Dedication

An appropriation of land to some public use, made by the owner, and accepted for such use by or on behalf of the public. Angell, Highways, c.

Ill, § 132.

There may be a dedication for pious and charitable purposes, as well as for public easements.

32 Barb. (N. Y.) 222.

Dedications are either — (1) Statutory, being those in pursuance of a statute, or (2) Common law, being that implied by acquiescence in the public user. It operates not by grant, but by estoppel. 9 Iowa, 451. "In common-law dedication, no particular formality is necessary. It is not affected by the statute of frauds. It may be made, either with or without writing, by any act of the owner, such as throwing open his land to public travel, or platting it and selling lots bounded by streets designated in the plat, thereby indicating a clear intention to dedicate. Or an acquiescence in the use of his land for a highway, or his declared assent to such use, will be sufficient; the dedications being proved in most, if not all, of the cases by matter in pais, and not by deed. The vital principle of the dedication is the intention to dedicate; and whenever this is unequivocally manifested, the dedication, so far as the owner of the soil is concerned, has been made. Time, therefore, though often a very material ingredient in the evidence, is not an indispensable ingredient in the act of dedication. If accepted and used by the public in the manner intended, the dedication is complete, precluding the owner and all claiming in his right from asserting any ownership inconsistent with such use. Dedication, therefore, is a conclusion of fact to be drawn by the jury from the circumstances of each particular case; the whole _ question, as against the owner of the soil, being whether there is sufficient evidence of an intenti6n on his part to dedicate the land to the public use as a highway."

14 Cal. 642.