Sheets v. . Walsh

2 S.E.2d 861, 215 N.C. 711, 1939 N.C. LEXIS 352

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: May 31, 1939
• Status: Published

Opinion

WinbobNE, J.

A careful reading of the agreed statement of facts discloses the absence of findings of fact essential to a proper determination of the question involved.

Chapter 174, Public Laws 1921, provides, in pertinent part, that every strip, piece, or parcel of land which has been dedicated to public use as a road, highway, street, avenue, or for any other purpose whatsoever, by “deed, grant, map, plat, or other means” and “shall not have been actually opened and used by the public within twenty years after the dedication,”'an abandonment thereof by the public for the purpose for which same shall have been dedicated shall be “conclusively presumed” : “Provided that no abandonment of any such public or private right or easement shall be presumed until the dedicator or those claiming under him shall file and cause to he recorded (italics ours) in the register’s office of the county where the land lies a declaration withdrawing such strip, piece, or parcel of land from the public or private use to which it shall have been dedicated in the manner aforesaid.”

Patently there are no findings of fact with respect to the registration of the declaration, and showing plaintiffs to be claimants of title under the dedicators who filed the plats. Without these, error in the judgment below is manifest. Therefore, further, consideration of the questions involved is now futile.

The case will be remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

Error and remanded.