De Witt v. Van Schoyk

42 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 103
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1885
StatusPublished

This text of 42 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 103 (De Witt v. Van Schoyk) 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
De Witt v. Van Schoyk, 42 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 103 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1885).

Opinion

Hardin, P. J.:

Plaintiff’s complaint stated facts sufficient to authorize her to maintain a suit in equity for relief. (Town of Springport v. Teutonia Savings Bank, 75 N. Y., 397.)

First. It avers her ownership of the premises lying westerly of the highway as the same were located in January, 1871.

Second. That Yan Schoyk is the owner of the premises lying east of said highway leading from Scutt’s to Merrill’s, and that in the conveyance made in 1871 the highway, as it was then located, was made the dividing line between the owners of the respective premises.

Third. That the highway had been open, and used and worked for more than twenty years as a public highway.

Fourth. That plaintiff in order to reach her premises from her place of residence, which was some two miles distant, was accustomed to go south to a point and thence upon the highway leading from Scutt’s to Merrill’s until she arrived at her premises; and( that to [106]*106reach the buildings belonging to her she had been accustomed to travel in a certain track to said buildings from said highway, leaving the highway at a suitable place about thirty rods north-westerly from the point of intersection of the Tarbill road with said highway.

Fifth. That the defendants, in the spring of 1882, entered the highway leading from Scutt’s to Merrill’s, at or near the intersection of the Tarbill hill road with said highway, and there built a fence across said highway at or near the point of intersection and plowed up and destroyed the road bed and track and so obstructed the highway that the same was impassable and could not be used for highway purposes, and that the public and the plaintiff could not pass along the same; and at another point north-westerly from where the plowing was done they built a fence across the highway of logs and posts so as to form á substantial obstruction, and that the same was kejDt and maintained by the defendants; and that they inclosed and used the highway for the purposes of cultivation; and that the obstruction and nuisance remained unabated; and that the plaintiff sustains special damages by the closing of said highway, alleging that she and her servants were unable to get upon this land owned and occupied by her without additional labor, trouble and expense.

That the track used by her to reach her buildings is useless unless extended at least thirty rods, and that the plaintiff was obliged and compelled to go on her premises from said highway at another point in said highway, and that to make and prepare new track for her travel she would be put to a large amount of trouble and expense; and she avers she suffered'damage by reason of said obstructions to the amount of fifty dollars, and she also avers that the point at which she left the highway to reach her buildings was more convenient and suitable for her use, and that she was compelled to travel at least thirty rods further upon and across her lands and premises to reach the, public highway, and tread down and destroy the grass by reason of said nuisance and obstructions caused by the defendants.

The complaint contained a prayer for a decree that the defendants and their servants be enjoined and commanded to abate said, nuisance, and remove said obstructions and each and every of them; and that the defendants or their agents * * * and all [107]*107persons claiming under or through, them, or either of them, be forever enjoined and restrained from maintaining said nuisance or obstructions in any way or manner whatever, * * * and commanded the defendants to remove the same at once and restore this highway to the use of the plaintiff and the public, as it was prior to the acts of the defendants; and she also prayed for other or further relief. (Van Brunt v. Ahearn, 13 Hun, 389; De Laney v. Blizzard, 7 id., 7; S. C., Id., 66; Knox v. The Mayor, 55 Barb., 404; Hutchins v. Smith, 63 Barb., 251.)

It may be assumed in January, 1874, when the several conveyances were executed for the premises lying westerly and of the premises lying easterly of the highway'in question, that the several grantees were familiar with the actual location of the highway, and that the several deeds were taken with a knowledge of the actual location of the highway. Language found in the deeds is sufficient to show that the parties adopted the highway as the boundary line. (Rich v. Rich, 16 Wend., 663; Van Wyck v. Wright, 18 id., 157; Drew v. Swift, 46 N. Y., 204; Buffalo, N. Y. and E. R. R. Co. v. Stigeler, 61 id., 348 ; Lawrence v. Palmer, 71 id., 607.) The conveyance in referring to the highway in question as a boundary, used the following language; viz.: “ The highway leading through said premises from Merrill’s to Scutts’.” We think the recital of the existence of the highway and the evident intention of the parties to adopt it as a boundary, are sufficient to estop the grantees or parties holding under them from. denying the existence of the highway and from claiming the boundary line otherwise than as stated in said deeds. (Sinclair v. Jackson, 8 Cow., 586; Torrey v. Bank of Orleans, 9 Paige, 649 ; Jackson v. Hasbrouck, 3 Johns., 331.) Appellants insist that they were authorized to change the location of the highway by' virtue of a parol agreement, authorizing such change of location. We are of the opinion that the position taken by the appellants in that regard cannot be sustained.

First. If the parol agreement was made prior to the execution of the deeds, in the absence of any averment of mistake in respect to the deeds, and in the absence of any reformation of them, it must be held that the deeds are controlling evidence in respect to the intentions of the parties; and that if any parol agreement existed at the time of the execution of the deeds it was the intention of the [108]*108parties that the same should be abandoned and their several undei*etandings in respect to the boundary line merged in the written conveyance. If the parol agreement was made subsequently to the execution of the deeds, then the same was void under the statute of frauds as it related to an interest in real estate. (Marie v. Garson, 13 Abb. N. C., 210.)

Construing the agreement, if made as the defendants claim, it amounted at most to a consent on the part of the owner of the land upon the west side of the highway; that such portion as was necessary for a new road should be dedicated to the public or sold to the owners of the land on the west side for the stipulated price of eighty dollars. At law, such an agreement would be void because not in writing. In equity it must be treated as void because it lias not been executed and performed, unless it appears that it would be a fraud to allow the validity thereof to be questioned. Before such an agreement should be enforced in equity it must be made to appear that there has been a full performance upon one part, relying upon the existence of the parol agreement. Here it appears by the evidence that the eighty dollars never was paid. It appears that, in an interview held with the defendant Van Sehoyk, he at one time asserted that the consideration price was fifty dollars, and in that interview he declined to pay the sum of eighty dollars. While he was making changes he was notified that the parol agreement, as claimed by him, was repudiated.

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Bluebook (online)
42 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-witt-v-van-schoyk-nysupct-1885.