Baptist Church in Great Valley v. Urquhart

178 A.2d 583, 406 Pa. 620
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 13, 1962
DocketAppeal, No. 103
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 178 A.2d 583 (Baptist Church in Great Valley v. Urquhart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baptist Church in Great Valley v. Urquhart, 178 A.2d 583, 406 Pa. 620 (Pa. 1962).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Eagen,

This is an appeal from a final decree in equity restraining the defendant-appellants from constructing a road over a right of way reserved by the terms of a deed.

■ . The relevant facts, supported by the testimony and as found by the chancellor and affirmed by the court en banc, may be summarized as follows:

The plaintiff-appellee, The Baptist Church in the Great Valley, located in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was established about the year 1772. In December 1946, its land consisted of approximately seven acres improved with the church edifice. A portion of the land was used as a cemetery.

The defendant-appellants, Badcliffe Morris Urquhart and Marian W. Urquhart, his wife, were the owners of two separate noncontiguous tracts of land abutting, in part on the church property, which in December 1946, they conveyed to the church without the payment of monetary consideration. Their beneficence was prompted by a desire to extend and preserve the church property and its historical background.

One tract, hereinafter designated as Tract No. 2, contained about 1.75 acres and abutted Valley Forge Boad. The other tract, hereinafter designated as Tract No. 1, contained 5.21 acres.

The defendant-appellants owned other lands situated to the east and north of the tracts they conveyed to the church, and in the deed of conveyance they ex[623]*623pressly reserved a right of way, thirty feet wide, over the tracts conveyed, extending along the northerly boundary line thereof. This was for the purpose of ingress and egress from Valley Forge Road to the lands on the east that they continued to own. The reservation specifically gave them the right to construct and maintain a road over the right of way. However, the right given by the reservation was not asserted until late in the year of 1959, and the construction or use of a roadway over the thirty foot strip was never attempted until the year of 1960.

Moreover, the tracts conveyed had no common boundary line, were not contiguous, hence, the land reserved for the right of way was not continuous. In fact, the two tracts were and are separated by a corner of the land originally owned by the church which forms a triangular wedge. This area is a portion of the land used for burial and cemetery purposes.

In the deed from the appellants to the church, there were no terms which purported to create an easement in favor of the appellants over the originally owned church property.

In the year 1953, the church constructed a parsonage on Tract No. 2 of the land conveyed to it by the appellants. The northeast corner of this building extends out and encroaches over about two inches upon the thirty foot right of way reserved as outlined before. The appellants knew from the beginning of the construction of the parsonage and its exact location, but made no protest.

Also, in 1953, the church constructed another building on the same tract upon which the parsonage is located. This is used in part as a Sunday school building. Since the construction of this building, the church has improved and used a portion of the area of the reserved right of way for the purpose of a driveway leading to the building.

[624]*624In 1959, the appellants, for the first time, protested the encroachment by the church upon the area reserved fdr the right of way. In 1960, they caused a line of stakes to be erected and indicated an intention to construct a thirty foot road over the land reserved, leading to lands they own to the east, which now are to be developed as an industrial park.

In this action, the church sought and secured an order enjoining the construction of the road. This appeal followed.

The lower court concluded: (1) That the appellants do not now and never had the right to use the lands originally owned by the church, particularly that portion which separates the two tracts involved; (2) That the entire right of way being unattained and unattainable because of its interception by land in which appellants enjoy no rights, falls as a whole and, therefore, the appellants cannot use any portion of the right of way; (3) That appellants’ right of way over Tract No. 2 was extinguished by estoppel.

We shall discuss each question separately.

We agree completely with the lower court’s conclusion that the appellants have no right to use any of the land originally owned by the church. “ ‘A reservation is the creation of a right or interest which had no prior existence as such in a thing or part of a thing granted. It is distinguished from an exception in that it is a new right or interest. An exception is always of part of the thing granted, it is of the whole of the part excepted. A reservation may be of a right or interest in the particular part which it affects.’ ” Lauderbach-Zerby Co. v. Lewis, 283 Pa. 250, 254, 129 Atl. 83 (1925). Appellants conveyed to the church the entire title to the two tracts of land, reserving only a right of way across each. See, Hoffmaster v. Baird, 87 Pa. Superior Ct. 369 (1926).

[625]*625By its express terms, the reservation was limited to the two tracts conveyed. These terms specifically impose it only upon “the two tracts of land hereby conveyed.” Further, the defendants could not “reserve” an easement across lands they did not own. If the words of a deed are sufficiently clear to define the character and extent of a reservation, they speak for themselves and there is no room for construction against a grantor and in favor of a grantee: Walker v. Walker, 153 Pa. Superior Ct. 20, 33 A. 2d 455 (1943). They take their plain meaning in establishing the intent of the parties and the nature and extent of the easement: Witman v. Stichter, 299 Pa. 484, 149 A. 2d 725 (1930). There are definitely no terms in the deed involved purporting to create an easement over the original lands of the church. Nor can any easement arise by implication. The necessary elements to establish an implied easement were reiterated in Spaeder v. Tabak, 170 Pa. Superior Ct. 392, 395, 85 A. 2d 654 (1952). “ ‘To establish an easement by implication on the severance of the unity of ownership in an estate there must be (1) a separation of the title, (2) such continuous and obvious user before the separation as to show an intention to make the alleged easement permanent, (3) the easement must be necessary to the beneficial enjoyment of the land granted or retained; and (4) the servitude should be continuous and self-acting. Becker v. Rittenhouse, 297 Pa. 317, 325, 147 A. 51.’ ” Here there was no severance of title, since defendants had never owned the original church property, and the chancellor properly found that there had been no pre-existing use of a right of way across this property.

The appellants urge, as they did in the court below, that a mutual mistake of fact existed in that both parties believed that the tracts conveyed were contiguous. The court below found to the contrary. The chancel[626]*626lor, with, full opportunity to observe the appellant-husband testify and appraise his credibility, found that his “protestation of ignorance overtaxes credulity.” As further noted by the chancellor in his adjudication, “Had that been true as to defendants there would have been no occasion for them to prepare a deed describing the two tracts separately, with no common boundary. Previously defendants had obtained access from Valley Forge Road to Tract No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bayer, J. & D. v. Bauer, F.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
United States v. 0.08246 Acres of Land
888 F. Supp. 693 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1995)
Bausinger v. Ulmer
38 Pa. D. & C.3d 130 (Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas, 1985)
Owens v. Holzheid
484 A.2d 107 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
Moser v. Nocito
41 Pa. D. & C.3d 82 (Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, 1984)
Wysinski v. Mazzotta
472 A.2d 680 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
Pencader Associates, Inc. v. Glasgow Trust
446 A.2d 1097 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1982)
Brady v. Yodanza
425 A.2d 726 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1981)
Balog v. Marlow
30 Pa. D. & C.3d 170 (Somerset County Court of Common Pleas, 1980)
Piper v. Mowris
351 A.2d 635 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1976)
Craig v. Schwartz
48 Pa. D. & C.2d 248 (Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, 1969)
Frankford Trust Co. v. Manufacturers Life Insurance
47 Pa. D. & C.2d 547 (Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, 1968)
Hatcher v. Chesner
221 A.2d 305 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1966)
Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. v. Michel
211 A.2d 454 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1965)
Pantano v. Merrick
31 Pa. D. & C.2d 293 (Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 A.2d 583, 406 Pa. 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baptist-church-in-great-valley-v-urquhart-pa-1962.