Adams v. Marshall

138 Mass. 228, 1885 Mass. LEXIS 159
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJanuary 10, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 138 Mass. 228 (Adams v. Marshall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Marshall, 138 Mass. 228, 1885 Mass. LEXIS 159 (Mass. 1885).

Opinion

Field, J.

The deed of Joseph H. Adams and Charles W. Adams to the defendant, dated April 1, 1874, as we construe it, did not convey the Tower lot. It bounds the premises “ thence east and south about eighty-six rods on the said Amanda Smith lot and Samuel Tower lot, so called, to the highway first mentioned.” If it had been the intention to include the Tower lot in the grant, this boundary would have been on the Amanda Smith lot to the highway. A boundary on a lot ordinarily excludes the lot.

A comparison of the description of the granted premises in the other deeds recited in the exceptions only confirms the construction we have given to this deed to the defendant, and makes it certain that it conveyed only the original homestead of Joseph Adams, which he devised to Benjamin Adams, and which did not include the Tower lot. The court therefore properly refused to rule “ that the line should run according to the westerly line of the Tower lot.” The boundary was the easterly line of the Tower lot.

Oral evidence was inadmissible to show that the parties intended that “the Tower lot should pass to the defendant by this deed; ” and there is no other exception to the finding of the presiding justice that the easterly line of the Tower,lot was the true line.

It is not denied by the plaintiff, that, so far as the barn was situated on the land conveyed, it passed to the defendant by virtue of the deed. One claim of the plaintiff is, that the [234]*234defendant in cutting off the easterly end of the barn cut over the line, and upon the land of the plaintiff, and this the presiding justice has found to be true, and has assessed damages therefor.

The defendant asked the court to rule that the whole barn passed to the defendant as parcel of, or appurtenant to, the homestead of Joseph Adams. This was rightly refused. There is no mention of the barn in the deed to the defendant; the premises are conveyed by metes and bounds. Whatever title the defendant has in the barn has been acquired because the barn was so attached to the realty as to have become a part of it, and therefore that part of the barn which was within the boundaries of the land conveyed to him passed to him by the deed as a part of the premises conveyed. The use of the whole barn was not necessary to the enjoyment of the premises granted, and there are no words in the deed whereby the grant can be extended beyond the boundaries of the land.

The plaintiff contended that he had a right to have tho whole barn remain as it was at the time of the conveyance to the defendant, and that the defendant had no right to cut oh? the portion of it which was on his land, and thus deprive thu portion on the plaintiff’s land of the support and shelter whicl - the easterly end of the barn afforded. The defendant asked the court to rule “ that the plaintiff had no right or servitude oí support for the part of the barn which was on the plaintiff’s land.” This ruling was refused, and damages were assessed “ for the loss of support to the plaintiff, and for loss of sheltei to the plaintiff’s part of the barn.”

The plaintiff relies upon Pierce v. Dyer, 109 Mass. 374 The only point decided in that case was, that, when the owner of a dwelling-house conveys to two persons distinct parts of it, separated vertically by an imaginary plane, there is no implied obligation on one grantee to keep his part in repair for the benefit of the other part. The opinion, however, assumes as settled, “ that, where two or more houses, so constructed as to require mutual support, are conveyed to different owners, or where separate portions of one dwelling become vested in different owners, a right of support, as incident to the property, passes by the conveyance to each grantee, unless excluded by the terms of [235]*235the grant; ” and Richards v. Rose, 9 Exch. 218, is cited. The court also say: “ It is to be considered that the necessity which lies at the foundation of the right arises from the existing relations of artificial structures, for the time being constituting part of the freehold, but liable to be destroyed by the action of the elements or by mere lapse of time. When thus destroyed, it is fair to presume that the parties intend, in the absence of any agreement, that the easement shall end with the necessity which created it.” In Richards v. Rose, the declaration alleged that the plaintiff owned a messuage and dwelling-house, and was entitled to have the same supported by the adjoining land and premises of the defendant; that the defendant dug a drain, and removed a part of his land, and thereby deprived the messuage and dwelling-house of the plaintiff of the support to which she was entitled, whereby the walls of her house cracked and gave way. No question of the right of shelter as distinguished from the right of the plaintiff to have her house supported by the defendant’s premises arose; and the declaration apparently proceeds upon the ground that the plaintiff’s right of support to her land and building had been invaded by the removal of the support afforded by the defendant’s land. The case finds that the plaintiff’s and defendant’s houses adjoined each other on the same street, and had been originally the property of the same person, who had demised them to one person by separate instruments, and the lessee had mortgaged his interest in both, and the mortgagee under a power had sold the leasehold interest in one to the plaintiff, in July, 1849, and in the other to the defendant, in September following. The action therefore was between the holders of leasehold estates derived from the same owner, “ to recover compensation for damage done to the plaintiff’s house by the disturbance of its foundations.” The defendant contended that there was no evidence that the plaintiff’s title was prior to that of the defendant; but the court held that the question of priority did not affect the matter; assumed that the houses were all built together, and each obviously required the support of its neighbors for their common protection and security; and further held that in such a case there is either by a presumed grant or a presumed reservation a right to such mutual support.

[236]*236The law in this Commonwealth relating to reservations which are implied by law in favor of the grantor in a deed was carefully considered in Carbrey v. Willis, 7 Allen, 364. The distinction is taken between a conveyance of a messuage, house, farm, manor, or mill, and a conveyance by metes and bounds; by the former, many things pass which have been used with the principal thing, as parcel of, or appurtenant to, the granted premises, which will not pass by the latter. Whatever is included or excluded from the grant by reason of the construction given to the deed, is included or excluded by the terms of the deed. By grants or reservations by implication of law are meant such as the law implies from the circumstances, and which are not found by construction in the contract. The court refused to follow Pyer v. Carter, 1 H. & N.

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Bluebook (online)
138 Mass. 228, 1885 Mass. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-marshall-mass-1885.