94 Iowa 368 | Iowa | 1895
I. This action involves the title to and ownership of a tract of ground situated in the town of Gowrie, Webster county, Iowa, and which is claimed by plaintiff as being a part of its station or depot .grounds. The defendant claims to be the absolute owner of the land. About 1870, or prior thereto, the Des Moines Yalley Railroad Company constructed a line of railway from the city of Des Moines, through the town of Gowrie, to Ft. Dodge. Afterward, and about 1874, such proceedings were had in the circuit court of Polk county, Iowa, as, that this road was ordered sold to certain trustees1, who in 1875 conveyed the same to plaintiff. Thereafter plaintiff leased said railway and all property belonging to it to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, which has since operated the same. As originally built, a station had been located about two miles south of Gowrie on this line of road, and a side track had been put in at that point. By some arrangement between the then owner of said road and the defendant, not clearly shown by the evidence, the railroad company was. induced to, or at least did, abandon the idea of maintaining a station where they had already built their ■side track, and located their depot, station, and side tracks in the town of Gowrie, at the place they now are. Of said depot grounds as finally located, a strip one hundred feet wide and one thousand two hundred feet long has been secured by condemnation proceedings. .This strip of ground extended from the center of the main track fifty feet in width on each side of said track. The particular tracts in dispute are;
II. Counsel have filed learned and exhaustive arguments wherein a large number of authorities are cited, in /support of their several contentions. In our view of the case, we need only consider the question of estoppel. If the facts disclosed by this record are such as that, in equity and good conscience, the defendant should not now be heard to assert a claim to the land in controversy, then this decree should be permitted to stand. On considering all of the evidence, we are satisfied that some inducement was offered plaintiff’s predecessor which was the moving cause of its relocating it's depot site and side tracks. Certain it is that the depot site was changed, and the'side track finally laid where it now is. When plaintiff came into possession of this property, in April, 1874, there appeared upon the public records of Webster county a plat and dedication of certain property as constituting the town of Gowrie. This was made at the instance and under the direction of defendant. It was executed and filed in 1871. Attached to the plat is the following: “The grounds of the D. Y. E. E. Co. extend from the center of the main track west 100 feet, and east 150 feet, and from the south line of the town plat 1200 feet north.” This embraces all the ground now in. dispute. The owners, the defendant and his wife, say in their dedication attached to this plat that the disposition of the land described “as shown by the above map (plat) is