Williams v. City of Hayti

• Citation: 184 S.W. 470
• Decision Date: 29 February 1916
• Docket Number: No. 17705.,17705.
• Parties: WILLIAMS et al. v. CITY OF HAYTI.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

184 S.W. 470

WILLIAMS et al. v. CITY OF HAYTI.

No. 17705.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

February 29, 1916.

Rehearing Denied March 30, 1916.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Pemiscot County; W. S. C. Walker, Judge.

Action by Ivey Williams and others against the City of Hayti, a municipal corporation, and others. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendant city appeals. Affirmed.

Von Mayes, of Hayti, and Brewer & Riley, of New Madrid, for appellant. Sam J. Corbett and C. G. Shepard, both of Caruthers-ville, for respondents.

GRAVES, P. J.

This case started as a legal action in ejectment, but ended on the equity side of the court per force of the nature of the answer. The petition is an ordinary petition in ejectment, in which the plaintiff seeks to recover the possession of block 29 in the town of Gayoso City, now Hayti, in Pemiscot county.

Of the named defendants the city of Hayti alone answers, thus: (1) By admitting its incorporation, but entering a general denial as to all other matters stated in the petition; (2) a common-law dedication by the former owner "to the public for a public square in the city of Hayti (formerly known as Gayoso City), this defendant, and general public purposes, or courthouse purposes should the county seat be located at said city and said land selected for a courthouse site"; (3) the ten-year statute of limitations; and (4) estoppel in pais. The reply is quite lengthy, but places in issue all new matter in the answer, and, in addition, contains a plea of res adjudicata as to the new matters pleaded in the answer. Judgment was entered for the plaintiffs, and from such judgment, the city of Hayti has appealed.

This block in the city of Hayti has been the subject of much litigation. In 1895 C. M. Hayes, his wife, Caroline Hayes, and his daughters, Mollie (Mary P.) Gwin and Nancy Williams, were the owners of a tract of farm land surrounding and including the present site of the town of Hayti. The county seat of Pemiscot county was then at Gayoso, a town several miles to the east. Louis Houck and J. E. Franklin were promoting a railroad from Kennet to Caruthersville, Mo. These promotors agreed with Hayes, his wife and daughters, that they would run this road through their land if they would lay out a town on said land and deed every alternate lot to Houck and Franklin. The new town was platted as Gayoso City, and the alternate lots conveyed. The material portion of this plat is shown in the record, and we reproduce it here for the information it contains:

Portion of Plat of Gayoso City Showing Public Square and Property Adjacent Thereto:

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The foregoing plat shows the use for which this block 29 was dedicated in legal and statutory form. At the foot of the plat is the following:

"We, the undersigned, hereby declare the above to be a true and correct plat of Gayoso City, and forever dedicate to the public the streets therein named. We also dedicate and give to Pemiscot county for courthouse purposes block 29, and for jail and calaboose purposes lot 5, block 43. We also dedicate for public school purposes block 34. Witness our hands and seals January 22, 1895.

                            "[Signed] Granville M. Hayes
                                      "Caroline Hayes
                                      "S. P. Williams
                                      "Mrs. Nancy Williams
                                      "F. M. Gwin
                                      "Marry P. Gwin."
                

Following this is the acknowledgment. In 1898 Caruthersville was selected as the permanent seat of government in Pemiscot county. Hopes had been entertained that Gayoso City might be selected, and this, no doubt, was in view when this statutory dedication was made. The new town was only three miles from the old county seat. In 1901 the county court of the county appointed Hon. C. B. Faris, now a member of this court, as a commissioner to deed the county's interest in this lot to the grantees in such plat or their heirs. This was done. In 1904 there seems to have been a condemnation suit by which it sought to condemn this lot for public purposes. This suit was against the grantors and heirs of the deceased grantors in the plat, named as owners. Judgment of condemnation is alleged to have been entered, but the money was never paid to the owners. In 1905 Mollie P. Gwin brought suit to quiet title to this block 29. The parties were Mollie P. Gwin, the heirs of G. M. Hayes, Caroline Hayes, and Nancy Williams, and the city of Hayti. This suit in the circuit court of Pemiscot county terminated in a decree by said court quieting the title to said block in Mollie P. Gwin and the heirs of G. M. Hayes, Caroline Hayes, and Nancy Williams, and further decreeing that the city of Hayti had no interest therein. This judgment was not appealed from, and stands in full force and effect. Following this decree vesting the title a partition suit was filed, the purpose of which was to partition the property between the heirs of the grantors in the plat, who had been vested with the title. This suit went to judgment. Plaintiffs here are the purchasers at a partition sale under this judgment. While this partition was pending a suit entitled J. W. Gaskins et al. v. Ivey Williams et al. was filed in the circuit court. The plaintiffs in that case were owners of property around this block 29 in Hayti, and the defendants were the heirs of the grantors in the plat. The substance of this action can be gathered from the following excerpt therefrom:

