Murphy v. Rush

1958 OK 103, 324 P.2d 870, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 384
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 23, 1958
DocketNo. 37723
StatusPublished

This text of 1958 OK 103 (Murphy v. Rush) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murphy v. Rush, 1958 OK 103, 324 P.2d 870, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 384 (Okla. 1958).

Opinion

CARLILE, Justice.

This is a proceeding instituted by M. L. Murphy to vacate Block Two and an un-platted tract of land abutting the block on [871]*871the west, also that portion of Water Street abutting Block Two on the east, all within and a part of Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition to the City of Sapulpa. A plat and dedication of the addition was filed of record in 1951, which plat shows the addition to consist of Blocks One and Two and some unplatted acreage. Statutory notice was given of the application and date of hearing. Title 11 O.S.1951 Sections 523-524. Prior to the date of hearing the Beams of Light Church, by its Trustees, Richard Cox and other individuals, filed written objections to the vacation of .the east half of Block Two and apparently that portion of Water Street which abuts on said block. The evidence introduced related principally to the vacation of the street and not the block. It was alleged by the objectors that they owned certain lots in Laura Lee Addition, which was located east of Block Two in Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition and separated from said block by Water Street, which street is the east boundary of Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition. It was further alleged that the Beams of Light Church dedicated Laura Lee Addition in July, 1956, and that the lot owners in said addition contemplated building their homes there in the near future; that the plat of Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition dedicated Water Street, which street afforded the lot owners ingress and egress to their properties, and in the event the street should be vacated there would be no street from which the lot owners in the Laura Lee Addition could get off their property, and prayed that vacation be denied.

After a hearing on the application and the objections thereto, the trial court denied the application to vacate any part of the Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition, and also denied applicant’s motion for a new trial, and he has appealed.

Plats of the two additions were introduced in evidence, and it was stipulated that both additions were outside the city limits of Sapulpa; that the parties were owners of the lots and lands as alleged. The applicant Murphy testified in part that he had sold no lots in Block Two of said addition, nor any part of the unplatted acreage; that there was a fence between Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition and Laura Lee Addition; that the fence was there when he bought the place in 1931; that no change had been made by him in the surface of South Water Street, nor the acreage, since it was dedicated; that there had been no travel or passageway on South Water Street prior to the time the church opened up the street on an injunction granted September 20, 1956. On cross-examination he said there was a fence running north from the highway along Water Street; that the fence was removed when the county graded the street. At the conclusion of his direct evidence the applicant moved the court to strike the written objections to the application for the reason that the objectors were not legally qualified to protest, and objected to introduction of any evidence by them on the ground that there was no basis for their protest in that it showed the objectors’ property was not in Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition. The motion to strike was overruled with exceptions. The objectors esablished their ownership of lots in Laura Lee Addition and testified that they intended to establish homes there, and that when they purchased their lots they relied on the dedication of the plat of Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition, which showed the dedication of Water Street, the boundary line between the two additions. Mr. W, Pastor of the church, testified that the north half of Water Street, which abuts on and along Block One in Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition, had been used for a roadway for over a year, but that there was a fence across the south end of the street which prevented an opening; that it was a dead end street where it joined Highway 75 until the fence was removed. He also testified that there was a limited amount of travel on the south part of Water Street, that it was a dead end street until it was opened.

The plaintiff in error was applicant in the district court, and as grounds for a reversal of the judgment against him charges that the court erred in overruling [872]*872his motion to strike the objections to the vacation and erred in overruling his objections to the introduction of any evidence by the objectors, and erred in denying the application to vacate the described property. Applicant asserts that the objectors were without right to protest the vacation because their objections were based on the claim of a future need of a passageway from their land in Laura Lee Addition over South Water Street and the land of the applicant; that objectors are strangers to the title of the land in Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition and are forbidden to impress an easement on the land as a passage over the same. Applicant cites Thomas v. Morgan, 113 Okl. 212, 240 P. 735, 737, 43 A.L.R. 934, as supporting his theory and contention. An examination of the opinion in that case discloses that the plaintiff was a land owner and claimed a way of necessity for travel across defendant’s land and alleged that plaintiff had a prescriptive right or easement across the land. Plaintiff’s claim was denied and the court there held in part as follows:

“A way of necessity is based upon the presumption of a grant, and will never exist if the two tracts of land are not shown at some time in the past to have belonged to one and the same person.”

There is a material difference in the facts of that case and those in the present proceeding and we consider the holding not applicable or controlling in the present action. It is not essential to the rights of the objectors in the present action that the title and ownership of the land in the two additions should have been at one time vested in the same person. The applicant in the present proceeding dedicated Water Street as a part of Murphy’s Heights 2nd Addition and now seeks to vacate the south portion of the street, which abuts on the east side of Block Two and is a dividing line between the two additions. Objectors own the lots or land which abut on the east side of that portion of Water Street sought to be vacated. As such owners they have a special interest in the street as a means of ingress and egress to and from their lots and have a right to object to the vacation of the street.

“Where the owners of an addition to the city filed a plat or map designating blocks and lots, and the dedication of a described tract as a public street, such plat or map is deemed in law and equity a sufficient conveyence to vest the fee-simple title to the tract described, and under Tit. 11 O.S.1951 § 515, such public thoroughfare must be held in the corporate name in trust for the use and purposes intended.” Folsom v. Newman, Okl., 283 P.2d 507.
“The owner of land abutting upon a public highway, which is obstructed so as to cut off or materially interrupt his means of ingress and egress to and from his property, suffers a special injury, which entitles him to maintain an action to enjoin such public nuisance, although another highway upon which his property abuts affords him another and equally good or better way of ingress and egress.” Siegenthaler v. Newton, 174 Okl. 216, 50 P.2d 192, 193.

The opinion in Ruminer v. Quanilty, 198 Okl. 395, 179 P.2d 164, 165, which was an action to enjoin the defendants from maintaining obstructions in a dedicated driveway, cites with approval the above quoted holding in Siegenthaler v. Newton, and further holds:

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Related

In Re Application of Parker
1950 OK 270 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)
Folsom v. Newman
1954 OK 360 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
Thomas v. Morgan
1925 OK 494 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1925)
Town of Chouteau v. Blankenship
1944 OK 275 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1944)
Siegenthaler v. Newton
1935 OK 998 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)
City of Frederick v. Mounts
1932 OK 598 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)
Ruminer v. Quanilty
1947 OK 105 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1947)

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Bluebook (online)
1958 OK 103, 324 P.2d 870, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murphy-v-rush-okla-1958.