Wilkins v. Manchester, 74 N.H. 275 (1907) - Opinion

Hillsborough,

June 4, 1907.

Wilkins v. Manchester.

Where house-lots have been sold iu accordance with a recorded plan which shows an intersecting street, a subsequent grantee of the street location is entitled to only nominal damages upon an appropriation of his land for highway purposes.

Appeal, from the assessment of damages for land taken for a highway. Transferred from the September term, 1906, of the superior court by Pike, J., upon an agreed statement of facts.

Before 1895, the owner of a tract of land in Manchester plotted it and recorded the plan, which showed the lots into which it had been divided and a proposed street called Brooklyn avenue. Prior to November 11, 1895, he sold all the lots but one, bounding them by that avenue, and on that day sold the last lot together with the location of the avenue to the plaintiff’s ancestor in title. After the plaintiff bought the property, the mayor and aldermen laid out Brooklyn avenue as a highway and awarded him one cent as damages. He appealed, and the commissioners gave him the same damages. When this report was filed, he asked to have his damages assessed by a jury. “ Upon the foregoing facts, if the plaintiff cannot maintain his action his appeal is to be dismissed; otherwise to stand in order for trial.”

Henry N. Hurd and John Gage, for the plaintiff.

George A. Wagner, for the defendants.