Title: Mallory v. Taggart

State: utah

Issuer: Utah Supreme Court

Document:

470 P.2d 254 (1970) 24 Utah 2d 267 Raymond MALLORY, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Charles W. TAGGART, Zions First National Bank, et al., Defendants and Respondents. No. 11919. Supreme Court of Utah. May 26, 1970. *255 Dwight L. King, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff and appellant. Louis M. Hansen, Henry D. Moyle, Jr., Salt Lake City, for defendants and respondents. ELLETT, Justice. The plaintiff appeals from a judgment in his favor in the amount of $12,631.25 and contends that it should have been for $24,026.10. The case was tried to the court without a jury and arose out of the following facts: The plaintiff agreed to sell to the defendant Taggart 140 shares of corporate stock, and Taggart agreed to pay therefor the sum of $76,000 based upon the plaintiff's representation that the corporation could give good title to 980 acres of land which it owned. The parties mutually agreed that if good title could be given to more or less than 980 acres, the price of $76,000 was to be multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which would be the actual acres to be conveyed and the denominator would be 980. A part of the land owned by the corporation was subdivided in 1890 and 1891 by its then owner, and plats showing lots, streets, and alleyways were duly filed in the office of the county recorder of Salt Lake County. The contract for sale of the stock provided: "The corporation is the owner in fee, subject only to easements of record, of 980 acres more or less of land, * * *" The principal question presented by this appeal is whether the corporation can give good title to the acreage included in the streets and alleyways as shown by the plats on file. Such streets and alleyways exist only on paper, since nothing has ever been done by way of opening them to the public or laying them out on the ground. The corporation owns all of the land which was platted, and no rights in and to the alleyways and streets exist in any third parties. Chapter 50, Laws of Utah 1890, after providing for the laying out and platting of land by an owner, reads as follows: This statute dedicated to the public only the surface rights to the use of the streets, alleyways, and so forth, as is shown by the case of Sowadzki v. Salt Lake County, 36 Utah 127, 104 P. 111, 117 (1909). That case is squarely in point with the instant matter. There the owner of a five-acre tract of land had it surveyed, platted, and recorded in the office of the Salt Lake County Recorder in July 1890. There, as in the instant case, the land lay outside of any incorporated city. The owner in that matter platted Wabash Avenue but never opened it up for the use of the public and never used it as a road. In 1907 the Salt Lake County Supervisor of Roads undertook to open up Wabash Avenue as shown on the plat. The owner brought the above entitled action to restrain the county from interfering with her property. The identical question was presented and argued to the court in that case which is involved in the matter now before us. There the court at page 142 of the Utah Reports, 104 P. at page 116, said: Section 1116, R.S.U. 1898, was enacted reading as follows: This statute was amended in 1911 by omitting the clause following the semicolon. However, the amendment would not operate to give to the public any rights in streets and alleyways which the statute of 1898 had taken therefrom and restored to the owners of the land. In the Sowadzki case, supra, this court held that Salt Lake County had no right to open Wabash Avenue, and at page 143 of the Utah Reports, 104 P. at page 117 held as follows: Whatever may be the law now regarding ownership of dedicated streets, the law in force and effect when the land in the instant matter was subdivided and platted was to the effect that only a limited fee was granted to the public, and such interest as may have vested in the public by virtue of the plat was lost by nonuser pursuant to Section 1116, R.S.U. 1898. The trial court erred in holding that the corporation could not give good title to the following parcels of land: 55.25 acres in platted streets; 5.29 acres in platted alleyways; 1.39 acres in 2100 South Street; 2.51 acres on Redwood Road; 2.25 acres on 3100 South Street; 1.6 acres of miscellaneous rights of way; or a total of 68.29 acres. Other assignments of error are made, but we find them to be without merit; and except as to the 68.29 acres of land, as above set out, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. The case is reversed with orders to the trial court to recalculate the amount to be paid to the plaintiff in conformity with this decision. Costs are awarded to the plaintiff. CROCKETT, C.J., and TUCKETT, CALLISTER and HENRIOD, JJ., concur.