APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. JULIAN W. MACK, Judge, presiding. This was one of eight bills in chancery severally filed in the circuit court of Cook county by property owners in the city of Chicago whose property abuts upon the public streets of said city, against the city of Chicago, to enjoin the city from enforcing, as against their respective properties, the provisions of an ordinance passed by the common council of the city of Chicago on February 5, 1906, which ordinance provides that no person shall use any space underneath the surface of any street or other public grounds in the city of Chicago, or construct or maintain any structure thereunder, without first obtaining a permit so to do from the commissioner of public works in said city. The complainant Farwell is the owner of the northwest corner of Fifth avenue and Congress street, which has a frontage of eighty feet on Fifth avenue and one hundred feet on Congress street, and has located thereon an eight-story building of brick and mill construction. The complainant the Board of Trustees of Beloit College owns a frontage of fifty feet on Fifth avenue, upon which it has erected an eight-story building. The premises of the complainants are situated in the original plat of School Section addition to Chicago. That plat is a part of section 16, township 39, north, range 14, east of the third principal meridian, which was granted by the United States to the State of Illinois for the use of the inhabitants of the township in which the same is situated, for the use of schools. The plat of School Section addition to Chicago contains no certificate, signature or endorsement by said commissioner. Fifth avenue was one of the original streets in School Section addition to Chicago. Congress street was opened in 1851 by plat made by Samuel Russell, which was recorded in September, 1852, and which plat was acknowledged by Russell before the county clerk of Middlesex county, Con necticut, who was not authorized by statute to take acknowledgments of plats. The trial court dismissed the bill for want of equity, and Farwell has appealed. WILSON, MOORE & MCILVAINE, for appellant. EDWARD J. BRUNDAGE, Corporation Counsel, and WILLIAM D. BARGE, for appellee. Per CURIAM: It was held by this court in Sanitary District v. Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railway Co. 216 Ill. 575, that the plat of School Section addition to Chicago was a common law plat. Under the doctrine announced in the case of Sears v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 204,) the fee to Fifth avenue is in appellant, and the court should have enjoined the city from enforcing the ordinance against this frontage. The plat of Congress street was not properly acknowledged, and the title to that street remained in Russell, and when he conveyed he conveyed to the center of the street. The complainant, Farwell, was therefore the owner to the center of Congress street adjoining his property, and the city should have been enjoined as to the enforcement of the said ordinance as to the Congress street frontage. The principles involved in this case are fully discussed in the opinions filed in the cases of Sears v. City of Chicago, supra, and Tacoma Safety Deposit Co. v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 192.) The decree of the circuit court will be reversed and the cause remanded to that court, with directions to proceed in accordance with the views herein expressed. Reversed and remanded. THE NORTHWESTERN SAFE AND TRUST COMPANY, Appellant, vs. THE CITY OF CHICAGO et al. Appellees. Opinion filed October 28, 1910-Rehearing denied Dec. 9, 1910. 1. PLATS-plat of School Section addition to Chicago did not vest fee of streets in city. The plat made by the school commissioner of School Section addition to the city of Chicago did not vest the fee of the streets in the city but the city took only an easement, and the owners of abutting property own the fee to the center of the streets, subject to such easement. 2. The principles here involved are fully discussed in the opinions rendered in the cases of Tacoma Safety Deposit Co. v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 192,) and Sears v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 204.) APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. JULIAN W. MACK, Judge, presiding. WILSON, MOORE & McILVAINE, for appellant. EDWARD J. BRUNDAGE, Corporation Counsel, and WILLIAM D. BARGE, for appellees. Per CURIAM: This is one of eight cases brought by different parties in Chicago owning property abutting upon the public streets of said city, to enjoin the enforcement of the provisions of the ordinance set out in Tacoma Safety Deposit Co. v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 192.) The property here involved is described as lot 2 and the west ten feet of lot 1, block 97, School Section addition to Chicago. It is covered by a ten-story building, and abuts 165 feet on LaSalle street, 60 feet on Adams street and 60 feet on Quincy street. The part of LaSalle street upon which the property here involved abuts was acquired by the city, by condemnation, in 1858. Adams street is one of the original streets in School Section addition. Quincy street is in School Section addition but was not one of the original streets in said addition. It was laid out by plat, in 1854, made by Peter Pruyne and Edward S. Kimberly. The plat was not certified and acknowledged in the manner required by statute then in force. The circuit court held the city of Chicago owned only an easement in LaSalle and Quincy streets; that the Northwestern Safe and Trust Company owned the fee to the center of said streets subject to the easement of the city, and granted the relief prayed as to those streets. The court held the city of Chicago is the owner of the fee in Adams street opposite the premises of the Northwestern Safe and Trust Company, and denied the relief prayed as to that street. The correctness of this decree as to LaSalle and Quincy streets is sustained by Tacoma Safety Deposit Co. v. City of Chicago, supra, and Sears v. City of Chicago, (ante, p. 204.) In the case last cited, and also in Sanitary District v. Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railway Co. 216 Ill. 575, it was held the plat made by the school commissioner of School Section addition did not vest the fee of the streets in the city; that the city owned only an easement, and the abutting property owners owned the fee to the center of the streets subject to the easement. Adams street being one of the streets platted by the school commissioner in School Section addition, the city has only an easement in the street, the fee, subject to the easement, being in the abutting owners. The circuit court therefore erred in not sustaining the bill and granting the relief prayed by appellant as to all the streets mentioned, and for that error the decree is reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to sustain the bill as to all three of the streets mentioned and grant the relief prayed. Reversed and remanded, with directions. GEORGE J. WILLIAMS, Appellant, vs. THE CITY OF CHICAGO, Appellee. Opinion filed October 28, 1910-Rehearing denied Dec. 9, 1910. 1. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS—validity of an ordinance requiring rental to be paid for use of sub-sidewalk space. An ordinance requiring abutting lot owners to pay a reasonable rental for the use of sub-sidewalk space in connection with their property is valid as to streets wherein the city owns the fee, but it cannot be enforced as against owners of lots abutting upon streets wherein the city has only an easement, the fee being in the abutting owners. (Sears v. City of Chicago, [ante, p. 204,] and Tacoma Safety Deposit Co. v. City of Chicago, [ante, p. 192,] followed.) 2. SAME-city of Chicago owns fee of streets in Fort Dearborn addition. The fee of the streets and public grounds in the Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago must be held to be in the city. DUNN, J., dissenting. APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. JULIAN W. MACK, Judge, presiding. WILSON, MOORE & MCILVAINE, for appellant. EDWARD J. BRUNDAGE, Corporation Counsel, and WILLIAM D. BARGE, for appellee. Mr. JUSTICE COOKE delivered the opinion of the court: This is one of a number of cases brought by different property owners, each raising for decision the right of the city of Chicago to adopt and enforce an ordinance requiring property owners to pay compensation for the use of the space underneath the sidewalks adjoining their premises. George J. Williams, appellant in this case, is the owner of a leasehold estate for one hundred and ninety-nine years in lot 1, block 2, Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago, upon which there is a building with a frontage of 79 feet on River street and 106 feet on Dock street. The major part of the space under the adjacent sidewalks in Dock street |