Canfield v. Ford

28 Barb. 336, 1858 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 149
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 14, 1858
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 28 Barb. 336 (Canfield v. Ford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Canfield v. Ford, 28 Barb. 336, 1858 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 149 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1858).

Opinion

By the Court, Potter, J.

The only real question to be decided in this case is, whether the parties to this action have such an estate or interest in the lands in question, as is susceptible of partition by action ?

It is conceded that Jonathan Fuller was the original source of'title, and that he owned the entire estate in fee simple, in quantity and quality, and that the conveyance from him to the defendant, and from the defendant Ford to Canfield, and from Canfield to Chapman, in form and covenants, are alike. It is therefore sufficient to set forth one of these conveyances. On the 6th ¡November, 1847, Fuller and his wife conveyed by ' deed to Chillion Ford the defendant and to his heirs and assigns forever, all the mines, ores, minerals and metals, lying or being in, or upon the lands of the parties of the first part, situate, lying and being in the town of Depeyster, in the county of St. Lawrence, [describing three parcels of land,] together with the right to raise, work, and carry away said mines, ores, minerals and metals. And the right to put up all buildings, and to use all lands that may be necessary for the purposes aforesaid. And the right of ingress and egress thereto, and therefrom, for the purpose of raising, digging and working and carrying away said mines, ores, minerals and metals as aforesaid. And all the estate, right, title, interest, claim and demand whatsoever of the parties of the first part of, in and to the above granted mines, ores, minerals and metals. To have and to hold the above mentioned and described mines, ores, minerals and metals, to the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns foreverwith a covenant [338]*338to warrant and defend the same, in the usual form of a deed of warranty.

The revised statutes provide, that when several persons shall hold and he in possession of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, as joint tenants, or as tenants in common, in which one or more of them shall have estates of inheritance, or for life or lives, or for years, any one or more of such persons being of full age, may apply to the court for a division or partition of such premises, according to the rights of the respective parties interested therein, and for sale of such premises, if it shall appear that a partition cannot be made without great prejudice to the owners. Is the interest in question such an interest as comes within the meaning and intent of this statute ? Either of the terms employed in this statute would seem to include the estate of the parties in this action. “ Land,” in its most general sense, comprehends any ground, soil or earth, whatsoever, as meadow, pastures, woods, moors, waters, marshes, furzes and heaths. (Co. Litt. 4 a.) It includes all things of a permanent and substantial nature; not only the face of the earth, but every thing under it or over it. (2 Bl. Com. 18.) “ Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad ccelum, et ad inferos.” Tenements is a word of greater meaning and extent, sometimes, than land, and includes not only land, but rents, commons, and several other rights and interests issuing out of or concerning land. (1 Steph. Com. 158, 9.) “ Hereditaments” is a still more comprehensive term in law, and includes whatever may be inherited, corporeal or incorporeal. (2 Bl. Com. 17.) These terms, therefore, seem to be compre- / hensive enough to include the estate in question. I think there can be no doubt that the estate in question is an estate of inheritance. It is so by the veiy terms and forms of the grant. The difficulty suggested upon the argument was, how to describe this estate, so carved out of the whole fee. If it is an estate that can be partitioned, the precise description is not very material, nor is the question as to what would be the rights of the parties after partition, at all neces[339]*339sary to be discussed here. The latter question does not arise in this review. The counsel for the defendant has argued, with great force, that the right or interest which was conveyed as above stated is not a fee simple. In this, I think, he is mistaken upon authority. (2 R. S. 722, § 2.) It is not, however, necessary that it should be a fee simple, to entitle to partition. Whatever estate it may be, the owner has such an interest in it that he can maintain trespass quare clausum fregit for any wrong done to it. (Worcester v. Green, 2 Pick. 429.) True, Lord Coke says, “an inheritance in fee simple expresses the largest estate that a man can have in land.” But Littleton says, “ This doth extend as well to all fee simples conditional and qualified, as to fee simples pure and absolute, for our author speaketh here of the ampleness and greatness of the estate, and not of the perdurableness of the same, and he that hath a fee simple qualified hath as ample and great an estate, as he that hath a fee simple absolute. So as the diversity appeáreth between the quantity and the quality of the estate.” (Littleton, 18 a.) And so also Plowden says, “ that two fees simple absolute, cannot be at the same time of one and the self same land." (Plowd. 349.) That is, the mines, ores and minerals being land, a man may have a fee simple in them as well as he who holds the soil that remains unconveyed may have a fee simple, for they are not the self same land. A man may have a fee simple not only in lands, but also in advowsons, common, estovers, and other incorporeal hereditaments. So if a man grants to another all woods, underwoods, timber trees, or others, saving the soil, the grantee has a fee to take in “ alieno solo.” (Crabbe on Real Property, § 964.) The estate so partitioned, therefore, is an estate of inheritance, a fee simple. It is limited in" quantity, not in quality. It is carved out of a fee simple absolute, and the latter having lost this quantity of estate, is itself qualified to that extent, without losing its quality of a fee simple. The estate in controversy, I think, may also be classified among estates, as a “ corporeal hereditament;” and [340]*340comes within the definition of that estate, to wit, Such hereditaments as are of a material and tangible nature, such as may be perceived by the senses, consisting wholly of substantial and permanent objects, and may be comprehended under the general denomination of lands only.” (Steph. Com. 159. Bouv. Dict. 288.)

The class of cases referred to by the learned counsel for the defendant, which may not be partitioned, are cases of mere license, or authority to enter upon another’s land, and to do a particular act, or series of acts, without possessing any estate in the land. Such interests, it is true, cannot be partitioned. ' This class of cases is nearly allied to, and very often confounded with, a still superior interest in real property, called an easement, which is described as a liberty, privilege or advantage in land, existing distinct from an ownership in the soil, and is founded on a grant by deed, or writing, or upon prescription, which supposes one, being a permanent interest in another’s land, without profit, with a right at all times to enter and enjoy it.” (3 Kent’s Com. 452.) Such an interest, possibly, may not be partitioned. The distinction between the two classes of cases last above mentioned, and that of a permanent grant

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 Barb. 336, 1858 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/canfield-v-ford-nysupct-1858.