Opinion ID: 1292834
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Nature of City's Interest in Land.

Text: We begin our consideration of this appeal with an analysis of the city's claimed interest in the disputed streets. The city contends it holds title in fee to the platted streets, whereas the plaintiffs assert the city held a mere easement. To determine the nature of the city's interest, it is necessary to examine the statutes in effect at the time the plat at issue was recorded in 1857. Chapter 41 of the 1851 Iowa Code set out the requirements for a proprietor of land to lay out a village plat and make a dedication of land for public use. See Iowa Code §§ 632-635 (1851). Because there is no dispute that the Second Union Addition plat conformed to the statutory requirements, we turn our attention to the provisions governing recording and dedication of the plat: Sec. 636. Recorded. The plat and acknowledgement shall then be presented to the county judge, who if satisfied that the above requirements have been fully complied with shall enter thereon an order that the whole be recorded. Sec. 637. Dedication to public. The acknowledgement and recording of such plat is equivalent to a deed in fee simple of such portion of the land as is therein set apart for public use.... Iowa Code §§ 636-637 (1851). The record clearly establishes a county judge ordered that the plat be recorded. Although section 637 provided that the court's action was equivalent to a deed in fee simple, the City of Cascade did not exist in 1857. The plaintiffs argue the public obtained a mere easement when the plat was recorded, and the city succeeded to this interest when it later incorporated. This court has said that the filing of a plat dedicating a road in a village conveys to the general public, prior to acceptance by an incorporated town, a mere easement to use the dedicated tract for public purposes. See Town of Kenwood Park v. Leonard, 177 Iowa 337, 342, 158 N.W. 655, 658 (1916). But upon the incorporation of a city and its acceptance of a plat, village streets become streets of the incorporated town. See Kelroy v. City of Clear Lake, 232 Iowa 161, 164, 5 N.W.2d 12, 16 (1942); Inc. Town of Ackley v. Cent. States Elec. Co., 206 Iowa 533, 536, 220 N.W. 315, 316 (1928). Moreover, the streets are held by the incorporated city in fee simple. See Kelroy, 232 Iowa at 164, 5 N.W.2d at 16. In Kelroy, a plat of the Village of Clear Lake dedicating certain property to the public for use as streets was recorded in 1856. Id. at 164, 5 N.W.2d at 14. The Village of Clear Lake was incorporated in 1871, and the city by ordinance accepted the streets. Id. at 164, 5 N.W.2d at 15. We held the City of Clear Lake held fee simple title to the streets set out in the plat. Id. at 164, 5 N.W.2d at 16. Our decision in Kelroy controls here: the City of Cascade acquired title in fee to the streets dedicated in the Second Union Addition plat upon its incorporation and acceptance of the plat. The plaintiffs claim, though, that the City of Cascade never accepted the plat and therefore did not acquire title. Acceptance of a dedication may be by formal action, public use, or implied from `some act which unequivocally shows an intent to assume jurisdiction over the thing dedicated.' The Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War v. Griswold Am. Legion Post 508, 641 N.W.2d 729, 734 (Iowa 2002) (citations omitted). In an early case, this court held a city's act of including an addition in its corporate limits was adequate acceptance so as to pass fee title in the streets to the city by operation of law. City of Des Moines v. Hall, 24 Iowa 234, 242-43 (1868); accord 23 Am.Jur.2d Dedication § 47, at 42 (2002) (stating [f]ormal acceptance may consist of ... an act of ... incorporating a town, or adopting a map showing its limits). The record here establishes the city's acceptance of the streets dedicated in the Second Union Addition in a similar manner. As noted earlier, the Second Union Addition was included in the city limits of the City of Cascade. This act was sufficient acceptance so as to pass title to the streets to the city. The plaintiffs also make much of the fact that the city was not incorporated until twenty-three years after the plat was recorded, implying that after twenty-three years of nonuse it was too late for the city to acquire an interest in the platted streets. We disagree. The recording of the plat was a tender of those portions of the land set aside as streets. Burroughs v. City of Cherokee, 134 Iowa 429, 432-33, 109 N.W. 876, 878 (1906). This tender continues until something has been done to indicate to the public that the tender has been definitely and permanently withdrawn. Town of Kenwood Park, 177 Iowa at 343, 158 N.W. at 659. There is no proof in the record before us that the prior owners of the platted land in Second Union Addition withdrew their tender in the twenty-three years prior to the incorporation of the City of Cascade. The mere passage of time did not prevent the city from accepting the tender of the public streets when it was incorporated in 1880. We now consider whether the facts and circumstances since the city's incorporation have served to divest the city of title.