Healey v. Smith Carriage Co.

163 N.E. 856, 265 Mass. 203, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1358
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedNovember 28, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 163 N.E. 856 (Healey v. Smith Carriage Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Healey v. Smith Carriage Co., 163 N.E. 856, 265 Mass. 203, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1358 (Mass. 1928).

Opinion

Pierce, J.

This is a bill in equity to enj pin the defendants from further proceeding with the erection of-a bridge over Peabody Lane, in the city of Springfield, from the property of the defendant Guy E. Boynton or the defendant Marian A. Boynton to the property of the defendant Smith Carriage Company. The case is before this court on appeal of the plaintiffs from an interlocutory decree overruling exceptions to and confirming the master’s report, and from the final decree dismissing the plaintiffs’ bill with costs.

The exceptions of the plaintiffs relate solely to findings of fact. As the evidence is not reported, the question for decision is, Did the facts found require a decree as prayed for in the bill of complaint?

The master found the following facts: “The location of Peabody Lane, formerly known as Taylor Avenue, is shown on a map of the city of Springfield, bearing the date 1851 and on another such map bearing the date 1860, and as far back as the year 1860 [the lane] was open and in use substantially in its present location.” The heirs of one Taylor, by deed dated November 22,1864, conveyed to the city of Springfield “a tract of land approximately rectangular in shape, extending East and West from Main to Willow Street, North to land of one David Bush and South to land of one David Smith. . . . this deed made no specific mention of Peabody Lane or Taylor Avenue. Peabody Lane or Taylor Avenue [205]*205as used and laid out extended and still extends from East to West through the land so acquired by said City, which land lies both to the North and to the South of said Lane. . . . The surface of said Lane is dirt of substantially the same appearance from side to side and end to end and without sidewalks. The city of Springfield has maintained a sewer since about 1900 and has also maintained a water main under said Lane which are entered and used by some of the property owners abutting on said Lane . . . the passageway now in existence and known as Peabody Lane . . . has been and is now used as a way substantially twelve feet in width for its entire length, for access to property abutting thereon . . . and as a free and unobstructed means of access by the public between . . . Main Streét and Willow Street under the circumstances and to the extent [[set out in the master’s report] . . . since said Lane and Avenue has been laid out it has been used by abutters thereon as a means of access to light, air and prospect for said property, the buildings thereon and the occupants thereof.”

After acquiring title to the above described tract the city of Springfield in 1865 conveyed the land to grantees in the order which follows: May 5, 1865, to Thomas McLaughlin, a portion of the tract on the southerly side of a “contemplated passageway” (Peabody Lane) on the westerly side of Willow Street; “no right to use said passageway or to have the same kept open is hereby conveyed.” The defendant Smith Carriage Company, at the time of the construction of the bridge in question, was the owner of the land conveyed to McLaughlin and was also the owner of land adjoining on the west which was the southerly portion of land conveyed to David Smith May 31, 1865.

On May 8,1865, the city conveyed to one Burke a portion of the tract north of and adjoining the land of McLaughlin and immediately west of Willow Street. The premises conveyed “are subject to a right of way on the Southerly side . . . twelve feet in width for the benefit of the land sold by the City to David Smith in the rear to whose deed reference may be had for a more particular description of this right.” The premises conveyed to Burke, through mesne [206]*206conveyances on January 31, 1914, passed to and was vested in the defendant Guy E. Boynton. The defendant Alden Manufacturing Company was at the time of the construction of the bridge mentioned in the plaintiff’s bill of complaint “lessee under a written lease from said Guy E. Boynton of the premises at the Northeast corner of said Peabody Lane and Willow Street” and also lessee under the defendant Marian E. Boynton, then owner of a strip adjoining said land conveyed to Guy E. Boynton on the west about forty feet in width, and which formed a part of the land conveyed to David Smith.

On May 31, 1865, the city conveyed to one Betsy Bush that portion of said tract which immediately adjoins to the north land conveyed on the same day to Sarah Peabody; the part so conveyed to Bush lies immediately to the east of Main Street. The deed reserved to the grantors “their successors and assigns the right to the free and unobstructed use of a passageway twelve (12) feet in width on the southerly side of said tract. Said right of way to be appurtenant to the part of the Taylor lot bargained to David Smith but not to those lots which front on Willow St. or Main St. South of sd tract.”

By deed dated' May 31, 1865, the city conveyed to Sarah Peabody a portion of said tract which immediately adjoins to the south the portion conveyed to Betsy Bush. No mention is made in the deed of the passageway, Peabody Lane.

By deed dated May 31, 1865, the city conveyed to David Smith the rest of the tract conveyed to the city by the Taylor heirs, with “the right to use for all purposes of a way a passageway twelve feet in width from sd tract to Willow St. North of land of sd McLoughlin, also the same right in a passageway twelve feet in width to Main Street on the south side of the land conveyed by said City to Betsey Bush.” “At the time of said conveyance . . . Smith . . . owned other land immediately adjoining to the south the land acquired by said city from the heirs of said Taylor.” The'plaintiffs became owners, as joint tenants, of two interior lots on the northerly side of Peabody Lane, under two deeds of James G. Dunning, administrator, both dated [207]*207April 21, 1916. These lots are a part of the land conveyed to David Smith and through mesne conveyance are vested in the plaintiffs with all the rights, privileges and appurtenances which attached to and inhered in the Smith land.

The master finds that the lots excluded from the appurtenancy were the lands conveyed by the city to McLaughlin, the land conveyed to Peabody and the land conveyed to Burke “if said land so conveyed to Burke is within the fair meaning of the following words used in said deed to Bush, ‘Said right of way to be appurtenant to the part of the Taylor lot bargained to David Smith but not to those lots which front upon Willow Street or Main Street south of said tract.’ ”

After negotiations it was agreed by and between the defendants Alden Manufacturing Company and Smith Carriage Company that an overhead bridge should be constructed from the second floor of the building occupied by the Alden Manufacturing Company, to the north of said lane, to that portion of the second floor of the building owned by the Smith Carriage Company, to the south of said lane, which was to be leased to the Alden Manufacturing Company; and it was further agreed that the bridge should be constructed at the order of the Smith Carriage Company and paid for by the Alden Manufacturing Company. “Said bridge was to be used as a means of access by the . . . Alden Manufacturing Company from one building to the other.” After these negotiations á permit was granted to the Smith Carriage Company for such construction by the building department of the city of Springfield.

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

Related

Shear v. Sylvia
Massachusetts Land Court, 2021
Guinness Import Co. v. DeStefano
518 N.E.2d 858 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1988)
Western Massachusetts Electric Co. v. Sambo's of Massachusetts, Inc.
398 N.E.2d 729 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1979)
Texon, Inc. v. Holyoke MacHine Co.
394 N.E.2d 976 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1979)
Cape Cod Hospital, Inc. v. Cape Cod Medical Center, Inc.
386 N.E.2d 769 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1979)
Highland Club v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance
101 N.E.2d 372 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1951)
Hodgkins v. Bianchini
80 N.E.2d 464 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1948)
Gower v. Town of Saugus
54 N.E.2d 53 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1944)
Coastal Transit Co. v. Springfield Bus Terminal, Inc.
20 N.E.2d 1 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1939)
Carter v. Sullivan
183 N.E. 343 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1932)
Sargeant v. Traverse Building Trust
167 N.E. 233 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
163 N.E. 856, 265 Mass. 203, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/healey-v-smith-carriage-co-mass-1928.