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Caminez v. Goodman

104 N.Y.S. 68 Court N.Y. App. Div. Decision date 1907-05-03 English

Delivered by GAYNOR, J.

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p. 68
CAMINEZ et al. v. GOODMAN.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.
May 3, 1907.)

Headnote

Highways—Dutch Roads—Abandonment—Fee.
Evidence held, to show a road extending through Brooklyn to have been an old Dutch road, so that, according to the law of the continent of Europe, on part of the road being abandoned in 1871, the city’s conveyance to plaintiff’s predecessor of a part of it carried good title.
Submitted controversy by Jacob Caminez and another against Maurice Goodman. Judgment for plaintiff.
The plaintiff asks for the specific performance by the defendant of his contract of purchase of a lot of land. Part of it lies in the line of what was the ancient road from Brooklyn to Newtown. The line of this road was straightened and changed in 1871, by a commission appointed under chapter 674, p. 1504, of the Laws of 1868, and the new road was and is called Flushing avenue. The city of Brooklyn thereupon conveyed to the plaintiff’s predecessor in title, who owned the abutting lot, the strip of land the title of which is in dispute, it being part of the old road which was left out of the new.
Argued before HIRSCHBERG, P. J., and HOOKER, RICH, MILLER, and GAYNOR, JJ.
Bernard Bloch, for plaintiffs.
Louis A. Sable, for defendant.

If the old road was a Dutch road the fee of, it was in the city, after the law of the continent of Europe, and its conveyance to the plaintiff’s predecessor was good. Dunham v. Williams, 37 N. Y. 251 . The capitulation of Long Island by the Dutch to the English was in 1664. If the road existed at that time, the plaintiff’s case is made out. It is mentioned in Riker’s Annals of Newtown, pp. 83, 84, as having been repaired in 1670, showing it to have been of some age then; and in Ostrander’s History of Brooklyn, vol. 1, pp. 101, 102, it is mentioned as existing in 1662 when the village, of Bedford was

p. 69
laid out. It is there called the “Cripplebush Road running to New-town.” As Bedford was between Brooklyn and Newtown, and Crip-' plebush between Bedford and Newtown, and there was only one highway from Brooklyn to Newtown, the identity of the road seems not to be open, to dispute.

Judgment'for the plaintiff.

Judgment for plaintiff, with costs, in accordance with the terms of the submitted controversy. AH concur.