Niles v. City of Los Angeles

Citations

• 125 Cal. 572
• 58 P. 190
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 904

Syllabus

<p>Dedication oe Street—Intention Essential—Insueeicient Findings—Probative Facts—User oe Way—License.—The intention of the owner of land to dedicate part thereof as a public street is essential to a dedication; and findings of mere probative facts, without the finding of a dedication or of an intent to dedicate, and which are not inconsistent with the absence of such intention, and may indicate a mere license to the public to use an open passageway for travel, without adverse user thereof by the public, are insufficient to establish the dedication of the way as a public street.</p> <p>Id.—General Finding.—A general finding that the way was a public street, placed among the conclusions of law, and evidently intended as a deduction from previous probative facts found, cannot prevail, if not sustained by the probative facts.</p> <p>Id—Adverse User by Public.—Where the dedication of a highway is sought to be established by user by the public, it must be shown that the user was adverse with the knowledge of the owner; and the user must be of such duration that the public interest and private right would be materially impaired if the dedication were revoked and the use by the public discontinued.</p> <p>Id.—Making and Piling of Map—Offeb of Dedication—Acceptance—Revocation.—The making and filing of a map designating certain streets thereon, is only an offer to dedicate such streets to the public, and unless the offer is accepted by the public within a reasonable time, the owner may resume possession and control of the property, and thereby revoke his offer.</p> <p>Id.—Insufficiency of Evidence.—Evidence showing that since the opening by adjoining owners of a strip used as a passageway, it was cultivated by the owners almost every year, that fruit and other trees were placed thereon by them, that taxes were paid by them to the city upon the land, that on an assessment map of another street the strip was shown to be private land, and not a street, and was assessed to the o