Jacob Caminez and Albert Sklarek, Plaintiffs, v. Maurice Goodman, Defendant

Jacob Caminez and Albert Sklarek, Plaintiffs, v. Maurice Goodman, Defendant. Second Department, May 3, 1907. Steal property — municipal corporations—fee of old Dutch rpads in city of Brooklyn. . The fee of the old Dutch roads in the city of Brooklyn was in the city, after the law of the continent of Europe, and a conveyance by the city of a portion of one of said roads, left out of the new road in a proceeding to straighten it, passed a good title. . Submission of a controversy upon an agreed statement of facts, pursuant to section 1279 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The plaintiffs ask 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.-TheGine of this road was straightened and changed in 1871, by a commission appointed under chapter 674-of the Laws of 1868, and the new road was and is called Flushing avenue. The city of Brooklyn thereupon conveyed to the plaintiffs’ 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. Bernhard Bloch, for the plaintiffs. ■ ■ Louis A. Sable, for the defendant. [MAJORITY — Gaynor, J.:] Gaynor, J.: 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 plain tiffs’ 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 plaintiffs’ case is made out. It is mentioned in Hiker's Annals of Newtown (pp. 83-4) 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. 101-2) it is mentioned as existing in 1662 when the village of Bedford was laid out. It is there called the “ Cripplebush Road running to Newtown”.. As Bedford was between Brooklyn and Newtown, and Cripplebush 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 plaintiffs. Hirsohberg, P. J., Hooker, Rioh and Miller, JJ., concurred. Judgment for plaintiffs, with costs, in accordance with the terms of the submitted controversy.