City of Sacramento v. Clunie

Citations

• 120 Cal. 29
• 52 P. 44
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 705

Syllabus

<p>Dedication of Streets—Estoppel of Municipal Corporation—Long Delay-Improvements upon Lands Claimed as Streets—Ejectment.—It is only in exceptional cases that the doctrine of estoppel can be invoked against a municipal corporation; and it seems that a delay of forty years in bringing an action of ejectment to recover lands claimed to have been dedicated as public streets, during which delay large sums of money were expended in permanent improvements upon the lands by defendant and his grantors, does not estop the city from maintaining such action, if the streets were in fact dedicated to public use.</p> <p>Id.—Map of Blocks and Streets—Deed Inclusive of Streets—Revocation of Offer before Acceptance of Map—Finding against Dedication— Absence of User—Improvements—Acquiescence of City.—Where a map drawn by a surveyor, showing the division of a tract of land into blocks and streets adjacent to a city, had been filed in the recorder's office, and subsequently thereto, but prior to any acceptance by the city of the map as an official map, deeds had passed from the owners whereby a portion of the land by metes and bounds, inclusive of a portion of the street, was granted to a private person, to whom the entire land included in bis deed bad been sold, such sale is evidence tending to show an intent to revoke any offer of dedication previously made by reason of the filing of the map, and the subsequent adoption of the map by the city as an official map is not sufficient evidence of dedication to reverse a finding of “no dedication,” especially in view of the fact that there was never any public user of the streets, and that they were barred from travel for forty years, and valuable and permanent improvements had been placed thereon, and that the city paid the defendant and his grantors, for the privilege of building levees thereon.</p> <p>Id.—Dedication a Question between Owners and Public—Rights of Purchasers from Owners not Involved.—Dedication is a matter purely between