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Keywords

plaintiffdefendantinjunctionappealtrialeasement
plaintiffdefendantinjunctionverdicttrustwilleasement

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Hannah v. Kenny, 210 Ga. 824, 83 S.E.2d 1

Facts

The plaintiffs owned lots in Blocks 30 and 31 of the Ingleside Subdivision, which were designed to front on Grand Avenue. The defendants owned adjacent lots and claimed to have maintained possession of Grand Avenue for over 20 years, asserting that it was never open to public use. The plaintiffs argued that they had a vested easement in Grand Avenue, which they had used for ingress and egress since 1950. The trial court ruled in favor of the defendants, leading to the appeal.

Clyde Hannah and others as Trustees of the Ingleside Church of God, and W. L. Hudgins individually, filed in DeKalb Superior Court, against R. M. Kenny and William R. Stanford, a petition which as amended alleged substantially the following: Petitioners are owners of certain houses in DeKalb County on designated lots in Blocks 30 and 31 of the Ingleside Subdivision.

Issue

Did the defendants acquire prescriptive title to Grand Avenue, and were they entitled to an injunction against the plaintiffs' use of the street?

The Supreme Court, Mobley, J., held that where defendants and their predecessors, although they had been in possession of entire portion of street opposite their lots for more than 20 years, knew that their lots were bounded by street, and had entered upon and held same under no claim of right, they obtained no prescriptive title and would not be entitled to an injunction against interference by plaintiffs with that half of the street to which defendants had no title.

Rule

To establish prescriptive title, a party must possess the property openly, continuously, and under a claim of right for a statutory period, and such possession must be adverse to the true owner.

Before prescription can arise under an asserted claim of right, the claim must be honestly entertained.

Analysis

The court found that the defendants and their predecessors had been in possession of Grand Avenue but had no claim of right to it, as they knew their lots were bounded by the street. The evidence indicated that the defendants' use of the street was inconsistent with the rights of the plaintiffs, who had a vested easement. Therefore, the court concluded that the defendants could not establish prescriptive title.

The evidence in the present case, to the effect that Grand Avenue had never been opened as a street, but on the contrary defendants and their predecessors for more than 20 years maintained thereon a store building, a chicken yard, and a vegetable garden, was sufficient to authorize a finding by the jury that such conduct on the part of the owners in allowing the street to be used in defiance of the easements showed an intention to abandon Grand Avenue as a street.

Conclusion

The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's judgment, ruling that the defendants did not have prescriptive title to Grand Avenue and were not entitled to an injunction against the plaintiffs.

Judgment reversed.

Who won?

The plaintiffs prevailed in the case because the court determined that the defendants had no prescriptive title to Grand Avenue and could not prevent the plaintiffs from using it.

The verdict and the judgment, decreeing title in the defendants by prescription and permanently enjoining the petitioner from interference with that half of the street now owned by the defendants, is in error.

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