The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-12-10
AN OPINION IN THE CASE
Regarding the Upper Astoria Survey.

At a meeting of the citizens of upper
Astoria held last Saturday evening,
the committee whom had been ap-
pointed to inquire into the legality of
q recent survey, made report, submit
ting the following opinion regarding
the law in the case:
GRNTLEMEN:-We have considered
the questions asked us by your COM
mittee, touching the validity of the
map lately filed by Mrs. Adair and
others of the donation claim of John
Adair and wife, wherein and whereby
an attempt is made to change the To-
cation OF lots, blocks and streets, in
the port of Upper Astoria, commonly
called Adair's Astoria.
We find that the port of Upper As
toria was plated prior TO the year
1862 by John Adair, on the north half
of the said donation claim, which half
was set off by the q. S. government to
his wife; but on the 10Th day of May,
1862, said John Adair and his said
wife by deed conveyed to 7. p. Pow
ers an undivided one-half of said do
nation claim, and made express refer
ence to the plat of said town.
On the 22nd day of December 1865,
said John Adair and wife and said
Powers all joined in a partition deed
wherein they partitioned all the lots
and blocks in said town and all the
land in said claim between said John
Adair and said Powers, conveying to
Powers all the odd numbered blocks,
this deed was recorded on the same
date, December %, 1865, at page 2, of
book &c" record of deeds for Clatsop
county.
On the 9th day OF January, 1866,
John Adair filed for record the said
plat OF said town. Prior to this date
Adair and wife and Powers had exc
cuted numerous deeds to lots in said
town and made reference therein to
the said plat.
In our judgment there is and we
think there can be no doubt but that
any defect that may have originally
existed In the plating of said town
has been cured by the said proceed
ings, that is, the fact that the north
half of the claim was the property
of Mrs Adair or that she had any in
terest therein, is Of no Importance
when it is considered that she has
joinedin deeds whereby property has
been conveyed with reference to the
plat, and not only that, she conveyed
an undivided one-half interest in the
town TO Powers, and thereby irrevoc-
ably ratified the plat and dedicated
the streets. 1t is immaterial that
Powers and Mrs. Adair did not join in
the dedication OF record when the
plat was filed, they have made the
plat their own by selling with refer
cnce to it Just as unequivocally as if
they had joined in the written dedi-
cation of record, and we are therefore
satisfied beyond question that the
town or port Of Upper Astoria was
properly laid out and dedicated. It
follows from this conclusion that the
late plat filed by Mrs. Adair and Mrs.
Leinenwebtr is void in so far as, and
in every particular wherein, it pre-
tends to change, or If permitted to
prevail would have the effect of
changing the said original plat.
We are of the opinion that a suit
might be maintained by property
owners under the original plat to have
the subsequent plat annulled and set
aside and the original plat decreed
valid.
We do not think that by not insti-
tuting such a suit the rights of such
property owners can be injured, in
deed any act done by any other per-
son or persons to which they are not
parties, cannot affect their rights,
yet should the present proprietors of
the town proceed to sell according to
the new plat, most serious complica-
tions will arise in the future.
Respectfully submitted,
FULTON Bros.
Attorneys at. Law.
December 7th, 1889.