A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 25. 1998 (Debrecen, 1998)

Tanulmányok - D. Tóth Béla: Hajdúszoboszló és Debrecen határvitája a 19. század közepén

Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve XXV

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Boundary-line debate between Hajdúszoboszló and Debrecen in the middle of the 19th century

(History of a lawsuit of nearly test-case value)

Béla D. Tóth

Béla D. Toth’s study is concerned with a possessory action between two significant towns enjoying royal privileges: Debrecen and Hajdúszoboszló in the second half of the 1840s. The target of the suit is arguments about an estate at the point of contact on the boundary of the two towns.

According to Hungarian legal practice the boundaries of the estates were usually marked, in theory, by boundary mounds and straight lines drawn between the boundary mounds. This well-established custom was applied at the Elep boundary of Debrecen, too. In 1846 people of Hajdúszoboszló, virtually without any actual reason, violated this custom: they ploughed the line of boundary, harvested the crops from the land of the Debrecen owners. Debrecen immediately turned to the Lord Lieutenat of Szabolcs County to judge the case.

The essential point in the application was the request that the court restore the ownership rights of Debrecen. Hajdúszoboszló claimed the reassessment of the boundary.

During the trials the real cause of the argument was not clearly stated: i.e. what happened was usucaption of the estate. Usucaption as a legal category was known, but neither party was able to prove it credibly, so both talked about different things.

The debated case came to a conclusion in 1850. Then, the Royal Commissioner, Bálint Uray obliged the two parties to make an agreement. As a result, the boundaries were regulated again. However, the cadastral register was soon introduced and the boundary mounds lost their importance. The modem way of surveying , the general introduction of the measure of cadastral acre dramatically changed the previous customs and laws.