Felin v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 241 Pa. 164
• 88 A. 421
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 754

Syllabus

<p>Deeds — Description—Lines and monuments — TJnplotted street— Dedication — Eminent domain.</p> <p>Upon a claim for damages consequent upon the opening of a street in a city referred by agreement to a referee, it appeared that in 1874 the owner of a large tract of land conveyed a portion of it to a predecessor in title of the plaintiff, the section in question being described in part as follows: “Beginning at a point...... thence north 30 degrees 49 minutes west 160 feet to a point in the middle of a new street about to be laid out and dedicated to public use; thence south 11 degrees 21 minutes west 490 feet and 8 inches to a point.” This mention of the street was the only reference thereto contained in the deed, but the parties to the suit agreed that the “new street......referred to in the deed......is the same street in location and width as Camac street, as now laid out in the city plan opened from Butler to Pike street, would be if extended northward on the same lines from Pike street.” It further appeared that Pike street was fifty feet wide and ran through the plaintiff’s land, the south line thereof intersecting the end of the opened portion of Camac street 235 feet south of the point designated in the deed of 1874 as “a point in the middle of a new street.” The part of Camac street mentioned in the stipulation as laid out and opened “in the city plan” was placed upon the city plan in 1876 and opened in 1902, a deed purporting to dedicate the same having been executed in 1878; but no attempt had ever been made to dedicate or open Camac street over any part of the 235 feet north of Pike street, at the end of which was located the point designated in the deed of 1874. The opened portion of Camac street was 30 feet wide. Plaintiff claimed that a strip of land 248 feet long and 15 feet wide on the westerly side of this opened portion, 8 feet of which was fenced in and covered by valuable improvements, was embraced within his lot, for the taking of which he was