Wheeless v. Burns

123 So. 25, 219 Ala. 621, 1929 Ala. LEXIS 315
Supreme Court of Alabama·Decided May 23, 1929·No. 8 Div. 55.·Published

Opinion

SAYRE, J.

Appellant and appellee own properties fronting on Alabama avenue in the city of Sheffield. Their properties are separated by a 16-foot alley running east and! west. Appellee was building a garage on his property when appellant filed her bill praying for a mandatory injunction to prevent the erection, averring that the building contemplated and then in process of erection encroached upon Alabama avenue by several feet. At the hearing on pleading and evidence appellant’s bill was dismissed. On this appeal appellee does not deny that the bill states a proper case of equitable interference (Bank v. Tyson, 133 Ala. 459, 32 So. 144, 59 L. R. A. 399, 91 Am. St. Rep. 46); but he denies the facts alleged, and the’contention between the parties turns exclusively upon a correct solution of the issue made liy the competent evidence.

Appellant’s bill describes appellee’s 'property as bounded on the south by an alley, on the west by an alley, and on the northeast— the lot is triangular in shape — by Alabama avenue, and as to the facts thus far stated there is no dispute. But appellee denies that his building encroaches upon the avenue. It is averred, and not denied, that appellee’s lot is described in his chain of title and the muniment under which he holds by reference to the Treveres map of the city of Sheffield on record"in the office of the judge of probate; but that map, a tracing of which appears in the record, shows no dimensions and is drawn to such a scale — 300 feet to one inch — that no accurate description of any lot shown by it can be predicated upon it alone. The dimensions of appellee’s lot are alleged in the bill, but the alleged dimensions are denied in the answer, nor are they to be proved, so far as the record shows, except by reference to maps, of which a number show the lot and its surroundings, and by the testimony of civil engineers w'ho speak as to the authority of the maps and in explanation of their lines. Moreover, a close examination of the Treveres map discloses such irregularities and discrepancies as between lots of the same dimension — as the other evidence shows — as to make it a most uncertain guide to the exact dimensions of lots, though their relative positions are shown well enough. The foregoing facts corroborate the inference to be drawn from some of the testimony — and, for that matter, not denied — that the true Treveres map was and is the original map of the city of Sheffield drawn to a much larger scale for the Sheffield Company and now in the keeping of that company. That map was not produced in evidence. Precisely what it shows we do not know. The Treveres map of record in the office of the judge of probate is not an exact copy, evidently, but is a reproduction on a much smaller scale.

The testimony of the witnesses and the other maps in evidence — not the probate court Treveres map — make some facts very clear, viz.: That appellee’s lot is bounded south and west by 16-foot alleys ; that its northeastern boundary is coterminous with the southwestern property line of Alabama avenue; that it lies within the so-called business district of Sheffield; that the lots in that part of the city measure 25 by 120 feet; that Alabama avenue, branching out from Montgomery avenue (a north and south highway) at a point south or southeast of appellee’s lot, curves to the northwest; that Alabama avenue is shown by the maps to be 100 feet wide;, and that appellee’s lot is opposite to a -large triangular open space created by the conjunction of Alabama avenue, Raleigh avenue running north and south, and Sixth street running east and west. This curvature of the avenue and the open space created by the conjunction of the two avenues and the street account, no doubt, for the confusion and uncertainty as to the exact location of the northeast line of appellee’s lot. Appellee claims, and was at the filing of the bill improving his lot on the theory, that it had a boundary, at its southeastern extremity, of about S feet on Raleigh avenue. The Treveres map of the probate office shows there a point instead of the claimed frontage of 8 feet on Raleigh avenue; but when the facts already stated are considered in connection with the fact that a line of that map, if laid upon the ground without its scale reduction, would cover more than 2 feet — a fact which the act of the Legislature referring to the Treveres map recorded in the probate office for a description of the corporate limits of the city of Sheffield (Acts 1892-93, p. 144) cannot change — little significance can be attached to the fact that the map referred to shows a meeting of the southern and northeastern boundary lines of appellee’s lot in what appears to be a point rather than the frontage claimed on Raleigh avenue.

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Wheeless v. Burns, 123 So. 25, 219 Ala. 621, 1929 Ala. LEXIS 315 (Ala. 1929).

123 So. 25 (Wheeless v. Burns) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

First National Bank v. Tyson
133 Ala. 459 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1901)