City of Rome v. First National Bank

3 S.E.2d 653, 188 Ga. 279, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 506
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 16, 1939
DocketNo. 12720
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 3 S.E.2d 653 (City of Rome v. First National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Rome v. First National Bank, 3 S.E.2d 653, 188 Ga. 279, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 506 (Ga. 1939).

Opinion

Bell, Justice.

E. G-. Peters and May Realty Company filed a suit for injunction and other equitable relief against the City of Rome, Miss Alida Printup, Mrs. Ava Printup Harris, and Leon Covington. The object of the suit was to prevent the closing of an alley adjacent to buildings owned by the plaintiffs respectively in the City of Rome. Pending the litigation E. G. Peters died, and the First National Bank of Rome, his executor, was made a party in his stead. Miss Printup and Mrs. Harris filed a general and special demurrer to the petition, and thereafter the City of Rome and Leon Covington filed demurrers, joining in the demurrer filed by the other defendants. Later all of the defendants to-, gether filed a special demurrer. The plaintiffs offered an amendment, which the court allowed. No objection appears to have been [281]*281made to the allowance of this'amendment, but afterwards the defendants demurred to it, and to the petition as amended, and renewed all grounds of their previous demurrers. The court overruled the demurrers, and the defendants excepted.

If the strip of land in controversy was in fact a public alley at the time this suit was filed, any person whose property rights would be specially injured by an unauthorized abandonment or obstruction of it would be entitled to maintain an action to prevent such injury. The present petition showed sufficient facts to entitle the plaintiffs to sue for the protection of their private interests, provided other facts essential to a cause of action were stated. Coker v. Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railway Co., 123 Ga. 483 (3) (51 S. E. 481); Central of Georgia Railway Co. v. Bibb Brick Co., 145 Ga. 149 (88 S. E. 616). There is no merit, therefore, in the grounds of demurrer to the effect that there is no sufficient allegation that the plaintiffs or either of them ever had title to the land involved.

In paragraph 6(b) of the original demurrer the defendants demurred to paragraph 1 of the original petition. The. grounds were in effect that this paragraph makes no charge, and does not plainly, fully, and distinctly set forth the plaintiffs’ claim, but is a mere attempt to plead evidence, without disclosing to the defendants the plaintiffs’ purpose. These grounds should have been sustained. The deed from John H. Lumpkin and Daniel S. Print-up, as referred to in that paragraph of the petition, did not describe any property which can be identified from this or any other part of the petition as being either the strip of land in controversy or as being the land of E. G-. Peters adjacent thereto. Nor did this deed show that the heirs of Printup have no title or interest in the area in controversy. The deed may actually have some relevancy to the case, but this fact does not appear, since the description contained therein is not shown to apply to the present subject-matter. Furthermore, as charged in the demurrer, it appears that the plaintiffs have pleaded this deed as evidence, and yet it is not disclosed with sufficient certainty for what purpose this deed was brought into the ease.

The allegations of paragraph 9 were -demurred to on similar grounds. (See original demurrer, grounds 1(c-l), (c-2)). For the reasons just stated, these grounds of demurrer were well taken. [282]*282The same is true of grounds 8(c-l), (c-2), assailing the allegations of paragraph 10, and of grounds 9(c-l), (c-2), referring to paragraph 11.

Paragraph 10 of the demurrer was aimed at the 14th paragraph of the petition, alleging that the city attorney of Rome had written to the plaintiff Peters a letter to the effect that the city had taken a stated position, adverse to the defendants, regarding "this alley” and the rights of "the Printup estate.” The grounds of demurrer were that the petition did not show any authority in the attorney to bind the City of Rome or any one else by such letter, and that this paragraph is only an attempt to plead inadmissible evidence. The demurrer to this paragraph was well taken, and should have been sustained.

Paragraph 12 of the petition was as follows: • “Ever since said time, the said alley has been open, has been used continuously by the public, has not been assessed for any taxes by the City of Rome, has not been assessed for any street improvement by the City of Rome, but has always been recognized by the City of Rome as a public alley, and has been maintained as such.” The phrase, “ever since said time,” evidently refers to the year 1879, as mentioned in the next preceding paragraph; but what do the words, “the said alley,” mean? Do they refer to the strip of land described in the resolution mentioned in paragraph 3, or to the "alley” mentioned in the deeds which are referred to in paragraphs 9 and 10 ? If to the latter, the phrase is too indefinite as a description of the subject-matter of the litigation, because the property described in the deeds may or may not embrace this subject-matter, there being, as stated above, nothing to apply the descriptions thereto. But even assuming that paragraph 12 was intended to refer to the strip of land described in the resolution, that is, to the strip which we take to be the land in controversy, the allegations in paragraph 12 regarding “the said alley” were yet subject to special demurrer on at least some of the grounds of demurrer urged. The allegations of this paragraph were demurred to on the grounds, among others, that they did not show how or in what manner the property involved became a public alley, whether by dedication or otherwise, how or in what manner the City of Rome always recognized the same as a public alley, or in what manner the City of Rome has maintained the same as such. (Joint [283]*283demurrer filed by all of the defendants on March 26, 1938, ground 1 (a), (b), (c)). Considered as a whole, the petition does not even show who was the owner from whom “the said alley” was derived, nor how it became a public alley. If by dedication, who dedicated it? Was the dedication express or implied? If it was condemned, who was the condemnee? Since the law provides several methods by which property may be changed from a private to a public use, the defendants were entitled to information upon these points, as called for by the demurrer, for the purpose of preparing their defense, if any. Code, §§ 36-301 et seq., 81-101; Southern Railway Co. v. Combs, 124 Ga. 1004 (2), 1010 (53 S. E. 508); L. & N. Railroad Co. v. Hames, 135 Ga. 67 (68 S. E. 805). It might be true in a given instance that a street ox alley or other public thoroughfare has been in use for such a great length of time that neither public record nor the memory of man could disclose how or in what manner it came into such use. We do not mean to say that in such case the law would require a pleader to give more information than he could reasonably obtain. In the instant case, however, the plaintiffs do not allege any reason for their failure to plead the facts necessary to establish their contention. The defendants were also entitled to know how or in what mannér the plaintiffs contended the City of Eome recognized this property as a public alley, and in what way the city had maintained the same as such. That is to say, what were the acts of the city in regard to these matters. Payne v. Allen, 155 Ga. 54 (116 S. E. 640); Tietjen v. Meldrim, 169 Ga. 678, 694 (151 S. E. 349).

As indicated above, the amendment to the petition was allowed without objection.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hudspeth v. County of Early
80 S.E.2d 185 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1954)
City of Statesboro v. Dorman
45 S.E.2d 403 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 S.E.2d 653, 188 Ga. 279, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-rome-v-first-national-bank-ga-1939.