Case ID: ohio-cc-dec_35/html/0709-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HOUCK, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

RECORDS
    [Knox (5th) Court of Appeals,
    March 25, 1922.]
    Shields, Patterson and Houck, JJ.
    D. Clarence Parrott v. C. L. Daugherty et al.
    Record's of Plat and Contract as to Width of Street Notice to Abutters Encroaching.
    A recorded plat will be presumed to be correct, and where with the plat there is placed on record a contract with the original owner of the land wherein it is stipulated that a street shall be built in a certain location and of a specified width, purchasers of lots along the line of such proposed street are put on notice as to the stipulation with reference to the street and its width and may not encroach thereon.
    Appeal.
    
      C. L. Bermont, for plaintiff.
    
      B. E. Sapp and B. L. Carr, for defendant.
   HOUCK, J.

The petition in substance avers that on February 23, 1906, plaintiff, as guardian of Edna M. Parrott, Lida A. Parrott and Clarence Parrott, entered into a contract in writing with the Tri-State Land Co., whereby he sold to said land company certain real estate located in Clinton township, Knox county, Ohio; that he is one of the owners and in control of twenty-five acres of land lying immediately south of the tract sold to the Tri-State Land Co., and had the management and control of same at the time the contract herein referred to was entered into with said land company.

Plaintiff further says that by the terms of said agreement the Tri-State Land Co. was to open up a public road forty feet wide across the premises herein bargained for, and leading to the premises lying south thereof, of which this plaintiff has the management and control. Plaintiff says that the land herein mentioned, purchased by said land company, was laid out into lots and factory sites, and known as Vernonview, and on or about April 23, 1906, a plat thereof was filed with the recorder of ICnox county, which plat shows the lots, streets and alleys, and that lots were afterwards sold according to the plat herein mentioned; that one of the streets that was opened and dedicated to the public, as shown on said plat, was Union street, which was opened on the line as provided for in the contract of purchase, and the same was opened up^ forty feet in width, as shown on said plat.

Plaintiff says that his most convenient ■ mode of access to the twenty-five acre tract on the south is over Union street from Melick street, and plaintiff says that the defendants have recently purchased lots No. 10, 11, 12 and 13, in Block D, in Vernonview, and also the east one-half of the north one-half of Factory Site No. 3, as the same are designated on said plat. Plaintiff says that the defendants are encroaching upon said Union street, and obstructing and plowing it up, and will continue to do so unless restrained by order of the court; that the plowing of said Union street by the defendants interferes with and prevents his ingress and egress to his land lying on the south of said defendants, and if not prevented from plowing up said street it will result in great and irreparable injury and damage to this plaintiff, for which he has no remedy at law. Wherefore plaintiff prays that the said defendants may be enjoined from obstructing said Union street, or in any way interfering with plaintiff’s travel thereover, and for such other relief as equity may require.

The defendants filed an amended answer to this petition, and in substance aver that said land company failed to dedicate said plat and lots, as required by law, and that the same has never been accepted by the county commissioners; that plaintiff has no right in or over the property described in said petition, and prays that the petition of the plaintiff may be dismissed.

Upon the issue raised by these pleadings the cause was submitted to this court.

The evidence clearly shows that the lots in question were platted by the Tri-State Land Co.; that said lots, with others located in said Vernonview Addition, and the land of what is now known as Vernonview Addition, were purchased of this plaintiff and others, as set forth in his petition; that a written contract was entered into between plaintiff and his associates and the Tri-State Land Co., and it was agreed therein that the street in question should be forty feet wide, in order that plaintiff and his associates might have ingress and egress to the real estate lying south of said Vernonview Addition and now owned by this plaintiff and his associates.

This written contract between plaintiff and his associates and the Tri-State Land Co. was duly filed and recorded November 2, 1906, as appears in Plats Record Vol. 12, page 579, of the Record of Leases in and for Knox county, that some time thereafter said plat of Vernonview was duly recorded on the plat records of the recorder’s office of Knox county, Ohio.

The evidence further shows that the lots owned by defendants were conveyed to them by warranty deed of Frank M. Cochran and wife, bearing date of April 12, 1919, and that said deed is recorded in Deed Book No. 138, page 382, of the deed records of Knox county, Ohio. The description in said deed is as follows:

“The following described real estate, situated in the township of Clinton, county of Knox and state of Ohio, and more particularly described as being lots located in Block D, in the Vernonview subdivision of Clinton township, and being lots No. 13, 12, 11 and 10, except a strip 10x14 feet in width off of the west side of said lot No. 10, and also the east half of the north half of Factory Site No. 3, as the same is designated on plat record in Plat Record of Knox county, Ohio, Vol. 2, at pages 162 and 163.”

It will be observed that the description of the lots in the deed just referred to refers to said plat record of Vernonview Addition and an examination of the plat of Vernonview Addition clearly' shows that said Union street is platted forty feet wide. It therefore follows that in view of the contract entered into between the plaintiff and his associates and the Tri-State Land Company, and which was duly recorded and is of record, and the further plat of Vernonview Addition and its record, and the further fact of the description contained in the deed of the defendants hereinbefore referred to, and its reference to said plat, that said defendants have, in fact and law, only such lights in and to said lots owned by them as would not interfere with plaintiff and the public’s right in and to the free use of Union street as it is laid out, to-wit, forty feet wide.

As a matter of law the defendants were put on notice by said written contract and said plat of Vernonview as to the width of said Union street, and therefore in the purchase of their lots they took title thereto subject to the use of plaintiff and the public in and to Union street as it is platted, to-wit, forty feet wide.

We hold the rule to be that where there is a recorded plat it is presumed in law to be correct, and thereby not only the correctness of the plat, but the width of streets and alleys, as shown thereon, are correct, and that purchasers of lots designated on such plat are bound to take notice of and respect the width of streets and alleys shown in such plat, and be governed thereby.

It follows from what we have already said that it is our judgment that the plaintiff is entitled to the relief prayed for in his petition.

Judgment for plaintiff, as prayed for, and injunction made . perpetual.

Shields and Patterson, JJ., concur.