Fischbach v. Walker, No. Cv92-0335791 (Feb. 26, 1996)

1996 Conn. Super. Ct. 1412-PP
CourtConnecticut Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 26, 1996
DocketNo. CV92-0335791
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1996 Conn. Super. Ct. 1412-PP (Fischbach v. Walker, No. Cv92-0335791 (Feb. 26, 1996)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fischbach v. Walker, No. Cv92-0335791 (Feb. 26, 1996), 1996 Conn. Super. Ct. 1412-PP (Colo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This case is unpublished as indicated by the issuing court.]MEMORANDUM OF DECISION The instant case concerns the location of a common boundary line in North Branford. Pursuant to General Statutes § 47-31, the plaintiff Gerald Fischbach has brought an action to quiet title. Subsection (d) of 47-31 requires each defendant to state the nature and extent of his or her interest in the disputed property and the manner in which such interest was derived: The defendants Anthony and Dorothy Walker, husband and wife claim ownership of the disputed parcel by virtue of a deed from their predecessors in title. The plaintiff claims ownership pursuant to a deed from his mother. Since both sides assert ownership solely because of deeded titles, the doctrine of adverse possession, a feature in many quiet title actions, is not involved in this case.

At the trial, the court heard testimony from the plaintiff, the defendant Anthony Walker and their respective witnesses. CT Page 1412-QQ Several documentary items were placed in evidence. The court also walked the two lines, one claimed by the plaintiff and the other claimed by the defendants to be the true boundary, in the presence of the plaintiff, the defendant Dorothy Walker, and their respective attorneys and surveyors. From the evidence including established.

I.
The plaintiff received his title on September 14, 1987 in a quitclaim deed from his mother Friederike Fischbach. Friederike had shared the ownership with her deceased husband, the plaintiff's father Ferdinand Fischbach, as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. Ferdinand had placed the property in joint tenancy on January 20, 1964. Ferdinand acquired the property from John Wittmer on October 24, 1949. John Wittmer acquired it from Mary Abt on the same day.

The deeds from Abt to Wittmer and from Wittmer to Ferdinand Fischbach not surprisingly contain the same description for the land conveyed.

North by Highway known as West Lake Road;

East in part by said West Lake Road and land now or formerly of Willard R. Scranton;

South by land now or formerly of George F. Schwidtal, et al.;

West by land of George F. Schwidtal, et al now or formerly.

The descriptions of the boundaries in the deed from Friederike Fischbach to the plaintiff on September 14, 1987 are a seeming result of a surveyor's activities. On that date, she conveyed part of her North Branford holdings to the plaintiff and part to his brother, her other son Robert M. Fischbach. In relevant areas, however, the descriptions of boundaries in the deed from Friederike to the plaintiff are consistent with the descriptions in the deeds from Mary Abt to John Wittmer and from John Wittmer to Ferdinand Fischbach. Thus, in the deed from Friederike to the plaintiff, the following descriptions of boundaries appear:

North and Northwest by West Pond Road, CT Page 1412-RR formerly known as West Lake Road;

West by land now or formerly of land now or formerly of George F. Schwidtal, et al;

South by land now or formerly of George F. Schwidtal, et al;

North again by land conveyed by the grantee to Robert M. Fischbach, 208 feet by a straight line which forms on exterior angle of 84 degrees, 30 minutes with the westerly line of land now or formerly of Willard R. Scranton at a point therein distant Southerly 160 feet from the Southerly line of West Pond Road when measured along the Westerly line of land now or formerly of Willard R. Scranton, the street line of West Pond Road is assumed to be 25 feet Southerly of the center line of the traveled (sic) portion of West Pond Road.

The further descriptions of East again, North again and East again refer to boundaries of the plaintiff's land with land conveyed by Friederike to Robert. These boundaries are not involved in the present dispute.

The defendants' chain of title starts with a warranty deed from George H. Schwidtal to Lawrence R. Marjan and Eva C. Marjan executed on September 15, 1948. As there is no mention of survivorship in the deed, the grantees presumably received title as tenants in common. The deed stated that four and one-half acres was conveyed the boundaries of which were:

Northwesterly by West Pond Road, 210 feet more or less;

Northerly by land of Mary Abt, 1100 feet more or less;

Easterly by land of the Grantor, 154 feet more or less;

Southerly by land of the Grantor, 550 feet more or less;

CT Page 1412-SS

Easterly again by land of the Grantor, 110 feet more or less; and

Southerly again by land of the Grantor, 550 feet, more or less, as the fence posts now stand.

