FLORIDA CHAUTAUQUA ASSOCIATION, LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY ET AL., APPELLANTS
v.
MINNIE I. BROWN AND HUSBAND, APPELLEES
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The Florida Supreme Court reversed a lower court decree and dismissed a bill of equity brought by the Florida Chautauqua Association and Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company against Minnie I. Brown regarding alleged rights to use Baldwin Avenue as a boundary to their property. The court held that the evidence showed Baldwin Avenue lay wholly north of the railroad tracks and did not touch the complainants' property, and that the complainants themselves had recognized this fact by fencing off the space between their property and the tracks.
The court held that the complainants failed to establish a present easement as between the disputed points, which was the sole basis for their equity. Baldwin Avenue lies wholly north of the railroad tracks and does not touch the complainants' property, and the complainants' own act of fencing off the space between their property and the tracks for many years evidenced their recognition of this fact.
“the bill stated a case of special injury, giving the complainants peculiar rights not suffered by the general public, to the free use of ¿Baldwin Avenue, the alleged boundary of complainants' property”
Describes the prior holding on the demurrer that allowed the bill to proceed, establishing the legal theory under which the complainants sought relief
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe complainants owned hotel grounds adjacent to railroad tracks and claimed special rights to the free use of Baldwin Avenue as the alleged boundary …
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Cockrell, J.
— Upon the former appeal from the order sustaining the demurrer in this case, 59 Fla. 447, 52 South. Rep. 802, we held that the bill stated a case of special injury, giving the complainants peculiar rights not suffered by the general public, to the free use of ¿Baldwin Avenue, the alleged boundary of complainants’ property. The case is again before us on final decree, against the defense that the property does not touch Baldwin Avenue, and that whatever rights may have existed are barred by estoppel or lapse of time.
We think the evidence clearly shows as in this kindred case of McGourin v. Town of DeFuniak Springs, 51 Fla. 502, 41 South. Rep. 541, that Baldwin Avenue lies wholly north of the railroad tracks and hence does not touch complainants’ property, and moreover that the complainants by their own act of fencing off the space between their hotel grounds and the railroad tracks recognized this fact for many years, and up to the filing of their bill.
The evidence shows that the public never recognized, occupied or used the locus in quo as a street, or made any claim thereto until the abortive attempt to have it so declared in the McGourin case, although the railroad company and others for a quarter of a century placed buildings of a permanent nature in the supposed street.
We do not know whether facts in pias may show a dedication of Baldwin Avenue south of the railroad tracks, east of the station and west of the Brown property, but the complainants fail to show a present easement as between those two points, the sole basis for their equity, and the decree is accordingly reversed with directions to dismiss the bill.
Whitfield, C. J., and Taylor, Shackleford and Hooker, J: J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Brown v. The Fla. Chautauqua Ass'n, 59 Fla. 447 (Fla. 1910)
- McGourin v. The Town of DeFuniak Springs, 51 Fla. 502 (Fla. 1906)