City of Eureka v. McKay & Co.

Citations

• 123 Cal. 666
• 56 P. 439
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 1135

Syllabus

<p>Dedication op Street—Question op Intent.—The dedication of a public street is a question of intent, and the acts of the owner of property are sufficient to prove a dedication only when they are evincive of such intent, or are such as to estop him from denying that such was his intent.</p> <p>Id.—Street upon Marsh Land—Charter op City—Designation op ' Boundaries.—An act granting a charter to a city, and describing therein, as part of its exterior boundaries, a street called “A” street, which in fact was not open to travel or used as a street, though designated as “A” street upon an unauthorized map in the recorder’s office, as crossing marsh lands on the water front, no cross streets or connecting streets being referred to in the act, and the board of trustees of the town being required therein to lay off the water front in such lots as would accommodate mill owners and other occupants, and to sell the same to bona fide possessors, cannot be construed as intended to dedicate such street or to operate as a dedication thereof.</p> <p>Id.—Unauthorized Map—Offer of Dedication—Legislative Adoption. An unauthorized map deposited in the recorder’s office by a person having no interest in the land cannot amount to an offer of dedication; and an act of the legislature incorporating a city, which does not refer to such map, cannot be construed as an adoption thereof, because merely referring to a street by the same designation which is indicated upon the map.</p> <p>Id.—Municipal Ordinance—Survey of Town.—A municipal ordinance employing a surveyor to survey the town, “and set stakes at the corner of all blocks lying between A and N streets,” does not operate as a dedication of “A” street, which had never been dedicated to public use, nor opened or used as a street, nor does it authorize the surveyor to lay out a new street or to file a map showing new or any streets.</p> <p>Id.—Deed by City—Boundaries Including Unopened Street.—A deed executed by the city to an occupant of