The description of "land of Mary Abt" as the northern boundary is in error. A correct description would be that the land of Mary Abt bounds the property conveyed by Schwidtal to the Marjans 1100 feet on the east. Also from evidence introduced by the defendants, George H. Schwidtal, the grantor of Lawrence R. Marjan and Eva C. Marjan, and George F. Schwidtal, mentioned in the plaintiff's chain of title as the westerly and southerly boundary is found to have been the same person.

In 1977, Lawrence Marjan was an old man who wanted to sell his property and move to Florida. He engaged Stephen Hanchuruck a registered land surveyor to prepare a survey. At the time Hanchuruck was employed as a surveyor on a full-time basis by the Connecticut Highway Department and did private work such as the Marjan survey on Saturdays. Hanchuruck began his work on the Marjan survey in May, 1977.

When preparing a survey, the first thing a surveyor should do is examine the deeds of record of the subject property and the abutting landowners. Hanchuruck found that the deeds he examined in the Marjans' chain of title and in their abutters' chains, were vague meaning either that boundaries were not described by metes and bounds or by monuments. One deed examined by Hanchuruck was from Mary L. Gahan, executrix under the will of James Gahan, dated May 29, 1913, whereby three parcels were conveyed to George F. Schwidtal, Hugo E. Schwidtal and Ottelia F. Schwidtal. In the executrix' deed, the three parcels are described only by an amount of acreage, more or less, and the names of burdening land owners. The land conveyed by "George H. Schwidtal" to Lawrence and Eva Marjan comes from the executrix' deed. Among the other deeds examined were the deeds in the plaintiff's chain from Mary Abt to John Wittmer and from John Wittmer to Ferdinand Fischbach executed on October 24, 1949. From these deeds, he was able to conclude that the northerly bound in the deed from Schwidtal to the Marjans was, in terms of compass directions, incorrect.

Lawrence Marjan walked the supposed boundaries of his property CT Page 1412-TT with Stephen Hanchuruck and pointed out what he claimed were monuments. Hanchuruck testified that the most important sources for his survey map were Marjan's pointing out the boundary line and the reference to fence posts in the Schwidtal to Marjan deed. In particular, Hanchuruck recalled Lawrence Marjan pointing out a cairn and a hickory tree as being boundary markets.

Hanchuruck's survey map dated June, 1977 is one of the exhibits in the case. Reference to it as "a certain map entitled `Property of Lawrence R. and Eva C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Loewenberg v. Wallace
166 A.2d 150 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1960)
Rompe v. King
441 A.2d 114 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1981)
Marquis v. Drost
231 A.2d 527 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1967)
DiMaggio v. Cannon
327 A.2d 561 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1973)
Faiola v. Faiola
238 A.2d 405 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1968)
Lake Garda Improvement Assn. v. Battistoni
280 A.2d 877 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1971)
Velsmid v. Nelson
397 A.2d 113 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1978)
Peterson v. Ramcke
99 A.2d 94 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1953)
Aunt Hack Ridge Estates, Inc. v. Planning Commission
273 A.2d 880 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1970)
Russo v. Corideo
129 A. 849 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1925)
Dawson v. Town of Orange
61 A. 101 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1905)
Borden v. Town of Westport
151 A. 512 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1930)
Spelke v. Shaw
155 A. 715 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1932)
Mentz v. Town of Greenwich
171 A. 10 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1934)
Turgeon v. Woodward
78 A. 577 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1910)
Pepe v. Aceto
175 A. 775 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1934)
Fanfesti v. Englehardt
238 A.2d 429 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1967)
Smith v. Martin
17 Conn. 399 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1845)
Raymond v. Nash
18 A. 714 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1889)
LaFreniere v. Gallinas
174 A.2d 46 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1996 Conn. Super. Ct. 1412-PP, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fischbach-v-walker-no-cv92-0335791-feb-26-1996-connsuperct-1996.