Evening star., 1898-10-08
PERMIT FOR CONSTRUCTION
Application of Metropolitan R. R. Company
for Permission to Build Station.
Opinion of Attorney Thomas Submit
ted to the Conn
Conditions Imposed.

The attorney of the District, to whom the
Commissioners recently referred the appli-
cation of Mr.. G. b. Coleman general man
ager of the Metropolitan Railroad Com
pany, for a permit to erect a passenger
station on the companyS property on
Brightwood avenue near Florida avenue,
has advised the granting of the permit on
certain conditions. The Districts legal ad-
wiser suggests that the desired permit be
granted, provided the railroad company
shall be required to erect the substantial
part of the passenger station on Bright
wood avenue outside of a ninety-foct road
way; also that it be permitted to build a
shed or porch over the seventeen feet space
as to the title of which there is a contro-
versy, the same to be removed by the COM
pany without compensation whenever the
avenue is in fact wdened to ninety feet.
After going into the early history of 7th
street road, or Brightwood avenue, as it is
now called, the attorney explains that it is
shown upon the old maps of the city as be-
ing ninety feet wide at the point in qnes-
tion. In 1888 the District, by its then Com
missioners, further widened the road at a
point some distance north of the property
of the Metropolitan company, SO as to
make 1t ninety feet wide, and in doing SO
removed the fence in front of the house of
one Margaret krause. She thereupon sued
the District in an action of trespass. The
District defended, and set UP that the al
legged trespass within the line of the
public highway.
What the Proof Showed.
The proof showed, it is alleged, that Mrs.
krause purchased her property about 1857,
and that the fence then stood as on the
line of a road twenty-four feet wide that
it remained in that position until 1872, when
the boasd of public works removed it and
widened the road to sixty-siX feet, and that
Mrs. krause rebuilt her fence on that line.
where it stood until it was wdened in front
of ner premises to ninety feet.
The attorney further explains that the
trial court ruled that inasmuch as the
turnpike company, which in 1910 was au-
thorlZed by Congress to build the road
was not authorized TO lay out road to a
greater width than SiXty-SiX feet, it ac-
quired no title to the difference between
that width and ninety feet, and that the
statute of limitations was applicable to it,
as {: private corporation, and that the Dis
trict in widening the road to sixty-six feet
in 1872 acquired title for that width only
The court also held that the statute of
limitations was applicable to the District,
as municipal corporation. and hence
even though what is now Brightwood ave-
nue. had been originally laid out to a width
OF ninety feet, if private individuals en-
Croached on it with their fences and kept
them up unlnterruptedly for twenty years
lneS acquired tllle by adverse possession
to so much of the highway as was III their
posse ession. The Court of Appeals affirmed
the lower court, and the amount in contro-
Versy being but 81 600 it could not be car
ried for review to the United States Su-
preme Court. The Court of Appeals, how
ever, did not pass upon the applicability
of the statute of limitations to public high
ways.
"Adverse POsscssiOn."
1T appears says the Districts attor-
ney, that tn, buildings belonging to the
metropolitan Railway Company encroa III
ing on this street were erected III 1875, and
that the area of the encroachment was tax
ed to the company until 1893, when, by or
der of the Commissioners, it was dropped
from the tax lists. Assuming that title by
adverse possession to of the public
highways of the District, outside of the
city of Washington, can be acquired by
adverse possession, the railway company
has title to the ground between the sixty
six feet of the street. as laid out in 1872
as originally laid out, but / am not will
ing TO concede the proposition that title by
adverse possession can be acquired in the
public highways of the District
The attorney therefore concludes his opin-
ion with the advice that the desired per-
mission be granted upon the conditions
stated above, and the Commissioners have
adopted the suggestion.