Whitridge v. Mayor of Baltimore

Bkiscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Thi's is an action of ejectment brought by the appellee, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, trustee of the McDonogh Institute, against the appellants to recover possession of two parcels of land situate in Baltimore County, one containing i.34-100 acres, more or less, and the other containing 21-100 of an acre, more or less. Both parties to the record claimed title under one William Tagart, late of Baltimore County, deceased, to whom the land was conveyed by Mary Ann Carroll, by deed dated the 1 ith day of November, 1853. The plaintiff’s title was derived under the will of Samuel H. Tagart, who inherited the property in dispute from his father, William Tagart.

The defendant’s rest their claim upon the title of one Sophia C. Milligan, who obtained twelve acres and thirty-five perches of the original tract, by deed dated May 6th, 1864, of William Tagart. The case was tried before the Court sitting as a jury, and a judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for the first tract and in favor of the defendants for the second tract of land described in the declaration. At the trial the defendants reserved two exceptions, one to the admissibilty of testimony, and the other to the granting of the plaintiff’s prayer and to the rejection of the defendants’ prayers. The principal dispute in the case arises upon the correct location of the division line between the lands of the plaintiff and defendants.

In other words, whether the description in the deed, “thence running along the centre of a wagon road to be twenty feet wide,” or whether the description by courses and distances is to control. It is a well-settled rule of construction in regard to location, that calls, metes and bounds in the description of property ⁴¹⁴ granted are to control if they be established, and the courses and distances disregarded if they do not correspond with the calls. Thomas, lessee, v. Godfrey, 3 G. & J. 142 ; Friend v. Friend, 64 Md. 328 ; Wood v. Ramsey, 71 Md. 9 . In this case the courses and distances in the Milligan deed are inconsistent with the call for the wagon road and the testimony is to the effect, that the road was regarded as the dividing boundary between the Tagart -and Cross properties on the east side and the Milligan property on the west side of the road.

The witness Woolen testified he had known the properties located on the map for sixty-four years; he knew Mr. and Mrs. Milligan very well, and they lived where Mr. Whitridge now lives. The old road has been absorbed by Green Spring avenue, about the centre of it. A portion of Green Spring avenue now runs over that portion of the old road between Mr. Whit-ridge and Mr. Cross, and the balance on the McDonogh property; that he never knew of any road except the road absorbed by Green Spring avenue and he had known this road since 1864. Mr. Cockey testified he had known the road and the properties binding on it fifty years.

As long as he had known it the road bed had been where Green Spring avenue is now located, there is no other road there and no marks of any, and no place for a road to go. Mr. Malonee testified that he had also known the road running where Green Spring avenue now is since 1844 and it was near where Green Spring avenue now is. Mrs. Claggett testified that the road bed today is where it was on the 25th day of April, 1867. Upon this testimony and the other evidence in the case, it was the province