Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Robbins

81 So. 2d 193, 1955 Fla. LEXIS 3570
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 15, 1955
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 81 So. 2d 193 (Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Robbins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Robbins, 81 So. 2d 193, 1955 Fla. LEXIS 3570 (Fla. 1955).

Opinion

McNEILL, Associate Justice.

' This cause is before this Court on appeal by appellant, Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a corporation, the defendant below, from that certain Final Judgment in Ejectment rendered and entered in the Circuit Court of Volusia County, Florida, January 6, 1954, in favor of appellees herein, as plaintiffs below.

On April 17, 1953, appellees, as plaintiffs below, filed in the Circuit Court of Volusia County against appellant, Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Company, as defendant below, their complaint in the usual form in ejectment, alleging that appellant, as defendant below, was in possession of a certain tract or parcel of land situate, lying and being in said County described as follows, to-wit:

“The Southerly five (5) feet, more or less, of Lots Two (2) and Three (3), R. L. Smith and Company’s Subdivision, entitled 'Bungalow Court', as per map of record in the office of the Clerk of the 'Circuit Court in Map Book Six (6), page One Hundred Fifty-nine’ (159), Volusia County, Floridá, containing about l/10th acres;” '

to, which plaintiffs claimed title and defendant had received the profits of said land since prior to June 25, 1949, of the yearly value of $1,200 and refused to. deliver possession of said-land-to plaintiffs or to pay the profits thereof.

In due course the defendant filed three defenses as follows:

“1. That the defendant is not guilty.
“2. That the defendant denies that it is now. or was at the institution of this suit in possession of the lands sued for.
“3. That the plaintiffs and their predecessors in title have acquiesced in the boundary line as established between their property and the property of the defendant and the plaintiffs were fully aware of the construction by the defendant of valuable and extensive improvements on, a portion of the property described by the plaintiffs as the Southerly five (5) feet, more or less, of Lots two (2) and three (3), R. L. Smith & Company’s Subdivision entitled ‘Bungalow Court’, as per map of record in Map Book 6, page 159, public records of Volusia County, Florida, and yet made no objection to such construction of improvements; all of said improvements having been made by defendant on the assumption that it was the undisputed owner of the property on which they were made; [195]*195and by reason ■ thereof the plaintiffs are now estopped to claim title to said lands or assert a claim therein.”

As shown by the record, evidence and exhibits, plaintiffs owned Lots 2 and 3 in Bungalow Court Subdivision, as shown on map recorded in Map 'Book 6, page 159,-of the public records of Volusia County, Florida, said lots facing northerly on Taylor Avenue and extending southerly to the southerly line of said Bungalow Court. Near the south line of said lot 2 .is located plaintiffs’ Radiator and Body Works building, the second story of which was occupied by plaintiffs as their residence,' and. on the south end thereof is-a second story porch extending across the south side of said building; and- defendant .owned lot 1 of said Bungalow Court which' lies between -the east line of plaintiffs’ aforesaid lot 2 and the west line of North Beach Street and from the south line on Taylor Avenue to the south line of Bungalow Court Subdivision; and defendant also owned lots 1 and 2 in Stewart’s Subdivision, according to plat in Map Book 4, page 149, .public records of Volusia County, Florida, which map was recorded several years before the map 'of Bungalow Court was recorded, fronting on the westerly line of North Beach Street, the northerly line of said lot 2 of Stewart’s Subdivision extending westerly from the west line of North Beach Street along or near to and parallel with the south iine of plaintiffs’ aforesaid lots 2 and 3 in Bungalow Court', and defendant has erected on its said lot .2 a -building wall extending from near the southeast corner of plaintiffs’ aforesaid lot 2 westerly along or near to and parallel with the south line of plaintiffs’ said lots 2 and 3, and the primary issue in this case was whether defendant’s aforesaid wall at the rear of plaintiffs’ aforesaid lots 2 and 3 was on any part of plaintiffs’ said lots 2 and 3, Bungalow Court, and if so, to what extent.

On the trial of this case before a jury one H. F. Duval, a witness for plaintiff, testified that he had been a surveyor for many years; whereupon, counsel for plaintiffs propounded to him the following questions :

“Mr. Duval, this action is to establish the boundary lines between the Robbins’ property known as lots 2 and 3 of the R. L. Smith and Company’s Subdivision of Bungalow Court, and the Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Company’s boundary line in the Stewart Subdivision. . Have you had occasion to make a survey of either of these properties?” ■ .

To which the witness answered, “I surveyed all of it.”

The witness was then asked, “Did you make a plat of .that survey ?” The witness answered, “I did.”

“Q. I hand you this paper and ask you to state what it is. A. This is a plat showing the building of Robbins, as well as encroachment of the building of the Coca-Cola building.
“Q. When did you make that survey? A. This survey was made in 1950, November 29, 1950, and previous to that time.
“Q. You had worked on it previous ? A. Oh yes.
“Q. And this survey covers the lots-1, 2, 3 and 4 of Bungalow Court? A. Yes. ■
“Q. Two and three of which are in litigation at the moment? ' A. Yes.”

The witness then testified that there was a hiatus between- Bungalow Court Subdivision, in which plaintiffs’ lots' 2 and 3- were located, and Stewart's Subdivision, in which defendant’s lots 1 and 2 were located, of 1% feet; and he further testified, “I found that the Coca-Cola Company’s building encroached three inches over on the Robbins’ land. In addition to that there is about two inches I would judge of footing foundation. The Coca-Cola people were lYs foot, they jumped a 1% hiatus between Bungalow Court and the Stewart Subdivision. They come across that lYi foot [196]*196and over three inches at that point on the Robbins’ land. Fifty feet north of that I found that they had encroached six inches of that an inch or two for footing-. At the further corner of the Coca-Cola property I found them, I am testifying from memory, about eight-tenths over.”

Plaintiffs witness, Hugh F. Duval, Jr., testified that he had been a registered surveyor in Florida since 1941; that he surveyed lots 2 and 3, Bungalow Court, in 1949 with his father, H. F. Duval, and after describing the manner in which this survey was made, he stated, “So, I assumed at that time from my location of Bungalow Court and the location of Stewart Subdivision shown by the record plat at Beach Street there is a hiatus or space between the two subdivisions of approximately a foot and a half (1%')* Then in surveying out, as I said, the lines of the lots in Bungalow Court, that we are interested in, I noted the encroachment of the Coca-Cola plant walls. The north line, the west line of the lots of the Coca-Cola building encroached approximately eight-tenths (8/10) on to the lines of Bungalow Court property, as I determined them, and the east line at lot 2, at the corner of lot 2, encroached approximately three inches (3").

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
81 So. 2d 193, 1955 Fla. LEXIS 3570, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-coca-cola-bottling-co-v-robbins-fla-1955.