Mayor of Baltimore v. Coates

Citations

• 85 Md. 531
• 37 A. 18
• 1897 Md. LEXIS 47

Syllabus

<p>Highways and Streets — Opening and Grading — Compensation to Owner of Bed of Street — Injunction—Remanding Cause.</p> <p>The general rule is that questions relating to the right of a party to claim compensation for land which a municipal corporation condemns for use as a street, must be determined upon appeal from the action of the Commissioners for Opening Streets.</p> <p>A bill asking for an injunction to restrain a sale of plaintiff’s property, advertised to be made by a municipality to enforce an assessment for grading and paving a street, alleged that the plaintiff and those under whom she claimed'had had possession of part of the street about to be graded for more than twenty years; that in the proceedings by which the bed of the street was condemned nothing was awarded as damages for the fee to the plaintiff or those under whom she claimed, and that the defendant was about to take possession of the plaintiff’s property without making compensation. Held, that although the bill is defective in not alleging that the plaintiff had the fee-simple title to the bed of the street, or that the same had not been dedicated, and in not being accompanied by an exhibit of the condemnation proceedings referred to therein, as well as in other particulars, yet since it appears to be possible, under the circumstances of this particular case, that the bill may be amended so as to show that the plaintiff is entitled to some relief, the cause will be remanded, with leave to amend, without either affirming or reversing the order appealed from.</p>