Elson v. Comstock

Citations

• 150 Ill. 303
• 37 N.E. 207

Syllabus

<p>1. Dedication — by person not the owner. In 1854 the husband of the owner of land made a plat thereof into blocks and lots, as an addition to a city, which plat, showed a block without numbers, which was not divided into lots as were the other blocks, and upon the face of which were the words “Public Square,” and the plat was recorded: Held, that there was no effectual dedication of the square by reason of the execution and recording of the plat.</p> <p>2. A dedication of property for public use is in the nature of a conveyance for the purposes of the use, but a person can convey or donate no more or greater estate than he holds. If he has no title, or his title is conditional, and it fails, the dedication also will fail.</p> <p>3. Same — vesting title in the milage — rights of lot owners. Whatever right the public may have to the use of a block marked in the plat of an addition as a public square, will, on the incorporation of the village in which it lies, vest in such village, as the representative of the public ; and whatever easements or privileges the purchasers of lots in the addition are entitled to claim in such square as appurtenant to their lots, must be regarded as belonging to them as a part of the village so incorporated.</p> <p>4. Trespass quake clausum eregit — plea of liberum tenementum— judgment conclusive of title. It has been held that if, in an action of trespass guare clausum fregit, the defense pleaded is liberum tenementum, judgment for the plaintiff is conclusive upon the defendant when he afterward attempts to set up title, subject to the qualification that the close described in the second action is the same as that described in the first.</p> <p>5. Other decisions hold, that while the judgment in such case will not be regarded as conclusive, yet it maybe shown by .parol evidence, or otherwise, that the question of title was actually tried and passed upon in the action of trespass. Such a judgment is necessarily conclusive as to what app