White v. Jefferson

Decision Date14 January 1910
Docket NumberNos. 16,094 - (147).,s. 16,094 - (147).
PartiesWILLIAM G. WHITE v. RUFUS C. JEFFERSON and Others.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>
CourtMinnesota Supreme Court

Jefferson and E. H. Hoard were the owners thereof in fee simple. The facts were stipulated and it appeared from the stipulation that defendants Jefferson and Hoard became owners of lots 23 and 24 under execution sales, tax deeds, an administrator's deed and an action to determine adverse claims, in all of which proceedings and deeds the property was described as lots 23 and 24 Hewitt's Outlots, First Division, "according to the recorded plat of said Hewitt's Outlots, First Division, on file and of record," etc. The case was submitted upon the pleadings and the stipulation of facts (which provided that the court was to be at liberty to draw the same inferences from the facts that it might properly draw if the same were produced in evidence on the trial) to Bunn, J., who ordered judgment in favor of defendants. From an order denying his motion for a new trial, plaintiff appealed. Reversed.

William G. White, for appellant.

John E. Stryker, for respondents.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

JAGGARD, J.

Allie Hewitt duly platted certain land belonging to her as "Hewitt's Outlots, First Division." The short side of lots 23 and 24 fronted on one street and the long side abutted La Salle street. In 1889 La Salle street was duly vacated by the city council. The portion of that street between the lots is the land the title to which is here in controversy. Allie Hewitt remained owner of the lots until in 1892, when defendants acquired a fee-simple interest in said lots through deeds and proceedings in which the property was described as lots 23 and 24, Hewitt's Outlots, First Division, according to the recorded plat thereof. In 1898 Allie Hewitt died. In 1906 one Barnum, "in his capacity as trustee under the last will and testament of Allie Hewitt, deceased," executed to plaintiff a deed which purported to convey, inter alia, that portion of La Salle street, so called, lying between lots 23 and 24. The trial court found and ordered judgment for defendants in this an action to determine adverse claims. This appeal was taken from its order denying plaintiff's motion to vacate and set aside the decision and for a new trial.

1. The first question presented by the record concerns the title to the strip between the lots which had been a part of the street before its vacation.

Defendants' position is this: "That, had the respondents acquired lots 23 and 24 before the vacation of La Salle street, the boundary of the lots would have been the center line of the street, and that, if the street had been vacated after such purchase of the lots, their common boundary would still have been the center of the street, relieved, of course, of the public easement. * * * Now, if the platted boundary, which is that of the respondents' conveyances, was the center line of the street, and if vacation of the street after their acquisition of the property would not have changed that boundary, upon what principle has the area of the lots been diminished?"

On principle the answer is clear. In the first case at the time of the transfer the lots would front on a street; in the second case they would not front on a street. A conveyance according to a plat is a conveyance by recorded metes and bounds, except where the lots front on a street. Defendants' second proposition assumes the matter in controversy. The conclusion of course follows. But there is no argument. The fallacy of the defendants lies in postulating that the vacation of the street was without legal effect.

It is true that in cases presenting the question whether a grant according to a recorded plat of premises abutting on a street conveyed only the land described in the plat by metes and bounds, or also the fee to the middle of the street subject to easement of public use, the opinions of the courts have often contained utterances to the effect that the fee title to the middle of the street was a necessary or integral part of the lot indicated by the plat; that interest was part and parcel of the lot conveyed; that the center line of the street is a boundary line of abutting lots; that the grantor is estopped from denying a conveyance of the fee subject to the easement, and the like. Such general statements must, of course, be limited to the particular facts involved, and are not at all inconsistent with the application of another rule to a substantially different state of facts. Where the street had been vacated before the granting, are the facts substantially different? The rule in such a case can be determined only by a consideration of relevant principles.

The fundamental doctrine is that the law jealously protects the freedom of contract because of the constitutional right and of an obvious public policy. Accordingly the owner can sell a lot adjoining a street, and part with or reserve the interest in the street, subject to the easement, as he sees fit. What he has done in a particular case depends necessarily upon the intention of the parties. Defendants' brief furnishes the true rule: "The idea of an intention in the grantor to withhold his interest in the road to the middle of it, after parting with all his right and title to the adjoining land, is never presumed. * * * It would require an express declaration to sustain such an inference." 3 Kent, Com. 349 (later editions, 433). Every case which sustains the rule and which involves a street, and not a vacated street, to which our attention has been directed or which we have been able to discover after diligent and extensive search, is in accord in basing the rule on the intention of the parties.

When a deed contains an express reservation, or the circumstances justify the inference of intention not to convey a fee to any part of the street, the vendor remains its owner. If, for example, the owner should transfer the fee to the street subject to the easement to one person, and afterwards transfer the adjoining lots to other persons, the implication would be that he did not intend to grant to the latter any interest in the land which had been a street.

Where there is neither a deed containing such an express reservation nor circumstances justifying the inference of intention to reserve, the courts are called upon to determine the legal effect of the conveyance. It is clear that they have imputed intention to transfer the land described by metes and bounds and also the fee to the middle of the street subject to the public easement. There is good reason for this presumption. The rule which construes the deed most strongly against the grantor applies. 2 Dembitz, Land Titles, p. 1441, § 1028. The parties contract with reference to and with at least constructive knowledge of the plat including the street. Such intention is the natural, and in the overwhelming majority of cases the actual, one.

The rule is compelled by incontrovertible public policy. The owner of the land platted usually becomes entirely disassociated with the title to the land sold and has neither a proximate interest in nor a practical use for the qualified fee in the street. The interest of the vendee therein is immediate. It has direct and substantial value to him. Indeed, as Cole, J., said in Kimball v. City, 4 Wis. 321, 331, the lots would be "comparatively useless" without the implication of conveyance to the middle of the street. He is logically entitled to improve the property as he chooses. It conduces to the best use of the premises to allow him to do so in reliance on access to the street on the ground itself and for light and air above. So long as the land is used as a street these rights would be protected, irrespective of who owned the fee. But upon vacation of the street these rights would be legally destroyed unless the vendee had the fee. It is much more reasonable to vest that fee in him than in the usually remote party who originally platted the land. To allow the vendor to retain the fee would be a serious embarrassment to alienation and improvement of property which it consists with public policy to favor. On the other hand, the state itself is concerned, e. g., as to who should determine and pay for improvements to the street made under the power of taxation to be paid for in some form of local assessment. The owners of the lots adjoining the street are the natural ones to determine whether improvements should be made and what their character should be. They are the ones who logically would be, and who are, required to discharge the assessment levied for the improvement determined upon. Upon vacation of the street, they are naturally entitled to the street in its improved condition. Other practical considerations justify the reasonableness of the rule.

Where, however, the street has been vacated while the original proprietor owns the lots in question, the situation is substantially different. On vacation of a street in a case like the one at bar, he owns lots 23 and 24 and the space between in fee simple. He can transfer the whole tract, or any part of it, or transfer lot 23 to any person, and lot 24 to another person, and the space between the two to a third person. It is immaterial in what order of time such transfers were made. If the strip was granted before the lots, the intention would be certain; if afterwards, equally clear. What had been a street would be mere land. It would be taxable as land and so descend. Its transfer would be subject to the appropriate section of the statute of frauds. That it was not numbered nor properly named on the plat would be wholly insignificant. The case would be the same as if no street had ever existed, and, instead of being designated as "street," the tract had been marked "sand hole," or "mound," or any other name, or had...

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