"Plaintiffs further state that the original owners of the land on which the town of Gayoso City (now Hayti), Mo., is situated, laid off and recorded a plat thereof, and particularly set forth, marked, and designated thereon block No. 29 as a public square for the courthouse purposes; that the fee to said block No. 29, by virtue of said plat, was vested in the county of Pemiscot, state of Missouri, in trust for the free use of all the inhabitants of said county and town of Gayoso City, now Hayti, as a common or public ground, and for no other purpose whatever; that the same has been and still is used by the public for public purposes, and for no other purposes; that said lots all around on the face of the square were sold with the general understanding by the inhabitants of the county and the inhabitants of the town of Gayoso City, now Hayti, and upon the representation that block No. 29 was reserved, and was to be used for courthouse or public square purposes; that plaintiffs have property with valuable improvements erected thereon fronting said square or block No. 29, which they purchased and improved upon the faith and with the understanding that the square was public property, and ever would remain such; that the defendants are about to use said public square for other purposes than that of public use, thereby diverting the use of said property from the original intention of and the purposes specified by the donors in the act of dedication; the said defendants succeeded in having the county court of Pemiscot county on April 1, 1901, make an order purporting to release and relinquish unto said defendants all of said county's right, title, and interest in and to said block No. 29, making C. B. Faris its commissioner to execute the deed; that said Faris by an instrument of writing dated April 13, 1903, undertook to convey unto said defendants the county's right in and to said property, all of which was done without right or authority of law by said county court, and to the prejudice of these plaintiffs; that thereafter, and at the February term of the Pemiscot county circuit court, 1905, said defendants by their attorneys filed a petition in said court, claiming in said petition that they were the owners in fee simple and claimed title to block No. 29 in the city of Hayti, Mo.; that said defendants further filed in said circuit court at its ____ term, 1905, a suit in partition asking the court to appoint commissioners to divide block No. 29 in kind; the said commissioners were appointed by the court, viewed said property, and reported to the court that said block No. 29 was not divisible in kind; whereupon said defendants prayed the court for an order of sale to sell said property at public outcry; that the court ordered said block No. 29 sold as prayed; all of which is of record, and is recorded in the record books in Pemiscot county, Mo.; that the plaintiffs herein have never been made a party to any of the above-mentioned suits, and that their interest in and to said block No. 29 in said city of Hayti has never been determined by any court; that said block No. 29 is about to be sold in the way and manner as above set out, and to be used for other purposes than that for which it was dedicated, contrary to the intentions of the original donors; and that same will be a serious obstruction to the beneficial use and enjoyment of these plaintiffs' property and to the great damage of these plaintiffs."

The prayer asked the court to decree that the Faris deed, supra, be held for naught, that the interests of the parties be determined, and that the defendants be held to have no interest in said block.

In this case an amended petition was filed upon which it went to trial. The substantive part of that petition reads:

"Plaintiffs further state that on the ____ day of ____, 1895, G. M. Hayes and his wife, Caroline, J. P. Williams, Nancy Williams, F. M. Gwin, and Mary P. Gwin, being the owners of the lands hereinafter described, caused to be surveyed and laid off the town of Gayoso City, now Hayti, in Pemiscot county, Mo.; that they had a plat thereof made in which they particularly set forth marked and designated thereon streets, alleys, and a block known as block No. 29; that said plat was duly signed and acknowledged by the said G. M. Hayes and Caroline Hayes and others, and the same was duly filed on record in the office of the recorder of deeds for the county of Pemiscot, Mo., in Book ____, page ____;...