N.W. 552
• Parties: DEVIN v. THE CITY OF OTTUMWA.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

53 Iowa 461

5 N.W. 552

DEVIN

v.THE CITY OF OTTUMWA.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed April 22, 1880.

Appeal from Wapello district court.Calvin Manning, H. B. Hendershott and Wm. McNett, for appellant.

M. J. Williams and Wright, Gatch & Wright, for appellees.

ROTHROCK, J.

This is a controversy involving the title to a tract of land which is described in the petition as follows: “A parcel of land lying on the left bank of the Des Moines river, at Ottumwa, Iowa, bounded southerly by said river, easterly by Court street extended to the river, northerly by Front street, and westerly by Washington street extended to the river.” This property, with other real estate, was patented by the United States to the county commissioners of Wapello county in 1844. The county commissioners and other persons hereinafter referred to laid out and platted upon the property patented to the county a town then called Louisville (now Ottumwa.)

In 1849 the board of commissioners conveyed to Uriah Biggs certain of the lands lying in and adjoining to the town of Ottumwa, among which was the land in controversy, the description thereof being substantially the same as that above given. May 24, 1855, Uriah Biggs conveyed to Thomas Devin, the ancestor of the plaintiff herein, the same lands which had been conveyed by the county commissioners to him, but by a more general description. The land in controversy was not specifically described, but it is claimed by appellees that it is fairly included in the description in the deed.

It appears that the town was laid out and platted by certain persons who composed the Appanoose Rapids Company and the county commissioners jointly. All of the parties composing the rapids company, and also the county commissioners, acknowledged the plat and certified to its correctness.

In 1868 Moses Pettingill, Uriah Biggs, and others, who were members of the Appanoose Rapids Company, commenced an action in equity against Thomas Devin, the City of Ottumwa, the County of Wapello, the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company, and others, claiming title to undivided interests in said lands conveyed by the county to Biggs. The ground of their claim was that they and their grantors were original claimants and settlers upon all of said lands which were patented to the county, and that, by an agreement between them and the county, the said claimants furnished the money necessary to enter the land, and the town was to be laid out and the county was to have each alternate in-lot as its sole and only interest in and to said lands, and all the other lots and parcels were to belong to the said claimants; that the conveyance to Biggs was made for greater facility and convenience in transacting the business of said claimants; that said Biggs, as one of the claimants, was the owner of two twenty-fourths part of said lands, and took the title to twenty-two twenty-fourths in trust only for the other owners; that when Devin took the conveyance from Biggs he only took the two twenty-fourths part of the land which had been conveyed by the county to Biggs, and that Biggs and the other plaintiffs in said action were the owners of the ground designated as “wharf,” (the land in controversy,) and certain streets which had never been opened nor used by the town, but had been abandoned as streets.

The petition set forth the interests of the respective parties as tenants in common of the premises, and prayed for a decree settling and quieting the title to said lots in the parties plaintiff and in the said Thomas Devin, and “that partition [be made] of said lots or parcels of ground among the said several owners, according to their respective interests, as shall be found.”

The city of Ottumwa filed a separate answer, which, so far as it relates to the land in controversy, is in these words: “Comes now the city of Ottumwa, one of said defendants, and for answer to plaintiff's petition says that it is not true that the so-called Appanoose Rapids Company directed the commissioners of Wapello county to convey to Uriah Biggs, as their trustee, or in any other way, a slip of ground bounded on the north-east by Front street in the city of Ottumwa, and on the north-west by Washington street, on the south-west by the Des Moines river, and on the south-east by Court street; that said strip of ground was originally laid off and platted as a part of Front street in said city, and ever has been and still is a part of Front street, which, between Court and Washingtonstreets, as above described, extended to the Des Moines river, as shown in the original plat.”

Thomas Devin answered by claiming title in himself to all the land conveyed by the county commissioners to Biggs, and claimed that Biggs conveyed all of said real estate to him, and that he took his conveyance from Biggs without any knowledge of any claim of plaintiffs upon the land. He also pleaded adverse possession and the...