Cooper v. Sanford Land Co.

Prsscott, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The record in this case reaches us in a most unsatisfactory state. The chancellor dismissed the appellants’ bill of complaint in which they sought to enjoin the appellee from closing an alleged public road for the purpose of constructing houses in the bed of said road. The chancellor found from the evidence that the road had been abandoned, and that the appellants and other members of the public were foreclosed to assert any rights therein.

The appellants suggest and the appellee agrees that two questions are presented: (1), “Did the mention of the road in controversy and the call to same in the title deeds constitute a dedication of the road to public use?” and (2), “Did the chancellor err in dismissing the bill of complaint on the basis of non-user or abandonment?” We do not think the briefs and the record are sufficient for us to answer either question. ²⁶⁵ The combined statements of facts show, in substance, the following: The appellants purchased a certain tract of land located in the Fourth Election District of Baltimore County in 1949; in the description thereof given in their deed, the fourth course of one parcel calls, “on the east side of a road there situate,” and the second parcel was described as “* * * being all that tract or parcel of land situate, lying and being in the Hannah More Academy Lane * * *” (in the bill of complaint the road is alleged to be a “public road,” an allegation denied in the appellee’s answer) ; other deeds were offered in evidence that had similar calls, but the record fails to disclose (with a possible exception) the locations of the properties at the times of the conveyances, or the other owners of the property abutting on the alleged road. It was stipulated that a plat, complainants’ exhibit C, fairly delineates the course of the “Hannah More Academy Road.” This plat shows a course that meanders in a generally southeasterly direction from “Academy Acres” to the Timber Grove Road. Neither it nor the evidence as it is presented to us permits an accurate determination of the owners of the respective properties (at present, or at any time) that bound on the purported road. No attempt was made to show a single source of ownership of the abutting properties at the time of the alleged dedication.

It was further stipulated that the appellee intends to build houses in the bed of the road, as said road is located on the plat mentioned above. Certain photographs were introduced that demonstrated the overgrown condition of the road, and disclosed some trees in its bed, described as being twelve to fifteen inches in diameter and thirty to forty feet high. The appellant, Cooper, stated that he and his wife had had no occasion to use the road since obtaining their property in 1949, but felt they were “entitled to exercise [their] land rights.” The Record Extract contains the docket entries, the pleadings, a few pages of the testimony of the appellant, Fred Cooper, the chancellor’s short