Holden v. Pilini

200 A.2d 272, 124 Vt. 166, 1964 Vt. LEXIS 77
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedApril 7, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 200 A.2d 272 (Holden v. Pilini) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holden v. Pilini, 200 A.2d 272, 124 Vt. 166, 1964 Vt. LEXIS 77 (Vt. 1964).

Opinion

Barney, J.

The parties are adjoining landowners who share the use of a common driveway. Their titles derive from a common grantor, who sold off a lot to the defendants in 1933. As grantor he included the following reservation in that deed:

There is excepted and reserved unto the grantor, his heirs and assigns, full and free right and liberty at all times hereafter, in common with all other persons who may hereafter have the like right, to use a strip of land twelve feet in width on Northfield Street and running back to a point off the northerly side of the land hereby conveyed running from Northfield Street easterly together with the right to use a strip of land adjoining the land hereby conveyed of varying width up to twelve feet in width, said strip running from the back to a point toward Northfield Street, said two strips in part adjoining each other, and together constituting in varying widths of each parcel a perpetual right of way twelve feet in width in the general location now travelled from Northfield Street a distance of approximately 213.3 feet to be used in common by the grantor, his heirs and assigns, at all times, and for all purposes and similarly by the grantees their heirs and assigns, for all purposes to and from Northfield Street over and across said right of way connected with the use and occupation of the said grantor’s and grantee’s other lands and houses adjoining the same, meaning hereby to designate such right of way in the locations travelled, including also the circular right of way on the land hereby conveyed, and it is agreed that said right of way may be changed to another location on the land hereby conveyed [168]*168provided the grantees, their heirs and assigns provide a right of way on their own land which is reasonably convenient for the grantor, his heirs and assigns.

On the ground the right of way is represented by a driveway running easterly from Northfield Street straight to a point where a left branch diverges at a slight angle to approach and pass alongside the plaintiffs’ house. The other branch continues straight ahead until it becomes the approach to the defendants’ double garage, where it swings sharply left in a half circle to connect with the left branch again. There is a more or less tear-shaped island formed by the course of the driveway as it first divides and their rejoins at the circular portion. A raised stone walk borders the easterly edge of the curved or circular portion joining the northerly and southerly divisions of the driveway.

The right of way is located, for the most part, on the property conveyed to the defendants. The tear-shaped center island is entirely inside the boundaries of the defendants’ property. The line between the two properties parallels the plaintiffs’ house on its southerly side at a distance of approximately twelve feet, running to the rear to a point some 213.3 feet from Northfield Street, where it turns northerly at about right angles and parallels the rear of plaintiffs’ home at about twelve feet distant. This means that the home of the plaintiffs is bordered on the east and south, at an interval of about twelve feet, by the land of the defendants.

Over the years the defendants have improved the portion of the driveway on their land by widening and levelling and installing stone paving and curbing. For about twenty years there has been a walk area set out at the easterly border of the circular drive which it was possible for cars to drive over, until it was reduced in width and raised in height by the use of stone paving some ten or fifteen years ago. There was testimony from one of the defendants that changes were made in the stone walk because the former walk had been worn down by people passing over it with a car. In 1960 the defendants extended the garage portion of their home six and one-half feet westerly. This reduced the driveway area at its easterly end, where it forms the entrance to the defendants’ garage, by just that six and one-half feet.

The chancellor found that the stone walk interfered with the plaintiffs’ access to their garage, and that the extension of the defendants’ [169]*169garage restricted the free use of the driveway by the plaintiffs. When this extension was built in 1960, the defendants, according to the findings, represented that they would reduce the size of the island by an equivalent six and one-half feet, so that the plaintiffs would not be handicapped in using the driveway. The chancellor’s decree ordered the defendants to make this six and one-half foot reduction in the island. He further ordered that they remove the stone walk or reduce it to the level of the driveway, and ordered the plaintiffs to cease obstructing the driveway by leaving vehicles parked on it. The defendants have appealed from those portions of the order requiring them to malee changes in the island and the stone walk.

The defendants claim that the evidence does not support the chancellor’s findings that the stone walk and the garage extension are encroachments on the right of way. They say, first, that the deed calls for a width of only twelve feet of right of way, and that the evidence is clear that, in the area where the chancellor has ordered changes, it is already much wider than that at all points. This, they say, establishes that the area now occupied by the garage extension was never within the limits of the right of way described in the deed. Second, they say the testimony shows that a stone walk has been in the same location for about twenty years, marking the easterly limits of travel on the right of way. Therefore, the defendants contend, since the findings cannot be supported in these particulars, the provisions of the decree which depend upon them must also fail.

The defendants arrive at the limits of the right of way from the twelve-foot figure used in the description previously quoted. This description, they say, so defines the limits of the reservation that considerations of convenience, reasonableness or accessibility, authorized under Lafleur v. Zelenko, 101 Vt. 64, 70, 141 Atl. 603, are not available here. Therefore, they argue, with the right of way already more than twelve feet wide in the area of the defendants’ garage and walk, the chancellor’s findings on that issue are incorrect as a matter of law.

An exact reading of the description reveals that it carefully describes a twelve-foot right of way leaving Northfield Street on the defendants’ land, crossing the plaintiffs’ property line at an angle so as to pass along the southerly side of the plaintiffs’ house, and continuing straight on to the back line of the property 213.3 feet from the street. This right of way is limited to a total width of twelve feet, [170]*170and its position further identified by the locations travelled at the time the deed was given to the defendants in 1933. It is a grant to the defendants of the right to use, in common with the grantors, those parts of this particularized right of way that were on the premises he retained.

The circular portion of the right of way is wholly on land the grantor conveyed to the defendants. His rights in it are by way of reservation, not grant. Its position is also designated as being in the locations travelled, but no measurements defining its dimensions with respect to the grantor are given, unless the twelve-foot limitation set out in the grant is to be brought over and read into this reservation. That this should be done is by no means altogether clear, but this question need not be resolved in this litigation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
200 A.2d 272, 124 Vt. 166, 1964 Vt. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holden-v-pilini-vt-1964.