Meachem v. City of Seattle

• Decision Date: 02 February 1907
• Citation: 88 P. 628,45 Wash. 380
• Parties: MEACHEM et ux. v. CITY OF SEATTLE.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

88 P. 628

45 Wash. 380

MEACHEM et ux. v. CITY OF SEATTLE.

Supreme Court of Washington

February 2, 1907

Appeal from Superior Court, King County; John B. Yakey, Judge.

Action by George F. Meachem and another against the city of Seattle. From a judgment for plaintiffs, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Scott Calhoun and O. B. Thorgrimson, for appellant.

Aust &amp Terhune, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

This action was brought by respondents to quiet title to a certain parcel of land in the city of Seattle, which the city claims as a street. A decree was entered substantially as prayed for, and the city appeals.

The facts are as follows: In the year 1869, Edward Hanford laid off a tract of land in King county into streets, alleys lots, and blocks, and designated the same 'Hanford's Addition to South Seattle.' A plat was made showing blocks numbered from 1 to 40, inclusive. Each block was divided by an alley, and the lots numbered in each block. Streets were shown running north and south, and east and west, each street being named. The street running east and west along the north side of the plat was designated on the plat as 'Lander Street'; the street running east and west along the south side of the plat was designated 'Hanford Street'; the street running north and south on the east side of the plat was designated 'Sherman Street'; the intervening streets need not be referred to. The plat recited that Forest avenue is 80 feet wide 'other streets 80 feet wide, alleys 16 feet wide, lots in blocks number 1 to 20, 40 feet wide; other lots 60 feet wide.' The plat was acknowledged by Edward Hanford before a notary public, on June 9, 1869, and was filed for record in the office of the county auditor on the same day, and was recorded in the records of King county in volume 2 of Deeds on page 314, on June 18, 1869, and recorded 'Per order of County Comrs.' in the plat book on March 16, 1875. There is nothing on the plat to indicate the location of the land platted nor the length of the lots. Between the date of filing this plat and August 27, 1871, Edward Hanford and wife joined in executing deeds to certain lots in said 'Hanford's Addition to South Seattle'; in which deeds the said addition was described as being in 'Edward Hanford's Donation Claim.' On August 27, 1871, the government of the United States, under the Oregon donation act, issued a patent to 'Edward Hanford's Donation Claim No. 44.' On July 1, 1878, Edward Hanford and wife executed a deed as follows: 'Deed of Dedication. Know all men by these presents, that we Edward Hanford and Abbie J. Hanford, wife of said Edward Hanford, of Seattle, King county, in Washington Territory, have laid out as a town plat a tract of land owned by us in King county, Washington Territory, described as follows, to wit: All that part of Edward Hanford's donation claim No. 44 in township twenty-four north of range four east lying west and south of lines commenced and run as follows, viz., commencing at a point on the south boundary line of said donation claim 1,643 feet east from the southwest corner of said donation claim, said south boundary line of the claim forming the center line of Hanford street, and running thence north forty feet to the southeast corner of block thirty-six, and thence north along the west line of Sherman street 1,524 feet to the northeast corner of block forty and south line of Lander street and thence west along the south line of Lander street into Elliott's Bay. Said town plat to be known and designated as Hanford's Addition to South Seattle, and to be as the same is now of record in the auditor's office of said King county in book 2 of Deeds at page 314 and transcribed into book 1 of Plats at page ___. And we do hereby donate to the uses of the public all the land embraced in the streets and alleys within said described lines. Streets are eighty feet wide except Forest avenue which is eighty-four feet wide. Alleys are sixteen feet wide. Lots in blocks 1 to 20 inclusive are forty feet wide and one hundred and twenty feet in length. Lots in all other blocks are sixty feet wide and one hundred and twenty feet in length. Witness our hands and seals this 1st day of July, A. D. 1878.' This deed was duly signed, acknowledged, and recorded.

Fifteen days later, viz., on the 16th day of July, 1878, T. Hanford and Frank Hanford laid out and platted an addition to South Seattle. This plat was designated as 'T. Hanford's Addition to South Seattle,' and lies immediately east of Sherman street, and between Lander street and Hanford street as the same were designated on E. Hanford's addition to South Seattle, above referred to. In this plat of T. Hanford's addition to South Seattle, Lander street is continued west from 'Hanford's Addition' on through 'T. Hanford's Addition.' On November 14, 1881, Edward Hanford and wife sold and conveyed to Thad. Hanford all their right, title, and interest in and to the Edward Hanford donation land claim, 'and all parts thereof not hitherto sold by us, together with any and all lots in E. Hanford's addition to South Seattle as laid off and platted by us upon said donation claim, excepting such as have been hitherto sold by us.' Thereafter in May, 1890, Thad. Hanford, for a consideration of $1,000, sold and conveyed the land in dispute to George F. Meachem. Respondents subsequently acquired the title thereto. This tract of land is 48 1/2 feet wide by 240 feet in length, and lies north of block 21, Hanford's addition to South Seattle, in what is designated in the plat of said addition as 'Lander Street.' From these facts the trial court found that it was not the intention of the said Edward Hanford or his wife to include any part of Lander street in the plat of Hanford's addition to South Seattle, or to dedicate the land designated as Lander street to the public, and concluded that the plaintiffs were the owners of the land located in this street. The main question in the case is whether Lander street is a dedicated street. If it was such street at the time the deed of dedication herein referred to was filed, the case must be reversed. Otherwise it must be affirmed.

It is claimed by appellant that the plat of Hanford's addition to South Seattle complies substantially with the provisions of the Code (sections 3555, 3556, 3557, 3558, 3560, and 3566, Pierce's Code 1905), and that the plat was a valid, statutory dedication of all the streets platted thereon, which dedication could not be revoked, and that, if the plat was not a valid, statutory dedication, it was a valid common-law dedication, under the rule laid down by this court in Seattle v. Hill, 23 Wash. 92, 62 P. 446, and could not be revoked at the time of the filing of the deed of dedication referred to. On the other hand, the respondents claim that the filing of the plat did not constitute either a statutory or a common-law dedication, because Abbie J. Hanford, wife of Edward Hanford, did not join in the plat, when she owned an equitable interest with Edward Hanford in the land, because the length of the lots was not given on the plat, because there was no 'laying off' of the land, because there was nothing on the plat to indicate the location of the land platted, because the legal title of the property platted was at the time the plat was filed wholly in the United States; because there was no acceptance of the plat, and because it is claimed the deed of dedication filed for record in July, 1898, excepted Lander street from the plat, for the reason that the said deed did not include said street within the description of the platted land. We think the position taken by the appellant must be sustained, and that there is no substantial merit in any of the positions taken by the respondents. Respondents and their grantors obtained title to the land in dispute long after the plat was filed by Edward Hanford, and long after the deed of dedication was executed and filed by Edward Hanford and wife. Conceding, therefore, that the plat was defective at the time it was filed, because Mrs. Hanford did not join in the acknowledgment of the plat, and because the length of the lots was not designated thereon, and because the plat did not locate the land platted, the deed of dedication executed by both Edward Hanford and his wife cured all these defects, and from that time forward the plat complied with the statutory requirements in all respects. The respondents having purchased after this deed of dedication had cured all these defects, cannot be heard to say that the plat was previously defective in the respects named.

It is true, the court found that there was no evidence of any stakes, monuments, or other markings set on the ground showing the location of the plat prior to 1878. This finding appears to be...