Cavany v. Sherer

60 Pa. D. & C. 462, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 32

This text of 60 Pa. D. & C. 462 (Cavany v. Sherer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cavany v. Sherer, 60 Pa. D. & C. 462, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 32 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1947).

Opinion

Lamoree, J.,

This action is

brought by plaintiffs for the purpose of securing a mandatory and permanent injunction against defendants.

Plaintiffs are the owners of 2.44 acres of land, located on the New Castle and Mount Jackson road in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pa. Defendants own and occupy 2.11 acres of land immediately east of plaintiffs’ land, on the same southerly side of said highway. It is alleged by plaintiffs that defendants are wrongfully discharging certain waters, polluted and otherwise, from their land by means of [463]*463subterranean pipes, both of tile and galvanized iron, under their own land for more than 150 feet in a westerly direction to plaintiffs’ land and thence by said pipes to, over and upon plaintiffs’ land to the damage and injury of plaintiffs.

An answer on the merits was filed by defendants to the bill of complaint of plaintiffs. Plaintiffs filed a reply to the answer of defendants. Thereafter this matter came to us for hearing. It has been heard by the trial judge without a jury. From the evidence we made the following:

Findings of fact

1. William C. Cavany and Sadie S. Cavany, his wife, plaintiffs, are the owners of 2.44 acres of land located on the southerly side of the New Castle and Mount Jackson road in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pa., which they purchased in March 1945 from Albert J. Veri and Nancy M. Veri, his wife, for the sum of $1,400. The deed for said conveyance, dated March 21, 1945, was duly recorded on March 22, 1945, in Deed Book, Volume 333, at page 369, in the office for the recording of deeds in and for Lawrence County, Pa. Said land of said plaintiffs is bounded and described in paragraph one of the bill of complaint.

2. Charles R. Sherer and Maude G. Sherer, his wife, defendants, are the owners of 2.11 acres of land located also on the southerly side of the New Castle and Mount Jackson road in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pa., which they purchased in 1928 from Harvey William Sipe and Daisy E. Sipe, his wife. The deed for said conveyance, dated July 27, 1928, was duly recorded on August 23, 1928, in Deed Book, Volume 271, at page 55, in the office for the recording of deeds in and for Lawrence County, Pa. Said land of said defendants is bounded and described in paragraph two of the bill of complaint.

[464]*4643. Plaintiffs and defendants have a common ancestor in title. Defendants are grantees in the deed aforesaid from said Harvey William Sipe and Daisy E. Sipe, his wife. Plaintiffs’ immediate predecessor in title, Albert J. Veri and Nancy M. Veri, his wife, are grantees in the deed from said Harvey William Sipe and Daisy E. Sipe, his wife, dated January 26, 1944, and duly recorded January 31, 1944, in the office for the recording of deeds in and for Lawrence County, Pa., in Deed Book, Volume 328, at page 117.

4. Sometime after 1922 and before 1928, said Harvey William Sipe and Daisy E. Sipe, his wife, then owning and possessing the entire tract of land, which included that of plaintiffs and defendants, placed and installed the subterranean pipes in question.

5. Said pipes carried certain waters and drainage from the brick dwelling house already located upon the land, as well as the overflow from a certain artesian well located a short distance northeast of said dwelling house. These subterranean pipes carrying said waters ran for a great distance entirely under the surface of the land in a westerly and southerly direction to lands far beyond the lands of plaintiffs and of defendants.

6. When the tract of land was subdivided in 1928 by virtue of the conveyance to defendants of the 2.11 acres of land upon which was erected said brick dwelling house, no easement for the pipes in question was expressed in the deed.

7. When the tract of land was further subdivided in 1944 by virtue of the conveyance to plaintiff’s immediate predecessor in title, Albert J. Veri and Nancy M. Veri, his wife, of the 2.44 acres of land (now owned by plaintiffs), no easement for the pipes in question was reserved or any way expressed in the deed.

8. The record title disclosed no easement in the land that plaintiffs were about to purchase, and nothing in the deeds indicated that defendants had any rights [465]*465therein. Plaintiffs were advised to this effect before they purchased the land by their lawyer who examined the record title and made a lien search in their behalf.

9. Plaintiffs made a physical inspection of the land that they were about to purchase prior to taking title, and the inspection disclosed no tile drain pipe nor iron water pipe running from the dwelling house of defendants to, over and upon such land.

10. There were no apparent marks, or signs, or evidence of any character, which would indicate the existence of any servitude to plaintiffs prior to their purchase of the land, or to any one reasonably familiar with the subject, on an inspection of such land.

11. Defendants never gave plaintiffs actual notice that the land they were about to buy was subject to any servitude or easement.

12. The subterranean pipes and drainage arrangement in fact were not open, apparent or visible.

13. Plaintiffs were innocent purchasers for value of their land, without notice, actual or constructive, of the subterranean pipes and drainage arrangement.

14. On or about June 14,1946, plaintiffs commenced the erection of their frame dwelling house upon the said land, when during the excavation of the earth for the basement, they discovered two subterranean pipe lines (3%-inch tile waste or drain pipe line and a three-qparter-ineh galvanized iron, water pipe line) approximately three feet below the surface of the land. These pipes ran from an artesian, or spontaneously flowing well, and from the multiple family dwelling house upon defendants’ land, under the land of defendants for more than 150 feet in a westerly direction, to plaintiffs’ land, and thence under plaintiffs’ land and through the same, and thence under and through certain other lands far beyond, for a total distance of about one-fourth mile. They were so located [466]*466that they passed through plaintiffs’ land at the precise location where the cellar for their dwelling was being excavated.

15. Said pipes were so located that they drained into the cellar which had been excavated for the dwelling house of plaintiffs.

16. In order to prevent said waters pouring from said pipes from filling their cellar, plaintiffs were required to pour cement or concrete at and near the wall of their dwelling house, place certain steel rods for reinforcement in the foundation, and to excavate a large hole upon their land near their east line into which such waters might drain.

17. Notwithstanding the efforts of plaintiffs to protect their land from the flow of waters arising on the land of defendants, the same continues to flow intermittently thereon, creating a hazard to health, a nuisance, and otherwise impairing the use and value of the land of plaintiffs.

Discussion

This case requires some consideration of the law pertaining to easements and more particularly that of easements by implication. The tendency of the courts is to discourage easements by implied grants. The law is jealous of a claim to an easement by implication, and the burden is on the party asserting such- a claim to prove it clearly.

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Bluebook (online)
60 Pa. D. & C. 462, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cavany-v-sherer-pactcompllawren-1947.