Hatton v. City of St. Louis.

• Decision Date: 01 April 1915
• Docket Number: No. 17281.,17281.
• Citation: 175 S.W. 888,264 Mo. 634
• Parties: HATTON et al. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

175 S.W. 888

264 Mo. 634

HATTON et al. v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS.

No. 17281.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

April 1, 1915.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Leo S. Rassieur, Judge.

Action by Christian F. Liebke against the City of St. Louis. Judgment for defendant. Pending appeal, on death of plaintiff, the cause was revived in the name of Richard D. Hatton and others, his testamentary trustees, who prosecute the appeal. Affirmed.

Plaintiff sued to quiet title to certain streets and alleys in North St. Louis, to which he has obtained quitclaim deeds from the adjoining proprietors. The petition alleges that plaintiff is the owner in fee-simple title by the adverse possession thereof for 57 years of the lands in question, describing them, and adds that the city of St. Louis claims some title or interest in the property as an easement for street and alley purposes under two duly recorded plats, one executed by George Buchanan August, 1852, and the other by the commissioners in an amicable partition between the heirs of George Buchanan in January, 1866. The answer set up dedication of the lands and their use as public highways by the defendant city. The reply alleged that whatever easement the city had acquired it had lost by abandonment and nonuser and adverse possession of the plaintiff as alleged in his petition. Oa the trial the evidence showed that the dedication made by George Buchanan in the plat referred to in plaintiff's petition was in conformity with the statutory requirements. The evidence also disclosed that, upon the death of George Buchanan, the remainder of his estate was amicably partitioned between his heirs, and that the report of the commissioners who affected the partition, together with a plat thereof, on which was designated the respective allotments of the land divided by them, and also the streets and alleys laid off by them under their authority to act as commissioners, was duly recorded in the recorder's office of the city of St. Louis; that upon the filing of this plat the heirs perfected their partition by exchanging deeds wherein the property was described as being bounded by the streets and alleys marked and designated on the plat and referred to as such in said deeds. The said report and the plat marked A accompanying it was filed for record in 1866. The evidence further showed that prior to the partition amongst the heirs of George Buchanan a partnership of which the original plaintiff, Christian F. Liebke, was a member, held a lease upon the lands made by the executors of George Buchanan, who died in 1852, under the terms of a will empowering them to make a sale or other disposition of his property. Said lease was dated July 24, 1857 and ran for nine years, and described the property in question and demised it, "excepting the streets and alleys which are, or hereafter may be, laid out through said premises." It was these leased premises which were subsequently partitioned among the heirs. The testimony also disclosed that the streets and alleys laid off in the plat prepared by the commissioners and designated thereon have never been taxed by the city of St. Louis since the filing of their report, and that Kenneth street, later named Hall street, and one of the streets included in plat A, was improved by the city, and by ordinance and upon condemnation proceedings, widened, and has been used as a public street for many years. Plaintiff gave evidence as to the nature and length of the possession taken by him under the aforesaid lease to his firm and the subsequent acquisition by him of quitclaim deeds to the streets and alleys described on the commissioners' plat, marked A.

The testimony as to the possession of the plaintiff tended to show that it began in August 1857 under the lease of that date; that it was manifested by a fence inclosing the property, as a part of a large tract of ground upon which a sawmill plant was located; that the said sawmill plant was erected by the firm of which he was a member immediately after the execution of the lease to them; that the tract of land at that time was situated so as to be subjected to the overflow of the river on the south side, but was somewhat higher on the north side where the sawmill was erected; that plaintiff used the submerged portion of the land to bring down floats from the upper waters of the river, containing rafts of logs which would be carried as close up towards the mill as the water would permit, and there anchored until the waters receded, leaving them resting on the ground; that on other portions of the premises stables, two houses, and other structures needed by the firm were located; that the fencing of the ground continued until 1885 or thereafter; that the sawmill was destroyed in 1890, and replaced by another which was built without reference to the streets and alleys designated on Plat A; that C. F. Liebke, the original plaintiff, acquired the interest of his copartners in the firm to which the lands had been leased by the executors of George Buchanan. The evidence further tended to show that the tract of land when leased to plaintiff in 1857 was practically a swamp, and that at the time the commissioners' plat was made in 1866 the streets and alleys appearing thereon were from 25 to 30 feet below the grade of Second street. At the time of the trial the land in question by accretions and aided by filling in on the part of the plaintiff had been brought up to the grade of Second street, and...