Maryland State Archives

Appeal from Baltimore County Court

OVERVIEW: The lot owner, along with another deceased owner, owned lots fronting the water. Through an agreement with city commissioners, the two owners extended a market space in the water to a channel. The two owners had been collecting wharfage on the extended wharf until the mayor and the city council prevented them from collecting such fees and began collecting them on behalf of the city. The chancery court enjoined both parties from receiving any wharfage. The court first dismissed the bills against the mayor and council, dissolving the injunction against them and holding that the commissioners never gave a right of domain in the wharves and canal to be constructed to the lot owners. Their attempt to charge wharfage, therefore, was a violation of the spirit and meaning of the condition imposed by the commissioners, which declared that the canal, wharves, and streets on each side of the canal was to be a common highway and free for public use. The court then reversed the judgment as to the injunction against the mayor, holding that because the city was bound to cleanse the canal and to regulate and repair the wharves, the wharfage was the natural fund to defray the expenditure.

Appellate Court Records:

COURT OF APPEALS (Docket, Western Shore) Dugan v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1833, December Term, case nos. 34 and 35, MdHR 620 [MSA S414-12, 1/66/14/30]

Trial Court Records:

CHANCERY COURT (Chancery Docket) Cumberland Dugan and Thomas McEldery vs. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1805, Liber

CHANCERY COURT (Chancery Papers) Cumberland Dugan and Thomas McEldery vs. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1805, MdHR 17,898-1309-1/11 [MSA S512-2-1356, 1/36/1/xx]

CHANCERY COURT (Chancery Record) Cumberland Dugan and Thomas McEldery vs. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1805, Liber 144, p. 42, MdHR

Google map showing location of case:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=39.287637,-76.606776&spn=0.00563,0.01236&z=17