Dewey v. Whitney

93 F. 533, 35 C.C.A. 414, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2254
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 4, 1899
DocketNo. 68
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 93 F. 533 (Dewey v. Whitney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dewey v. Whitney, 93 F. 533, 35 C.C.A. 414, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2254 (2d Cir. 1899).

Opinion

SHIPMAN, Circuit Judge.

Some time in 1S83, Miss Maria Whitney, of Cambridge, Mass., and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Whitney, of New Haven, Conn., favorably entertained the idea of purchasing together a lot of land in the part of the Adirondacks near Lake Placid, in the township of North Elba, and of erecting cottages thereon. Mrs. Whitney left the mountains before a purchase was made. Afterwards, in September, 1883, Miss Whitney , bought for $450 a tract of three acres, known as No. 1, from one Brewster, and subsequently bought from Miss Florence Este a strip of land 30 feet wide, called No. 2, extending from the southwest corner of lot No. 1 to the highway, and thence to Mirror Lake, and took both deeds in her own name. The strip to the highway was for a roadway hereafter called the “Lane,” and the strip on the lake was for a boat house. Mrs. Whitney was informed of these purchases, and sent to her sister-in-law $215 for one-half of No. 2, and for one and one-third acres of No. 1. Afterwards, in consequence of the illness of her husband, she did not visit the Adirondacks. Miss Whitney bought for herself four other small parcels of land, built a cottage upon No. 1, and a boat hbuse upon 15 feet of the lake front of No. 2, and occupied the property until the autumn of 1893. She grew weary of the care of the house, and wrote in August, 1893, to Mrs. Whitney in regard to a sale of the entire property, who replied in the same month that, if the reservation of her strip (meaning the strip of No. 1) prevented a sale, she would make no opposition, but that she wanted to keep that piece of land. Miss Whitney replied that she would try to sell her share of the land, reserving the one and one-third acres above the Este lot. A deed of this strip to Mrs. Whitney would give her a right of way by necessity through the lane to the highway. Correspondence between Dewey and Miss Whitney ensued in regard to a purchase of her property, and she wrote him on September 8th that “my sister-in-law, who owns an acre and a third of the place, and who, I supposed, had consented to have it sold with the rest, has written me that she would rather hold on to it longer. I shall inclose a plan of the estate, copied from a map made by, the state surveyor a few years ago, and I will mark upon it the piece which belongs to her.” Shortly after, they met upon the property, when negotiations were renewed, which resulted in an offer by Dewey of $3,500 for the entire land, buildings, and their contents, with a few excéptions, and [535]*535excepting üie acre and a third. This verbal offer Miss Whitney accepted all too hastily by letter written on the train as she was leaving the mountains on October 6,1893, saying that she would be glad of a cash payment of $500, the residue to be secured by mortgage, and making a reservation of a few personal articles in the cottage. This letter was received, and Dewey entered forthwith into possession of the entire portion contracted for. Then followed the discovery by Miss Whitney that she had, in her hurried agreement to sell,'forgotten to take note of, and reserve sundry articles of, furniture; but these modifications were accepted. The oniission oí (he hoat-liouse site was first spoken of on October 12th in a let ter to Dewey, in which she says:

“There is also another matter that did not come into my mind at all since I left Lake 1\, and that is in regard to the land on which my boat house stands, and which belonged to my sister-in-law in common with me. I shall wish to make good the loss to her by purchasing a piece just as large on one side or oilier of the present boat house. Does the piece you have bought of Kennedy or of Snow include the land on the border of Mirror Lake, and, if so. will you sell me the desired bit, and at what price? If it is not yours, I must apply to Kennedy or to Miss lisie.”

Bhe inside an unsuccessful attempt to buy from Kennedy land for the purpose named in this letter, and on October 20th received from Dewey $• >;»(), which she had agreed to take as a cash payment, instead of !)500. It was then agreed that Mr. Chellis, a surveyor at North Elba, should make the deed, and Miss Whitney supposes that lie “understands all about the It,- acres which belong to my sister-in-law.” On November 20th, Dewey wrote to Mrs. Whitney for a copy of the description of her acre and a third. She replied on December 9th, proposing that the lane “now jointly held by you and me, by the side of Miss Este’s field, shall be continued for, say, 30 feet past my lower boundary line,” and “I shall leave the marking entirely to you of the upper boundary. The other three lines lie, of course, between your roadway (that is the roadway which was an eastern extension of the lane), Miss Este’s acre, and the Hillings line.” It was natural that Mrs. Whitney did not wish that the roadway, though it was originally a part of lot No. 1, should be taken as a part of her lot. Bhe would then have left less than an acre and a third in her inclosure. This letter was not replied to; but it appears by Dewey’s letter of November 29th to Miss Whitney that he at that time thought that the road running east from the Este purchase was a proper boundary. His explanation of this letter is that he had mistakenly supposed that this road was a distinct purchase, and was not a part of lot No. 1. The title of Mrs. Whitney in the fee of the lane was now brought to mind, and on December 3d Miss Whitney wrote to Dewey that it belonged to her sister-in-law and herself in common, and again on December 6th that the complication about the boat house and the lane did not occur to her until after the sale, and giving as the reason, which was undoubtedly the correct one, that, as her sister-in-law had been continuously away from the vicinity after the joint purchase, her pecuniary rights in the lane had passed out of mind. The Chellis deeds were sent to Mrs. Whitney on October 4, 1894, which con[536]*536veye'd to Mrs. Whitney one and one-third acres on lot No. 1, but which included in the lot a part of the roadway, subject to a right of way over it for his benefit, and gave her a right of way over the lane to the lake. A correspondence ensued for six months, which in part related to propositions for settlement of the controversy, and which it would serve no useful purpose to recite, but which ended in Miss Whitney’s executing a deed, acknowledged April 26, 1895, to Mrs. Whitney of part of No. 1, the undivided half of a piece of roadway in the southwest corner of No. 1, of 30 feet square (both parcels making one and one-third acres), the undivided half of the lane, and the north 14 feet of the boat-house site. A deed of the remaining parcels was tendered on May 13th to Dewey, with notice that, unless accepted by May 25th, Miss Whitney would rescind the contract. This action was thereupon commenced in the state court, and was removed by the defendants to the United States circuit court. The circuit court decreed that Miss Whitney and Mrs. Whitney should deliver to the complainant a quitclaim deed of the land in question, less an acre and a third, bounded as indicated in Mrs. Whitney’s letter of December 9, 1893, who was also to have a perpetual right of way over the complainant’s land, to be reserved in the deed. The decree also provided for the complainant’s mortgage deed to Miss Whitney, and limited Mrs. Whitney’s title to the acre and a third and right of way to the highway.

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Bluebook (online)
93 F. 533, 35 C.C.A. 414, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dewey-v-whitney-ca2-1899.