Evening star., 1900-12-24
ADVERSE REPORT MADE
AT-roRNEY's OPINION RESPECTING;
SHED = PUBLIC ALLEY.
Provision. of eAst Ss Congress. Resu-
iatins subdiYY5tsione-Commissioners'
Orders Theseunder-AlleyW Width.

In the case OF Mr.. e. A. Atchinson, who
requested the District Commissioners to re-
quire the owner Of premises COS L street
southeast to remove hfs shed from the public
alley in square 1852. their attorney, Mr.. A.
b. Duvall, has, advised them to deny the
application. and they have so acted.
1t appears from an opinion rendered in
the case by Mr.Duvall that May 13, 1897, the
Commissioners passed an order approving
a proposed subdivision Of lot IA, square $50.
by NJ. P. Caldwell, the owner thereof, and
that July following said subdivision was
recorded in the Office Of the surveyor. Said
lot, as subdivided, contained three lots
fronting L street. and in the rear of these
lots opening into Canal street was shown
an alley five feet wide adjoining lot Ii in
that square.
The act of Congress of August q, 1855,
regulating subdivision of land within the
District, says Mr.. Duvall, provides that all
spaces on any duly recorded plat of land
thereon designated as streets, avenues or
alleys shall thereupon become public ways
provided they are made in conformity 10
the provisions of section l of said act, and
as such be under the protection of the
laws and ordinances in force applicable to
public roads out of said city. Acting under
the authority conferred upon them by TINS
act the Commissioners December g. 1888,
promulgated certain general orders, there
after from time to time amending tnem'
and among those in force May IL, 1877, was
one, paragraph 4, which provided tnat no
public alley in the city should be less than
ten feet in width, such alley to be PROVIDED
wherever practicable, and where the SUB
division shows lots of less than twenty-five
feet frontage.
Width of Alleys.
Another of the Commissioners orders
then in force, paragraph 1S, provided that
in the squares of all subdivisions without
the cities of Washington and Georgetown
public alleys should be required, so that,
as far as practicable, every lot should abut
thereon, such alleys to be not less than ID
feet in width and continuous through the
square It was provided however, that no
lot or part of lot in any existing subdl-
vision within the District should be further
subdivided into lots less than % feet IN
width without suitable alley provision, so
that each lot should, as far as practicable,
abut thereon, and it was further provided
that such alley or alleys should be only
half the usual width, If, in the judgment OF
the Commissioners, the other half should
be acquired from contiguous lots.
"It is matter of very great doubt says
Mr.. Duvall, whether the approva. Of this
subdivision so far as the alley was con-
cerned, was not improvidently made by the
Commissioners. Apparently paragraph a.
and not paragraph 1S, covers sucn a stu
alton as was presented, and that paragraph
required alley not less than 10 feet IN
width. But the land was treated as II il
was outside of the city Of Washington or
Georgetown. and as If the proposed subdi-
vision was a subdivision Of a subdivision
and not a subdivision Of an original lot.
Alley Has Never Existed.
eff the approval was made upon the ex-
pectation Of acquiring five feet more land
from the contiguous lot in order to form a
ten-foot alley, this is practically out of the
question. because the contiguous lot Is oc-
cupied by brick building Whatever, how
ever. may have been the occasion Of ap-
proving the subdivision, in point Of fact no
alley has ever actually existed, and recog-
nizing this condition OF affairs and the inn
probability of securing an alley of the
requisite legal width, the present complain
ant who was then the owner of the three
subdivided lots in July, 1898, built three
houses thereon and placed over the alley
space three wooden sheds. He has since
sold one of the lots, with the houses and
shed thereon, to Howard Carver and he
now desires the Commissioners to cause the
shed erected by himself the lot, which
he has thus conveyed, to be removed as an
obstruction to public alley.
1.-The alley Is of public use, and Mr.
Atchinson, the only one Of the public i'm
mediately interested therein, seems to have
ignored 1t and to have built upon it, and
the appeal now made comes with very bad
grace from him. Under all the crcum-
stances of the case, 1 am Of the opinion
that the Commissioners should not comply
with the request"