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Blickenstaff v. Bromley

220 A.2d 558, 243 Md. 164, 1966 Md. LEXIS 515
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJune 21, 1966
Docket[No. 334, September Term, 1965.]
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 220 A.2d 558 (Blickenstaff v. Bromley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blickenstaff v. Bromley, 220 A.2d 558, 243 Md. 164, 1966 Md. LEXIS 515 (Md. 1966).

Opinion

Prescott, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal involves a set of circumstances which illustrates why the practice of the legal profession and the administration of the law are interesting.

Although there are quite a number of named appellants, the only issue presented for determination is whether appellants Charles L. Blickenstaff and his wife have acquired title by adverse possession to a small parcel of land consisting of about 0.1 of an acre (marked on the plat below with a large X).

In 1956, the appellees, Walter Bromley and his wife, purchased a 200-acre farm in Pondsville area of Washington *167 County. At that time, the farm had on it a few fruit trees, but since then the Bromleys have developed the land into an extensive orchard. When a drought developed, the water in a little stream located on the subject property became important to the Bromleys.

The main portion of the Bromley farm is located some 600 feet to the southwest of the Pondsville-Cold Spring Road (Cold Spring Road), as said road is now located. The Bromleys’ record title calls for a strip of land 30 feet wide and (about) 618 feet long “to the south side of the Cold Spring Road.” This description appears in deeds at least as early as 1891, and, apparently, has been followed ever since, without change. As the area is now laid out, it will be noted that the 618 foot line not only goes to the south side of the Cold Spring Road, but extends all the way across said highway and beyond, so as to include the little stream which is the cause of this litigation. The discrepancy seems to be accounted for by a change in the location of the Cold Spring Road. The trial judge thought it had been relocated, and both sides in their briefs and at argument treated it as such; hence, we shall do likewise. (Appellants do not challenge the fact that the appellees have record title to the subject property.) But, if said road were relocated, it had to have occurred more than 50 years ago, for none of the witnesses, some of whose memories went back as far as 55 years, recollected any change in location.

At or before the turn of this Century, the strip of land was used as a means of access to the Bromley farm from the Cold Spring Road, and vice versa. At about this time, the Mt. Lena Road was constructed. It abutted and paralleled the strip. The Bromleys’ predecessors in title closed off the strip and began utilizing the Mt. Lena Road many years before the Bromleys bought in 1956. For at least 50 years, no use has been made of any part of the strip by the Bromleys or their predecessors until about 1965, when the Bromleys began taking water from the stream.

The trial judge had this to say concerning the tiny parcel in question: “After the relocation of the road, the area in dispute was of no practical value [except possibly for water from the stream], was not fenced, was not cultivated or used for

*168

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Bluebook (online)
220 A.2d 558, 243 Md. 164, 1966 Md. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blickenstaff-v-bromley-md-1966.