At issue in this appeal is title to a parcel of land originally planned, but never opened, as a street. The trial court held that fee simple title is vested in Appellees because their properties abut the parcel and, under Georgia law, a deed that conveys property bounded by a planned street also conveys the fee interest that the grantor held in the road unless there is a clear expression of a contrary intent. Because the trial court applied proper principles of Georgia law and the record shows that the grantor never expressed a contrary intent regarding ownership of the parcel, we affirm. Appellees Sarah O. Bowman and Dorothy P. Bryant live next door to one another on Cardova Street in Fulton County, City of Atlanta. The land in dispute here is a rectangular parcel, originally planned as a street, fronting 50 feet on Cardova Street and running between Appellees’ properties. The deeds to both Appellees’ properties describe one boundary of the property conveyed by reference to this “future street.”
The subdivision in which Appellees live was developed originally in the 1940s by B. A. Martin and the chains of title to Appellees’ respective lots descend from Martin. Martin was the common grantor of all the subdivision property and sold all the subdivision lots according to a recorded plat. The undeveloped parcel was designated on the plat as “Future Street.” The parcel, however, has never been accepted as a public street, either expressly or implicitly, by either Fulton County or the City of Atlanta following annexation. Appellant 1845 La Dawn Lane, LLC owns a 3.29 acre tract of land known as Little Woods that lies on the south side of Appellees’ properties. The parcel at issue abuts 50 feet on Little Woods. Little Woods was not a part of the subdivision and was never owned by Martin. Appellant contends that Martin never transferred title to the parcel, but rather, title to the parcel passed to Martin’s daughter as the residuary beneficiary under his will. By quitclaim deed the daughter conveyed “all right, title, interest, claim or demand which she had or may have had” in the parcel to Southern Investments Associates in December 2000, and Appellant acquired the parcel from Southern Investments, along with the Little Woods property, in February 2001.
