Poole v. Commissioners of Rehoboth

Citations

• 9 Del. Ch. 192
• 80 A. 683
• 1911 Del. Ch. LEXIS 25

Syllabus

<p>While the filing of a plot, showing streets thereon, constitutes a dedication to the public, the filing of a plot of land on the seashore, showing the location of the ocean, does not amount to a dedication of the beach.</p> <p>Verbal declarations of a dedicator, made contemporaneously with the dedication, are admissible in evidence to show the scope, where such declarations are against interest and a part of the res gestae.</p> <p>Where the directors of a company orally declared, when selling lots from a plot of lands fronting on the ocean, that no buildings should be placed between certain lots on the ocean, and none were maintained there for over twenty years, such declaration was sufficient to show a dedication to the public.</p> <p>Where the directors of a corporation engaged in selling its lots informed the purchasers that the space between the ocean and a certain street should be open, the authority of the directors to make such declarations cannot be questioned in a proceeding to secure a preliminary injunction to restrain the obstruction of such space.</p> <p>While acceptance is a necessary element of dedication, an acceptance by the public will be presumed, where the dedication is beneficial to the public and imposes no burden; and such presumption will be exercised, where land between a street and the ocean was dedicated to public use.</p> <p>Where the land between a street and the ocean was dedicated to public use, and it was provided that no buildings should be erected thereon, the erection of a bathhouse and a fence on the shore line was an obstruction of the right of a person who had bought a lot upon the street upon faith in the dedication.</p> <p>Where the land between a street and the ocean was dedicated as a space that should ever be open and unobstructed to the view of the ocean of those persons living on and using the street, the right of such persons was not lost because the ocean washed away the land up to the street line.</p> <p>Property de