Gore v. Brubaker

Alvey, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The application of the plaintiff, in this case, for the injunction, was founded upon the allegation that the strip of ground, six or six and a half feet wide, lying along the whole extent, and contiguous to the east side, of his lot, in the village of Uniontown, had been dedicated to public use, and formed part of the cross alley running from Main Street north to the intersection of an alley running parallel with Main Street. He alleges in his bill that the entire open space between the fences enclosing his lot on the one side, and that of Gilbert on the other, is embraced within the limits of the public alley; and his various out-buildings being upon the east line of his lot, bounded, as he alleges, hy this alley, the special ground of his hill is, that he is entitled to ingress and egress, from and to this alley, to and from his various buildings on and near the line of his lot thus hounded ; and that, inasmuch as such ingress and egress have been obstructed by erections placed in the alley by the defendant, he is entitled to relief, and to have the defendant restrained. ⁹⁰ If the allegations of the hill were true, and the plaintiff had done nothing to preclude him from invoking the aid of the Court, there could he hut little difficulty in affording him relief. For if, by reason of the obstructions complained of, in the public way or alley, the plaintiff had been obstructed or deprived of reasonable access to his buildings on his lot, and thereby subjected to loss and inconvenience, that would he such special and particular injury to the plaintiff as would entitle him to remedy from a Court of equity.

Roman vs. Strauss, 10 Md., 89 ; Georgetown vs. Canal Co., 12 Pet., 98 ; Irwin vs. Dixon, 9 How., 10, 28 ; Cook vs. Corporation of Bath, L. R., 6 Eq. Cas., 177; Higbee vs. Camden & Amb. R. Co., 19 N. J. Ch. 278. But these allegations of the hill are denied by the answer of the defendant; and the proof shows that they are not well founded in fact.

It appears from the testimony of Harbaugh, the only witness who professes to have knowledge of the original location of the ways of the village of Uniontown, that the alley between the lot now owned by the plaintiff and that owned by Gilbert, was, like the other alleys of the village, laid out to he sixteen feet wide; and that the strip of land on the west of this alley, and adjoining the lot not owned by the plaintiff, was not included in the alley, hut was left by Cover, the founder of the village, to afford a more ample way for the benefit of his own property, now occupied by the defendant, to and from the main street of the town. This was a long time ago; and if the public had been allowed to use and