Brakely v. Sharp

9 N.J. Eq. 9
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedMay 15, 1852
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 9 N.J. Eq. 9 (Brakely v. Sharp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brakely v. Sharp, 9 N.J. Eq. 9 (N.J. Ct. App. 1852).

Opinion

The Chancellor.

Upon the complainant filing his bill, on the 31st day of October last, an injunction was issued, by order of the Chancellor, restraining the defendants from' interrupting the flow of water upon the complainant’s land, through an artificial channel constructed for the purpose.

The defendants have answered, and ask for a dissolution of the injunction.

The case is, as briefly as it can well be stated, this : Christian Sharp was the owner of a valuable farm of about four hundred acres, situate and lying on the northwest and southeast side of the public road leading from Belvidere to Easton. On the southeast side of the road was his dwelling-house, and on the same side a distillery, which he carried on\ for many years. Running through the northwest part of the farm was a stream of water, taking its rise about three hun-/ dred yards above the public road, and losing itself in a farirj below Mr. Sharp’s. ;

In the year 1810, he placed bored, logs or wooden pipes| from the head of the stream, and by them conveyed theft water, for its more convenient use, to his dwelling-hous® and distillery. In 1813, he erected on the north side oi\ [11]*11the road, a new dwelling-house, and so arranged the aqueduct as to supply the new dwelling with water. Year this new dwelling, and on the northwest side of the road, he placed in the pipes a fixture called an upright, with a metallic cook, by which he turned, at his pleasure, all the water running through the aqueduct, or let it pass down to the distillery and dwelling-house. By turning the cock, all the water would be discharged through it at the upright, thence to the public road referred to, thence down the road until it emptied into the natural water-course where it crossed the highway.

On the 3d of April, 1826, Sharp conveyed to the complainant one hundred and forty-three acres of land, lying on the southeast side of the farm, on which this stream of water, in its natural channel, flowed ; and in the deed of conveyance was a covenant that the grantee might enter upon the lands of the grantor, and clear out the watercourse, so as to remove any obstructions to its natural flow to the lands conveyed. This covenant has no reference whatever to the artificial water-course.

About the year 1835 Christian Sharp died intestate, leaving him surviving his widow, Elizabeth Maria Sharp, one of the defendants, and Henry Sharp, and some others of the defendants in the suit, his heirs-at-law.

Such proceedings were had in the Orphans Court of the county of Warren, that the portion of the land lying on the northwest side of the road, and on which was situate the new dwelling-house, the aqueduct and spring of water was assigned, part to the widow for her dower, and the residue to Henry Sharp. Subsequently, by order of the same court, the commissioners, on the 16th day of Yovember, 1837, sold to John Strader and William M’Kinney that portion of the land lying on the southeast side of the public road.

Through several mesne conveyances, the title to this land sold to Strader and M’Kinney became vested in the complainant. The date of the deed is not given in the pleadings. It must, however, have been subsequent to the third of March, 1842, the date of the deed to his Immediate [12]*12grantor. I think Cainrel agreed it was dated the first of April, 1851.

The several deeds through which the land passed from the commissioners to the complainant are in the usual form, and, with the exception of that of the commissioners, are deeds with full covenants.

The distillery was abandoned some time before Sharp’s death.

The bill alleges that the water had been used on the premises now the complainant’s, through the log aqueduct, from the year 1810, by Christian Sharp, and by all who have held under him, up to the time it was interfered with by the defendants, on the first day of April, 1851, and that the aqueduct had been repaired during that time by the owners and tenants of the complainant’s land.

The complainant insists that the deeds of conveyance under which he holds conveyed to the several grantees all the rights,- liberties, privileges, hereditaments and appurtenances that the said Christian Sharp was seized and possessed of at the time of his death, and that the flow of water through the aqueduct was a necessary appurtenance to the said farm.

He claims the right to the use of the water when it is not needed on the land above the road, and not exhausted there through the upright for that purpose, and that he has a right to go upon the land of Elizabeth M. Sharp and Henry Sharp to repair the aqueduct. He also claims these privileges by virtue of the possession and enjoyment of those under whom he holds, for more than twenty years.

Can the complainant maintain these rights as an easement upon the lands of Elizabeth and Henry Sharp ? If so, he must claim this easement by one of two ways, or both : by grant, or adverse possession for twenty years, which implies a grant. To these two modes of acquiring an easement there has been, by some jurists, added that by necessity. As, where a man grants land in the middle of his field, by necessity a right of way to the land granted exists over the grantor’s land. But this mode of acquisition may properly [13]*13■be classed under the head of title, or right by grant. It flows by necessity from the grant — it is incident to the thing granted. It is the construction put by legal tribunals upon the grant, in conformity to the well-established principle of law that, where a man grants a thing, he grants with it everything necessary to its enjoyment. See note in 1 1 Saund. Rep. 323.

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Bluebook (online)
9 N.J. Eq. 9, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brakely-v-sharp-njch-1852.