Midland Properties Co. v. Acme Refining Co.
Case Date: 09/02/2005
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-04-2526 Rel
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This case involves ownership of a small strip of land (the Strip) located on the west side of Racine Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Acme Refining Company (Acme) has used the Strip since 1988, when it purchased land adjoining the Strip. In 1997, Midland Properties Co. (Midland) acquired a quitclaim deed purporting to convey title to the Strip. Midland initiated this action seeking a judgment declaring that Midland owned the Strip and seeking to eject Acme from its use of the Strip. The circuit court of Cook County entered summary judgment in favor of Acme and the City of Chicago (City), finding that the City held fee simple title to the Strip and that the City did not abandon this interest. We affirm. BACKGROUND Prior to 1865, the Robbins family owned the Strip. On August 21, 1865, the city council passed an ordinance (1865 Ordinance) that extended and widened Ullman Street (currently Racine Avenue) (Ullman Extension). This extension encompassed the Strip. The city council confirmed the extension on October 16, 1865 (1865 Assessment). The Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed all public records or recorded documents relating to the Ullman Extension other than the 1865 Ordinance and 1865 Assessment. In 1870, George Robbins partitioned amongst his heirs a tract of land that purported to include the Strip. However, in 1872, the City adopted the Peltzer Atlas to reflect the official legal boundaries of all of its streets. The Peltzer Atlas, which showed the Strip as part of Ullman Street, was later used to create the City's 80 Acre Maps, the current official maps charting the City's streets. Both the Peltzer Atlas and the City's 80 Acre Map cite to the 1865 Ordinance and the 1865 Assessment as authority for including the Ullman Extension as part of the City's streets. On April 2, 1880, the City passed an ordinance (1880 Ordinance) granting the Robbins heirs permission to use an area that included the Strip for railroad purposes. The ordinance subjected the grant to "all ordinances now existing" and conditioned the grant on the Robbins heirs agreeing to maintain the portion of Ullman Street on which the railroad tracks were to be laid, including the five feet of "street" on "each side" of the tracks. The grant was also conditioned on the Robbins heirs dedicating to the City a 24-foot-wide strip of land located along the east side of Ullman Street. The Robbins heirs made the dedication on August 5, 1880, noting in the dedication that the 24-foot strip was to become part of the existing 66-foot width of Ullman Street. On June 25, 1880, the Robbins heirs granted a railroad company an easement to use the Strip (Railroad Easement). In 1902, the Robbins heirs conveyed to James Miles land purportedly including the Strip, subject to the Railroad Easement. Subsequent conveyances that purported to include the Strip were also made subject to the Railroad Easement. In 1963, the Central Manufacturing District Trust (CMD Trust) conveyed to a predecessor in Acme's chain of title land that included Acme's parcel--but not the Strip. Acme purchased its parcel in 1988. Then, in 1995, CMD Trust purported to convey title to the Strip by quitclaim deed to Schultze & Burch Biscuit Co. In 1997, Schultze & Burch purported to convey the Strip to Midland by quitclaim deed. From the time it purchased its parcel in 1988, Acme used the Strip to access its bordering property. On September 4, 1997, Midland filed a complaint for declaratory judgment against Acme contending that it acquired title to the Strip by quitclaim deed. Midland sought a judicial declaration that it held fee simple title to the Strip and sought to eject Acme from possession of the Strip. At the bench trial on September 22, 2000, Acme argued that the City owned the Strip; however, the City was not made a party to the suit. Midland presented testimony that a chain-of-title search of Chicago Title Co.'s tract books from 1870 to 1916 uncovered no deeds of conveyance from any record owner of the Strip to the City. Acme countered with testimony that the Peltzer Atlas and the City's 80 Acre Map showed the Strip as part of Ullman Street. The trial court held that the City owned the Strip and entered judgment in favor of Acme. On appeal, this court found the evidence insufficient to prove that the City owned the Strip. Midland Properties, Co. v. Acme Refining Company, 1-00-3719 (unpublished order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 23). We reversed the judgment against Midland and remanded the cause to add the City as a necessary party and to afford the City an opportunity to present evidence of its ownership of the Strip. On remand, Midland moved for summary judgment against the City. Midland contended that the City had merely obtained an easement to use the Strip for highway purposes. Midland referred to trial testimony that the railroad used the Strip for its tracks from 1880 to 1994, and the City did not use the Strip as a street for that time. Midland contended that the City had thus abandoned its easement to use the Strip as a street. On February 18, 2003, the City filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. The City submitted evidence in the form of the 1865 Ordinance and 1865 Assessment and their related documents showing that it had complied with the procedures for condemnation set out in "An Act to reduce the Charter of the City of Chicago and the several acts amendatory thereof into one act, and to revise the same" (1863 Ill. Private Laws |
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