Bacon v. Onset Bay Grove Ass'n

136 N.E. 813, 241 Mass. 417, 1922 Mass. LEXIS 1057
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedMay 22, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 136 N.E. 813 (Bacon v. Onset Bay Grove Ass'n) 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
Bacon v. Onset Bay Grove Ass'n, 136 N.E. 813, 241 Mass. 417, 1922 Mass. LEXIS 1057 (Mass. 1922).

Opinion

Jenney, J.

The Onset Bay Grove Association, one of the defendants, was incorporated under St. 1877, c. 98, “for the purpose of holding personal property and real estate, where a wharf, hotel and other public buildings may be erected, and building lots sold or leased for the erection of private residences or cottages, under such rules and regulations as the association may prescribe.” Its real purpose as admitted by the answer of both defendants was “to establish a place where those who were believers in the doctrine of spiritualism could congregate, and where camp meetings especially for those who were believers in that doctrine, could be held.”

The plaintiff owns a lot of land with buildings thereon situated in that part of the town of Wareham known as Onset. The lot is part of a largely wooded tract of about one hundred and fifty acres situated on Onset Harbor at or near the head of Buzzards Bay, and owned in 1877 by the Onset Bay Grove Association. The natural advantages of the location were widely advertised, the place acquired almost immediate popularity and had a rapid growth, both of which elements of prosperity have since continued. A village of considerable extent now exists, having many inhabit[421]*421ants throughout the year, although it still depends for the most part upon summer residents for its existence.

The association soon after it acquired the land caused a plan to be made showing the division of the land into approximately seven hundred and ninety-one small house lots, a camp ground, many ways, parks, groves, squares, and reserved spaces. The original of this plan was recorded in the proper registry of deeds. Conveyances of property very generally, if not altogether, since 1878 have been made by reference to the plan.

The association conveyed to Jane M. Nickerson the lot which the plaintiff now owns by deed dated May 24, 1877, acknowledged on May 25, 1877, and recorded on November 17, 1885. Hall v. Sears, 210 Mass. 185. The entire description contained in the deed is "Lot numbered two hundred and twenty-six (226) on a plan of lands Onset Bay Grove Association, recorded in the Registry of Deeds for Plymouth County, Plan Book No. 1, Folio 58 as the same is set out on said plan.” The plan hereinbefore referred to is that described in the deed. The plaintiff by mesne conveyance has become the owner of the lot and has whatever property rights which vested in the original grantee. Her lot is on the corner of Park Street and Union Avenue, both shown on said plan, and has an area of three thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight square feet. Since 1890 it has had upon it two summer cottages now occupied by the plaintiff and her tenants in the spring and summer months.

The plan shows on Union Avenue directly across from the plaintiff’s land wooded spaces entitled “Pavilion Park,” "Union Square,” and “Waban Square,” and beyond these and continuing down to the water front "Prospect Park,” and near by “Bay View Grove.” On Pavilion Park, which contains about one and one half acres, the plan shows what the evidence discloses to be a speaker’s stand with seats'fronting it. The water front is about five hundred feet from the plaintiff’s property and the intervening land as shown on the plan wholly consists of these parks, squares, paths, and one avenue. This part of the plan is reproduced on page 419.

The main question is as to the plaintiff’s rights, if any, in Pavilion Park, and in Union Square, which has been treated and known as a part of Pavilion Park, the plaintiff contending that she has an equitable easement therein.

[422]*422No question of dedication or other public right is involved. See Attorney General v. Onset Bay Grove Association, 221 Mass. 342, where Camp Ground, Union Square and Pavilion Park were not included in the direction of a decree enjoining interference with the public use of an easement there held to exist as to parks, squares, water front, and beaches shown on the plans of the defendant association.

The effect of the reference in a deed to a plan has been considered in many cases. In Light v. Goddard, 11 Allen, 5, 8, it was said: “We do not think that a mere reference to a plan in the descriptive part of a deed carries with it by necessary implication an agreement or stipulation that the condition of land, not adjacent to, but lying in the vicinity of, that granted, as shown on the plan, or the use to which it is represented on the plan to be appropriated, shall forever continue the same so far as it may be indirectly beneficial to the land included in the deed, and was within the power or control of the grantor at the time of the grant. Certainly no case has been cited which supports so broad a doctrine. But, in the present case, it seems to us to be clear on the face of the deed that the grantors did not intend to convey any such right or privilege as that now asserted by the plaintiff.” In Boston Water Power Co. v. Boston, 127 Mass. 374, 376, where a plan was referred to in a deed, the court said: “It must be considered as making a part of the contract in each case, so far as is necessary to aid in the identification of the lots, and the description of the rights intended to be conveyed. All the particulars appearing on the plan and applicable to these lots are to be regarded as if they had been fully set forth in the deeds.” This language was quoted with approval in Lagorio v. Lewenberg, 226 Mass. 464. See Kaatz v. Curtis, 215 Mass. 311. Where land was “ bounded and described, according to a plan” the reference was said to have been made for the purpose of boundary and description and that “there is no presumption that a reference to one enlarges or adds to the easements otherwise conveyed.” Williams v. Boston Water Power Co. 134 Mass. 406, 416. See also Attorney General v. Whitney, 137 Mass. 450, 455. In Downey v. H. P. Hood & Sons, 203 Mass. 4, 10, reference to a plan was said to be “not only for the purpose of ascertaining the lot conveyed, but including the description of the appurtenant rights which were intended to attach. These [423]*423particulars were incorporated by reference in each deed, as if they had been recited at length.”

However, where land is conveyed by reference to a plan in the absence of an express grant no onerous servitude is created over other land of the grantor shown on the plan where such right is not necessary for the enjoyment of the premises unless shown to be intended by the parties to the deed. In determining the intent, the entire situation at the time of the conveyance must be considered. Prentiss v. Gloucester, 236 Mass. 36. Peck v. Conway, 119 Mass. 546. The necessity need not be an absolute physical one. Gorton-Pew Fisheries Co. v. Tolman, 210 Mass. 402, 410. Each case is to be decided by a determination of the intent as evidenced by the deed and the circumstances in which it was made. Lipsky v. Heller, 199 Mass. 310, 316, 317. Prentiss v. Gloucester, supra, at page 52.

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Bluebook (online)
136 N.E. 813, 241 Mass. 417, 1922 Mass. LEXIS 1057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bacon-v-onset-bay-grove-assn-mass-1922.