Opinion ID: 1794109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Ziola v. Gerrish Township

Text: This case was submitted to the trial court on stipulated facts and exhibits. Oak Avenue was designated in the Whittington Park plat recorded in 1903. The portion of Oak Avenue at issue is fifty-feet wide and extends one hundred and twenty feet from Robbins Avenue in a north, northwesterly direction, ending at Higgins Lake. Lot 35, block 1, is adjacent to the avenue on its easterly side. Lot 1, block 2, is adjacent on its westerly side. Plaintiff Isabelle Ziola acquired title to lot 1 by quitclaim deed from Isabell Dockter on October 3, 1979. Mrs. Dockter and her husband had acquired the lot by warranty deed on October 29, 1949. On December 27, 1991, the parties stipulated that Ziola's dwelling and outbuildings have occupied the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue for over fifty years. Accordingly, we find that the plaintiff's predecessors took possession of the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue no later than 1942. On December 16, 1949, the Roscommon County Road Commission voted to incorporate Oak Avenue between Robbins Avenue and Higgins Lake into the county highway system. The resolution was published three times in January 1950. In 1952, the road commission sued the Dockters, seeking removal of the dwelling as an encroachment. On June 8, 1954, the road commission, by resolution, accepted the Dockters' offer to deed an easement for a public street over lot 1, block 2, such offer contemplating the use of the westerly five feet of Oak Avenue, in exchange for the road commission's dismissal of the case. The resolution was timely recorded. The conveyance of rights in lot 1, block 2, to the road commission was also dated June 2, 1954, and was timely recorded. The action was subsequently dismissed in July 1954. The road commission then improved lot 1, including the westerly five feet of Oak Avenue as platted, and constructed a lateral road access to Higgins Lake. Ziola initiated suit in 1991 to vacate the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue running from Robbins Avenue to Higgins Lake. The trial court found that the plaintiff's predecessors had consented to the road commission's claimed interest in Oak Avenue when they entered the 1954 agreement. The court therefore believed that equity required it to quiet title to the portions of Oak Avenue that were not improved by the plaintiff in the defendant and the portions of Oak Avenue that were improved by the plaintiff in the plaintiff. The court's opinion stated: Specifically, it is the Order of the Court that Plaintiff Ziola will be quieted in title to twenty-five feet of frontage on Higgins Lake, running east to west from the corner of Oak Avenue and Block 1, lot 35, then running south twenty (20) feet, from the north boundary of Oak Avenue, then east to west twenty (20) feet to a line which shall now be the west boundary of Oak Avenue. It also quieted title to lot 1, block 2, and to the westerly five feet of Oak Avenue and the westerly twenty-five feet by twenty feet as omitted above, in the defendant, pursuant to the 1954 agreement. The Court of Appeals affirmed. We modify the trial court's order. We find that the defendant has conceded that the plaintiff's predecessors put the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue to a use inconsistent with its dedicated public purpose by building a house as early as 1942. However, the parties stipulated that the defendant did not formally accept the dedication until 1949. Moreover, the road commission did not seek to remove the house until 1952. If the Dockters had pursued their rights in Oak Avenue then, they should have prevailed because the offer to dedicate had been effectively withdrawn before any public authority sought to accept it. However, in the 1954 agreement, the Dockters offered to dedicate their own lot, lot 1, block 2, along with the westerly five feet of Oak Avenue, in exchange for the road commission dropping its suit with respect to the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue. We note that the defendant has accepted lot 1 and the westerly five feet of Oak Avenue both formally, by the recorded resolution and conveyance, and informally, by constructing a road. We find that the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue was not timely accepted in 1949 and that the offer to dedicate the easterly forty-five feet was not renewed in the 1954 agreement. Accordingly, we hold that the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue should have been vacated, and title should have been quieted in the plaintiff. We therefore affirm the trial court's order, but modify it to extend plaintiff's title to include all of the easterly forty-five feet of Oak Avenue.