99 Ga. 185 | Ga. | 1896
1. An action by named persons as commissioners of roads and revenues of a specified county is not an action by the county, and cannot be made the means of obtaining for such county any relief, legal or equitable, to which, it may be entitled. See Bennett v. Walker, 64 Ga. 326; Arnett v. Commissioners, 75 Ga. 782, and other decisions to the same effect.
2. Even if the present action had been properly brought in the name of the county, it would seem that under a deed made in 1854, donating a city lot to the justices of the inferior court thereof and their successors, “for county purposes, to be used for the public buildings of the said county and for vacant grounds to surround them, and for no other purpose whatever,” the county authorities would not, upon determining to abandon or discontinue the use of the lot for the purpose specified in the deed, be entitled, as against the grantor’s estate, to obtain an order of the superior court authorizing a sale of the property, or a decree cancelling as a cloud upon the county’s title a claim of reversion under that deed asserted by the grantor’s representative. Apparently the estate or interest which passed by the deed was simply and plainly a restricted use.
Jtidgment reversed.