Centerville v. Schlafman

151 N.E.2d 374, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 564, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 856
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 9, 1956
DocketNo. 2289
StatusPublished

This text of 151 N.E.2d 374 (Centerville v. Schlafman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Centerville v. Schlafman, 151 N.E.2d 374, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 564, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 856 (Ohio Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

OPINION

By DEEDS, J.

This is an appeal on questions of law and fact from a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County in which a permanent injunction was granted against defendants-appellants from ob[565]*565structing the use by the Village appellee of a certain right-of-way consisting of a road over the farm property of the appellants.

The cause is before this Court and has been submitted for review following oral argument of counsel, briefs and a stipulation by counsel representing the parties respectively as follows:

“1. To adopt and use all the pleadings and original papers heretofore filed in this cause in the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County, Ohio, as the pleadings to be used in this cause before this court; including the written opinion rendered by the trial court.

“2. To adopt and use as the evidence in this cause all the testimony and exhibits admitted as evidence on the trial of this cause in the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County, Ohio.

“3. Evidence, testimony, and exhibits excluded by the lower court on motion at any stage of the proceedings shall be considered as proffered in this court.

"4. This court shall pass upon the relevancy and materiality of all evidence admitted over objection in the lower court.”

In the transcript of the record of the testimony introduced on the trial in the Court of Common Pleas a stipulation appears in reference to the acquisition by the plaintiff-appellee of certain property involved in this action by deed of conveyance and lease as follows:

'“MR. JEFFREY: It is stipulated by and between counsel for the plaintiff and the defendants that the plaintiff is a duly incorporated Village under the laws of the State of Ohio, and is located in Montgomery County, Ohio.

“It is stipulated, further, that the Village of Centerville by-laws recorded in Volume 33, page 479 of the lease records of Montgomery County, Ohio, acquired the right to use and take for purposes hereinafter described, all or any part of the water in, and under, certain real estate.

“It is agreed that the description of said real estate shall be furnished and made a part of this record by copy of said lease.

“It is further stipulated that the plaintiff, the Village of Center-ville, acquired the fee estate title by deed recorded in Volume 834, page 58 of the Deed Records of Montgomery County, Ohio, to a certain tract of land, the description of which will be furnished to the Court by copy of said deed, and that this deed was dated November 19, 1937, and was filed for record on December 13, 1937, and runs from Wendell W. Lawson to The Village of Centerville, its successors and assigns.

“It is further stipulated that the deed contains the following language;

“‘Subject to the right-of-way of a 33 foot road adjoining and parallel to the East line of said tract.’ ”

The facts pertinent to a determination of this appeal are that the defendants-appellants, hereinafter referred to as defendant, are the owners of certain farm land, consisting of approximately 75 acres situated near the Village of Centerville, Montgomery County, which property defendants acquired by deed executed by Elgar Weaver and Elizabeth Z. Weaver, his wife, subject to a certain lease and conveyance by -deed referred to in the last stipulation as quoted herein above.

[566]*566It is undisputed, therefore, that by the terms of a 99-year lease, renewable forever, the Village appellee acquired control and ownership rights and the authority to pump water from a portion of the farm land of the defendants, consisting of a stone quarry comprising approximately 24 acres of the original acreage of the defendants, and being situated in the northerly portion of and being a part of the 75-acre tract referred to above.

It is also undisputed that the appellee Village of Centerville, by duly executed deed, acquired title to .37 acre from the predecessors in title of the defendants, and that said fraction of an acre is occupied by a pumping station located adjacent to the said quarry and that the said pumping station is owned and operated by the appellee Village for the purpose of pumping water from such quarry for use by the residents of the village, and also a part of the adjacent community.

It appears further from the evidence that the pumping station being owned and operated by the Village is located and situate at a place about 1100 feet distant, in a northerly direction, from a public highway known as Centerville Station Road, which highway extends in an easterly and westerly direction adjacent to and upon which the farm acreage owned by the defendant and involved in this action borders at its southerly side or limits.

It is undisputed further that for about 40 years prior to 1932, when it discontinued operation, a stone quarry was operated in that part of the property involved, consisting of 24 acres thereof and that in connection with the operation of said quarry, a number of families lived in houses located upon said property occupied by such quarry and other facilities, including a blacksmith shop, were also maintained, all of which operations made necessary a great amount of hauling and travel by vehicles from the said quarry to and between same and the public highway referred to and known as Centerville Station Road.

The record contains testimony by a number of witnesses and therefore substantial evidence of a trustworthy character, clear and of preponderating weight, that a road way and place of travel or right of way extending from the quarry and the facilities connected with same, including the parcel of land and pumping station owned by the appellee Village, had been used openly, extensively and continuously over and upon the land of the defendants, to said Centerville Station Road, for a period of more than 30 years.

It is the contention of counsel for the Village that a right of way by prescription has been established by clear and uncontradicted testimony and evidence; also that there was an implied grant of the right of way consisting and comprising a parcel or part of the defendants’ land, 33 feet in width at and including the east line of defendants’ tract and. extending from the pumping station and parcel of land consisting of .37 acre to the Centerville Station Road or highway.

It is conceded by the defendants that the Village is unquestionably entitled to a means of egress and ingress to and from the public highway and its pumping station, but they insist that it is by necessity only that the Village is entitled to such right of way and that therefore the [567]*567defendants are justified and wholly within the law in barricading, blocking and obstructing' the use by the Village of the easterly 33 feet of defendants’ land as a road and right of way, and admittedly the defendants have heretofore barricaded the Village from the use of the said' 33 feet as a right-of-way.

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Bluebook (online)
151 N.E.2d 374, 77 Ohio Law. Abs. 564, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 856, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/centerville-v-schlafman-ohioctapp-1956.