Sliman v. Mayor of Village of Palmetto

145 So. 410
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 24, 1933
DocketNo. 1096.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 145 So. 410 (Sliman v. Mayor of Village of Palmetto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sliman v. Mayor of Village of Palmetto, 145 So. 410 (La. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

MOUTON, J.

Plaintiff sued out an injunction against the defendant village claiming that it was attempting to gravel a strip of land as a public street, called School street, which belonged to him as part of a tract of land purchased by him from Martin S. Hatfield.

The preliminary injunction granted to plaintiff was dissolved with attorney’s fees. On appeal to this court, the judgment was reversed, and the case was remanded for trial on the merits. 142 So. 846.

Judgment was rendered pn the merits dismissing the- suit, from which plaintiff prosecutes the present appeal.

In October, 1901, James E. Hatfield and his brother, Martin S. Hatfield, bought from Preval Redeau 57 acres of land situated at Palmetto, parish of St. Landry. James E. Hatfield died in 1903, and his estate, including his interest in that tract of land, was inherited by Martin S. Hatfield and his sister, Miss Mary Hatfield, his sole heirs. In January, 1904, Martin S. Hatfield' and Miss Mary Hatfield, by authentic act passed before G. W. Hawkins, notary public, made a partition of the land so inherited from their deceased brother, Jámes E. Hatfield.

In the act of partition it is stated that Martin S. Hatfield accepts as his portion of the estate a certain number of lots as per plat annexed to the partition; and a similar declaration is made for Miss Mary Hatfield for the lots taken as her portion, as per plat annexed to the partition.

Mrs. Chas. Dupre, deputy clerk of Henry Lastrappes, clerk of court of St. Landry parish, testifies that the plat or map of this “Hatfield partition deed” had, on a former trial, been missing from the clerk’s office; that it was brought back to the office, and to *411 preserve the map she took it out of the act and pasted it in the map book.

Roy Edwards, an abstracter of St. Landry for many years, says that he was familiar with the act of partition effected in 1904 between Martin and Mary Hatfield, and knew of the map which had been attached to the act; that, in connection with an abstract of, title, he had made a copy of that map. He says that the map filed in the map book is the “very same map” which he found attached to the act of partition. He said, further, that he had brought the map back to the clerk’s office so that it might be filed in the map book for future preservation.

• Martin Hatfield, who with Mary Hatfield had made the partition, testifies that he assisted Hawkins in making the survey of the lots and saw when Hawkins made the map. He says the map was attached to the partition, and' it was the one in the map book.

The act of .partition declares that the map was annexed thereto, and that it was so attached is confirmed by the testimony of Martin Hatfield, who was present at the survey, and of Mrs. Dupre and Roy Edwards.

In the copy of the map made by Mrs! Dupre, she states that the original map was glued in the map book, which could not be removed; hence the necessity of the copy in lieu thereof.

The district judge, B. H. Pavy, testifies that he is familiar with the handwriting and signature of G. T. Hawkins, now deceased. He testifies that the act of partition and the map are in the handwriting of G. T. Hawkins.

In a marginal note to the map or plat in the copy, verified by Mrs. Dupre, deputy clerk, we find the following; This plat with attached act of partition. G. T. Hawkins, Not. Pub. This notation by Hawkins, the declaration in the act of partition, and the testimony of Martin Hatfield, Mrs. Charles Dupre, and Roy Edwards, make it quite certain that the map was attached to the act of partition. It is established with equal certainty by the testimony of Martin Hatfield that the map in the map book was the one which had been made by Plawkins after the survey; and it is shown that both the act and the map were in the handwriting of Hawkins, as testified to by Judge Pavy.

Counsel for plaintiff contends that the map is spurious. Obviously the trial judge found that it is genuine, and we are unable to find from this record any error in this finding of the court.

Counsel for defendant refers us to the case of City of New Orleans v. Carrollton Land Company, 131 La. 1092, 60 So. 695, 697, where the court said that “no deed or act of conveyance is necessary to dedicate land or rights in immovable property to the public.” Also to other cases where it is held that acceptance of the dedication may be inferred from public use, such as the public wants and necessities demand. A large number of decisions are referred to by the court in those eases in support of that rule which is so well established that no further comment thereon is necessary.

In the City of New Orleans v. Carrollton Land Co. Case, above cited, the court said also that: “There can be no doubt that under our jurisprudence the word ‘street’ written by the owner on a strip of ground running through such plat, where sales are made from it, effectively dedicates said strip to the public as a street.” ”

The word “street” or “streets” is not written on the map in question herein over the vacant spaces or strips, which, however, run east, west, north, and south through the plat. If these spaces had' been designated as streets by the owners on the “strips of ground running through the plat,1” there would have been an effective dedication, as was held in the Carrollton Case.

Counsel for plaintiff refers to the fact that “School Street” is not written on the map, and contends, if we have a correct appreciation of his argument, that there was therefore no dedication of that street. It is shown that Mary Hatfield, who had made a partition with Martin Hatfield of' the land inherited from their deceased brother, James E. Hat-i field, left Winston Stokes as her sole heir. Winston Stokes, being a minor, Thomas Stokes, his natural tutor, made a sale to the plaintiff, 'Alexander Sliman, of a number of the lots Winston had inherited from his mother, Mary Hatfield.

In designating the lots sold to Sliman and in referring thereto, the deed to Sliman declares as follows; “All of the Hatfield Addition of the Village of Palmetto, St. Landry Parish, La., ⅜ * * Said lots being fully shown and designated on a plat of survey of said Hatfield Addition * * ⅞ being annexed to an act of partition had between the said Mary Platfield, deceased, and Martin S. Hatfield on January 21, 1904, and duly recorded.”

In the foregoing declaration by the vendor, there can be no doubt that the map of the Hatfield addition made tiy Hawkins was fully recognized by the vendor. Further in the deed, in referring to a strip of ground 40 feet wide which ran through the addition, the act says: To School street on the south; and then again says: This 40-foot strip is bounded as follows: “North by property of purchaser * * * south by. public street.”

In the case of Flournoy v. Breard, 116 La. 230, 40 So. 684, 686, the court said: “Moreover, it has been repeatedly decided that an owner who sells property bounded by his own land which he refers to as a public street is bound by that declaration. It has been often *412 held that by thus establishing a boundary it is an evidence of his intention to dedicate the street to public use.”

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