City View Cemetery Ass'n v. Salem Mausoleum & Crematorium, Inc.

305 P.2d 379, 209 Or. 199, 1956 Ore. LEXIS 286
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1956
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 305 P.2d 379 (City View Cemetery Ass'n v. Salem Mausoleum & Crematorium, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City View Cemetery Ass'n v. Salem Mausoleum & Crematorium, Inc., 305 P.2d 379, 209 Or. 199, 1956 Ore. LEXIS 286 (Or. 1956).

Opinion

BOSSMAN, J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a declaratory decree of the circuit court, which is adverse to the plaintiff. The latter is the owner of a cemetery. The defendants are the owners of a mausoleum and crematorium which was constructed within the plaintiff’s cemetery upon land purchased from it. The complaint sought declarations as to (1) whether the [201]*201defendants are required to contribute to the expenses incurred by the plaintiff in the maintenance of the cemetery roads, and (2) whether a small area in the cemetery upon which the mausoleum faces, and within which the defendants have erected a barricade, is a part of a public road. The defendants contend that (1) they are not required to contribute to the maintenance of the cemetery roads except one to which the witnesses referred as the “unnamed road”; (2) the barricade stands upon a parcel of land which the plaintiff conveyed in 1914 to Portland Mausoleum Company, a predecessor in title to Lloyd T. Eigdon, who was a defendant at the time the suit was filed and who died after entry of the decree.

The plaintiff-appellant’s brief states the issues submitted by the appeal in this way:

“ * * * Plaintiff contends that defendants are liable for half the expense of road maintenance necessitated by ordinary user of the roads by defendants and for all expense necessitated by excessive user of the roads by defendants, and also that defendant should be required to remove the barricade. On the other hand defendants contend they have no liability for road maintenance and have a good right to maintain the barricade. The trial court held that defendants are entitled to maintain their barricade and that defendants are not liable for the past, present or future expense of the ordinary maintenance of the roads, and as to these issues it dismissed plaintiff’s complaint with prejudice. As to the expense caused by extraordinary user, the trial court held that plaintiff is not entitled to recover in this proceeding and that the complaint, as to this matter, was dismissed without prejudice to any remedy by an action at law.”

The defendant, Salem Mausoleum & Crematorium, Inc., was incorporated September 13, 1927, although [202]*202at that time it had a different name. We shall hereafter refer to it as the Mausoleum Company. In the circuit court the aforementioned Lloyd T. Higdon, as trustee for Mt. Crest Abbey Mausoleum, was a defendant. Following his death an order was entered substituting for him as trustee-defendant Magnolia Eigdon, Arthur W. Smither and Brazier C. Small, who are the executors of the will and estate of the deceased and are also trustees of a testamentary trust mentioned in his will. Later, a motion to dismiss the appeal was presented on the ground of absence of proper parties defendant. It was denied. The respondents’(defendants’) brief appears to be oblivious of the fact that the motion to dismiss was denied and reargues it. However, the motion was denied.

The following sketch, which is not in scale, represents the part of the cemetery with which this case is concerned.

The plaintiff’s cemetery is in Marion county. Its principal thoroughfare is Center avenue, 33 feet wide, and running east and west. Those who wish to go to the defendants’ mausoleum generally drive down Center avenue to Summit avenue, a distance of about 1200 feet, where they turn to the left and, after going about 150 feet on Summit, are in front of the mausoleum. Upon leaving they may reverse the course by which they came or proceed a short distance on Holly avenue to Veterans’ Circle, turn north into Sedgwick, or, instead of turning at that point, they may continue on Holly to the city street shown on the sketch. It is seen from the foregoing that the patrons of the mausoleum have occasion to use Center, Summit, Holly and Sedgwick avenues. By returning to the sketch, it will be noticed that the mausoleum property upon [203]*203its west side abuts upon a roadway which we have designated an unnamed road. We so denoted it because

it remains unnamed. It is 24 feet wide and affords ingress to and egress from the mausoleum as well as the cemetery. Center avenue has been paved, but the [204]*204pavement is inadequate to the destructive effects of heavy vehicles. Sedgwick, Center, Holly and the unnamed road have been treated with a coating of crushed rock.

Prior to 1893 the plaintiff acquired the land which constitutes City View Cemetery and in that year filed the original cemetery plat. The latter was for only a part of the grounds which today constitute the cemetery. It consisted of six blocks and lies immediately north of the area represented by our plat. The six blocks were designated with the letters A, B, C, D, E and F. They were separated by thoroughfares such as Center and Sedgwick. Each block was divided into burial lots separated by numerous minor passageways. The plat of 1893 contained the following entry:

“* * * and said association for convenience in making deeds to lots, as on said plat appears, adopt the same as correct. And further for the convenient use of the said grounds, for the purpose of a burrying [sic] ground for the dead, the driveways, alleys, and walks are set apart for the use of the parties purchasing grounds in the tract of land designated on said plat, and for the use of visitors to said grounds, subject to all reasonable rules, that the association may from time to time adopt, restraining the use of the same at all times and under all circumstances, which right is expressly reserved.”

The area which is designated upon our sketch as mausoleum property is not located in any of the blocks which were shown upon the plat of 1893. The part of the mausoleum property which our sketch identifies as “original conveyance” (115 by 129 feet in size) is located partly in two blocks which formed a part of a plat which the plaintiff filed September 30, 1922, and entitled First Addition to City View Cemetery. [205]*205We will refer to it again later. The 1893 plat included the parts of Center avenue which are shown on our sketch. It also showed Sedgwick and Summit avenues, although it did not include the parts of them which are indicated upon our plat.

Laws 1882, page 34, section 8, which was in effect when the 1893 plat was filed, authorized cemetery associations to pursue the course which was taken by the plaintiff when the plat of 1893 was filed. It provided that organizations such as the plaintiff

“shall cause a plan of their grounds, and of all the lots by them layed out, to be made and recorded, such lots to be numbered by regular consecutive numbers.”

Section 5 of the act authorized cemetery associations to sell lots by reference to the filed plat “if intended to be used exclusively for burial purposes.” The act now in effect, Oregon Laws, 1947, chapter 565, section 20, (ORS 97.320) amplifies the provisions of the earlier act.

February 17, 1914, the plaintiff conveyed the parcel identified upon our plat as “original conveyance” to Portland Mausoleum Company. Through mesne conveyances it passed to the aforementioned Lloyd T. Higdon, as trustee. We have stated that the original conveyance was not a part of the tract shown in the plat filed in 1893. It was a part of an area shown in a plat filed September 30, 1922, and denominated as First Addition to City View Cemetery.

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305 P.2d 379, 209 Or. 199, 1956 Ore. LEXIS 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-view-cemetery-assn-v-salem-mausoleum-crematorium-inc-or-1956.