Sherer v. City of Jasper

• Decision Date: 26 June 1891
• Citation: 93 Ala. 530,9 So. 584
• Parties: SHERER ET AL. v. CITY OF JASPER.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

9 So. 584

93 Ala. 530

SHERER ET AL. v. CITY OF JASPER.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 26, 1891

Appeal from circuit court, Walker county; JAMES B. HEAD, Judge.

W B. Appling, for appellants.

CLOPTON J.

The trespass, for which appellants sue to recover damages consisted in opening a street over the land described in the complaint by the authorities of the city of Jasper. Defendant justifies on the ground that plaintiffs had dedicated the street to public use. The bill of exceptions not purporting to set out all the evidence, we would indulge the presumption, if necessary that there was testimony to support the affirmative charge given by the court in favor of defendant; but no such presumption need be indulged on this appeal. The land contained within the corporate limits of the city was laid off into blocks and streets, and a map was made showing the blocks, and numbering them, and the intersections of the streets as so laid off, and recorded in the office of the judge of probate in October, 1887. The block comprising the land of plaintiffs was numbered on the map 202, and the street, the opening of which is complained of, designated as Eighteenth street, intersecting blocks 188 and 202. The second section of "An act to provide a charter for the city of Jasper, in Walker county, Alabama," approved February 6, 1889, provides "that said city shall consist of all the lands, lots, and parcels of land which are included in the present boundaries of the city of Jasper, as incorporated under the general laws on the 10th day of December, 1887." Acts 1888-89, p. 290. After the blocks were marked and numbered, and the streets designated as stated, and after the map was recorded, plaintiffs sold and conveyed by warranty deeds two lots in block 202, numbered respectively, 1 and 10,--No. 1 to Bessonett, October 9, 1888; and the other to Davis and another, April 17, 1889. In each of the deeds the lot is described by the number of the lot and block "in the plan of the town of Jasper." It thus clearly appears that plaintiffs have sold two lots in conformity and with reference to the recorded map. The land was laid off into blocks and streets, and the same marked and numbered on the map by the division engineer of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad Company; but, having been adopted by plaintiffs, must be accorded the same effect and operation as if done by themselves, in anticipation of the subsequent incorporation and growth of the city of Jasper. The general rule, that when a land-owner lays off his land into blocks and lots, setting apart and designating...