People v. Underhill

• Decision Date: 15 January 1895
• Citation: 144 N.Y. 316,39 N.E. 333
• Parties: PEOPLE v. UNDERHILL et al.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

144 N.Y. 316

39 N.E. 333

PEOPLE

v.UNDERHILL et al.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Jan. 15, 1895.

Appeal from supreme court, general term, Second department.

Clara M. Underhill and William J. Underhill were convicted of obstructing a public highway, and, from the judgment of the general term (23 N. Y. Supp. 388) affirming the conviction, appeal. Reversed.

Prior to 1859, the state of New York was the owner of a certian parcel of land in the vilage of Sing Sing, known as the prison or state farm. In that year the legislature passed an act providing for its sale by the inspectors of state prisons. Pursuant to that authority, the inspectors made a map of the farm, and sold it to one Thomas Nelson and others on the 23d of November, 1859. On that map several streets were laid down as running through this farm, and among them was a street, without any name, running from Highland turnpike to Spring street. The street was subsequently called Lafayette avenue. The deed from the inspectors of state prisons to Nelson and others, in conveying the farm, contained the following reservation: ‘Also excepting and reserving to the public the right of way over said two new streets to the width of twenty-five feet south of said central line above described, a width of twenty-five feet on each side of the continuation of the southernmost of said central lines westerly to the said Spring street, which new streets are forever to be kept open, to the width of twenty-five feet on each side of siad center line, from Spring street to the Highland turnpike, for the purposes of a public street or highway for the benefit of the owners and purchasers of the adjoining lots.’ Highland turnpike, subsequently called Highland avenue, runs north and south on the eastern boundary of the farm. Spring street runs parallel with Highland avenue, and is the western boundary of such farm, and some 1,225 feet west of Highland avenue. They are both old public highways in Sing Sing village. Lafayette avenue runs from Highland avenue to Spring street. On the 1st of September, 1866, Nelson and others conveyed to one Edward Everitt 6 1/2 acres of this farm, and described the land as ‘beginning at the Albany post road [now Highland avenue] and Lafayette avenue, as designated on a map now on file in the office of the register of the county of Westchester, entitled ‘A map of a tract of land at Sing Sing, town of Ossining, county of Westchester, the property of Messrs. Nelson, Larkin, Cobb, Cartwright, Jr., and Jones, laid off in town lots and gentlemen's country seats, by Geo. W. Cartwright, Jr., C. E., July, 1860.’' The description them continues, and includes the 6 acres, and describes the northern boundary as running ‘along the center of Lafayette avenue 651 feet, to the said Albany post road, to the place of beginning.’ On the 7th of November, 1889, Edward Everitt conveyed the same premises to the defendant Clara Mason Underhill, by the same description that is contained in the deed from Nelson and others to Everitt. At the time when this map, mentioned in the deed from Nelson and others to Everitt, was made, and the deed executed, the land forming what is laid down on the map as Lafayette avenue was farm land, and that avenue had never been either opened or worked. It was farm land most of the way between Highland avenue and Spring street, and there were no fences or other monuments indicating to the eye the line of Lafayette avenue. When Everitt took title by deed from Nelson and others to a portion of the original state farm, he ran his westerly line of fence north and south across the land constituting Lafayette avenue as laid down on the map. This westerly line was 800 feet east of Spring street. He remained in possession as owner from the time of the deed to him in 1866 until he conveyed to Mrs. Undershill, one of the defendants herein, in November, 1889, and the whole country west of his west line, up to Spring street, had been up to that time, and thereafter remained, open and unmarked by any boundaries showing the line of the street up to within 200 feet east of Spring street. The grantors in the deed to Everitt themselves maintained fences across the land constituting Lafayette avenue west of the defendants west line and up to within a few feet of Spring street, and as they from time to time sold off lots on either side of Lafayette avenue, and within the space of a couple of hundred feet east of Spring street, they would take down the fence and remove it further to the east, so as not to interfere with those who intended to build and live in the houses. There was never any work done east of the houses built along the westerly end of Lafayette avenue up to within a short time before the finding of this indictment, when Mr. Cartwright, one of the grantors in the deed to Everitt, did some grading from Spring street up to the westerly line of defendants' premises. There was no evidence of any user of Lafayette avenue by the public for any portion of its distance as laid down on the map, with the exception of the 200 feet immediately east of Spring street, and upon which, commencing in 1872, about 11 houses had been built by the grantees of Nelson and others. Mr. Everitt himself, while the owner of the 6 acres, had done some work upon the portion of Lafayette avenue fronting his premises, but that was for his own convenience, and to better enable him to reach his house from Highland avenue, which he had built on the north portion of his land. The grade from the westerly boundary of his premises towards Spring street was quite steep, and the top of the grade was about halfway between his westerly line and the easterly line of Spring street. During these years, from the time when the land was conveyed to Nelson and others by the inspectors of state prisons up to the time of the finding of the indictment against the defendants, various things had been done, as was claimed by the prosecution, by way of showing an acceptance on the part of the village of Sing Sing of the alleged dedication of this Lafayette avenue by the prison inspectors as a public street. Upon the trial the prosecution claimed to have proved that the public authorities of the village of Sing Sing had worked the street, and made a map of it; had permitted gaslights to be put up, and had made a map for a system of sewerage for the lower part of the village, which included the avenue; that they had also laid water pipes therein, and caused gutters and sidewalks to be laid in it, and had assessed property as bounded by the avenue; had put up signs at each end, and caused a sidewalk or crosswalk to be laid at the entrance of the avenue on Highland avenue. All these acts were alleged to have been done by the public authorities, and it was insisted that they constituted that kind of formal action on their part which was necessary in order to show an acceptance of the land in question for a public highway. The...