Town of Farmville v. A. C. Monk & Co.
| Decision Date | 29 April 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 95,95 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | TOWN OF FARMVILLE, a municipal corporation, v. A. C. MONK & COMPANY, Inc., Elbert C. Holmes and wife, Sue T. Holmes; John D. Holmes and wife, Leymon B. Holmes; Carroll R. Holmes and wife, Hannah F. Holmes; John Hill Paylor and wife, Alice F. Paylor; W. D. Morton and wife, Jane C. Morton; Sarah Cameron Blount and husband, Shaw Blount; Zyphia Cameron Moseley and husband, Ralph Moseley, and Patrick Cameron. |
The defendants, other than A. C. Monk & Company, Inc., appeal, assigning error.
Lewis & Rouse, Farmville, for plaintiff-appellee.
Thorp, Spruill, Thorp & Trotter, Rocky Mount, for defendant-appellee.
Jones, Reed & Griffin, Kinston, for defendants-appellant.
As we interpret the record on this appeal, the action was instituted pursuant to the provisions of our Declaratory Judgments Act, G.S. § 1-253 et seq. for the sole purpose of having the court determine whether or not any portion of the property owned by A. C. Monk & Company, Inc. has been dedicated as a public street by it or by any of its predecessors in title. Town of Morganton v. Hutton & Bourbonnais Co., 247 N.C. 666, 101 S.E.2d 679; Hine v. Blumenthal, 239 N.C. 537, 80 S.E.2d 458; Carver v. Leatherwood, 230 N.C. 96, 52 S.E.2d 1.
On 30 July 1920, when the Realty Company sold the 60-foot strip of land described in paragraph 5 of the statement of facts herein, lying to the north of the center of Pine Street extended, there was no Pine Street west of East Carolina Railroad. Furthermore, the plat of the subdivision of Washington Heights, dated 4 February 1920, was not referred to in the deed and no lot in that subdivision had been sold at that time. Moreover, the plat of the subdivision of Washington Heights was not recorded until 1927.
It is clear from the evidence in this case that no deed conveying the above described land ever referred to the map of the subdivision of Washington Heights. It is true the deed from the Realty Company to the Development Company and the respective deeds to the other predecessors in title of A. C. Monk & Company, Inc., as well as the deed to A. C. Monk & Company, Inc., did refer to the center of Pine Street extended, but, as we interpret the evidence, since Pine Street had not been opened west of East Carolina Railroad when the deed from the Realty Company to the Development Company was executed, the words 'Pine Street extended' were mere words of description to make definite the location of a property line. Pine Street as it then existed came to a dead end east of East Carolina Railroad, which was immediately east of Washington Heights.
Moreover, it was stipulated in the court below that the first lot sold in the subdivision of Washington Heights was to John Henry Dunn by deed dated 12 December 1923 and duly recorded 26 May 1924. Therefore, there is nothing in the documentary evidence or the oral evidence introduced in the trial below that tends to show that A. C. Monk & Company, Inc., or any of its predecessors in title, beginning with the Development Company in 1920, were in privity with or induced the defendant appellants or any of their predecessors in title to purchase property in Washington Heights under the belief that the property would be developed as shown on the unrecorded map of said subdivision.
We find nothing in the chain of title of A. C. Monk & Company, Inc. that tends to show a dedication of any portion of Pine Street, unless such street was shown on that certain plat made by W. C. Dresbach & Son in July 1948 and duly recorded in Map Book 4, page 11, and referred to in the deed from Imperial Tobacco Company to Southern States Tobacco Company as set forth in paragraph 8 of the statement of facts herein. However, it does not appear that a copy of the map made by Dresbach & Son was introduced in evidence in the court below, and no such map was forwarded as an exhibit to this Court.
The Town of Farmville does not contend that it has acquired as easement in the 24-foot strip of land in controversy by prescription. Furthermore, it concedes that the evidence adduced in the trial below establishes the fact that the general public has not used the disputed area under any claim of right adverse to the owner, nor has travel thereon been confined to a definite and specific line. Hemphill v. Board of Aldermen, 212 N.C. 185, 193 S.E....
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Owens v. Elliott, 383
...Howard Owens to them. The description refers to the Street, but the effect of the reference is only descriptive. Farmville v. A. C. Monk & Co., 250 N.C. 171, 108 S.E. 2d 479. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Owens had theretofore conveyed to defendants all their right, title and interest 'in and to the ......
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