In re Fourth Avenue

11 Abb. Pr. 189
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1854
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 11 Abb. Pr. 189 (In re Fourth Avenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Fourth Avenue, 11 Abb. Pr. 189 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1854).

Opinions

By the Court.—Mitchell, J.

On the 17th of January, 1852, a judgment was entered in the Court of Common Pleas for the city and county of New York, in a suit wherein Sampson McGown was plaintiff, and Levenworth, Danforth, Waterson, and Latson, defendants, that the plaintiff convey by deeds, to be dated 25th of November, 1848, to the defendants, respectively, or their assigns, the lands described in the judgment. The judgment is divided into sections: section 7 describes the whole of the lands in three subdivisions; the first describes the lands in it as bounded east by the Third avenue, west by the Fourth avenue, south by Ninety-ninth-street, and north by One-hundred-and-third-street, excepting a certain parcel.

Section 8 directs a conveyance to Bayard Clark, assignee of Latson, of two blocks, bounded east by the Third avenue, west by the Fourth avenue, south by Ninety-ninth-street, and north [191]*191by One-hundred-and-first-street, excepting the parcel above excepted ;—to T. W. Gale, of other pieces of land, one of which is bounded east by the Fourth avenue; another is bounded east by a line parallel to the Fourth avenue, and distant 175 feet therefrom, and west by the middle of the Old Post Road ; another, bounded east by the Fourth avenue, and another running along the west side of the Fourth avenue.

Section 9 directs a conveyance to Danforth, or his assigns, of a block of lands bounded west by the Fourth avenue, and east by the Third avenue; and of thirty-two lots, bounded west by the Fourth avenue, east by a line parallel to the Fourth avenue, and distant 395 feet east therefrom; of a third piece, bounded east by the Fourth avenue, &c.; of a fourth piece, running along the west line of the Fourth avenue; and of a fifth piece, bounded east by the Fourth avenue.

Section 10 directs a conveyance to Waterson of lots bounded east by the Fourth avenue, and of the other lots bounded east by a line parallel to the Fourth avenue, and distant west therefrom 243 feet 3 inches.

Then follow these words in this section 10: “ The Fourth avenue, herein referred to, being taken at the width of 100 feet, as originally laid out.”

Immediately after that follows section 11, directing the costs to be paid by the respective defendants, and other matters. The judgment has, in all, 16 sections; but none except the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, describe the lands.

McGown and wife, by deed acknowledged 28th February, 1852, but in pursuance of the judgment being dated the 25th of November, 1848, yet in no part of it referring'to the judgment, conveyed to Bayard Clark in fee for the consideration of $9,369.50, certain lands, with full covenants of warranty, and against incumbrances. The judgment was, that the land should be conveyed by such warranty deed, except as to the incumbrance of two mortgages executed by McGown to the commissioners, for loaning certain moneys. The deed contained no such exception.

The description of the lands in question is in the deed, substantially as follows: Two blocks of land, bounded east by the Third avenue, west by the Fourth avenue, south by Ninety-ninth-street, and north by One-hundred-and-first-street (except[192]*192ing-the piece of land on the corner of Ninety-ninth-street and Third avenue, being 260 feet on Ninety-ninth-street, and extending along the avenue to the centre line of the block), together with all the right, title, and interest of the parties of the first part, of, in, and to Ninety-ninth, One-hundredth, and One-hundred-and-first streets, and the Third and Fourth avenues, adjoining said premises, or any part thereof, to the extent of one-half of such streets and avenues so adjoining the same.

Bayard Clark, in October, 1852, conveyed most of the lands in the block between the Third and Fourth avenues and One-hundredth and One-hundred-and-first streets, to Sluyter, describing the parcel as beginning at the southeast corner of the Fourth avenue and One-hundred-and-first-street, and running along the sides of the streets and avenues, but showing by the dimensions of the parcel that 920 feet were represented as being between the Third and Fourth avenues.

Sluyter conveyed to Houghton, by the same description as the last, the same lands, on the 1st of November, 1852.

In the general plan of the city as adopted by the commissioners under the act of 1807, Fourth avenue was laid out as only 100 feet wide, and the distance between the Third and Fourth avenues was 920 feet. By the act of 27th April, 1837, section 3, it was declared that all that part of the Fourth avenue, between Thirty-fourth-street and the Harlem River, should be widened, on the map or plan of the city, by adding thereto, on each side thereof, twenty feet of land, so as to make the whole width of that part of the avenue 140 feet'; and this was to be with the like effect as if the avenue had been so laid out by the commissioners under the act of 1807.

The commissioners of estimate and assessment have given to Mr. Houghton only a nominal compensation for the part of the avenue taken from him, twenty feet (or eighty) by two hundred, while they have allowed about $1,200 to the owner of the corresponding portion in the block next north, who probably had done no act to dedicate his lands.

The correctness of their decisions turns on the true construction of the deed to Clark. That deed makes no reference to the judgment—and it does not strictly conform to the judgment. The judgment directs the conveyance to be subject to two [193]*193mortgages; the deed makes no allusion to them. The judgment is to convey lands bounded east by the Third avenue, west by the Fourth avenue, south by Ninety-ninth-street, and north by One-hundred-and-first-street. This would be a dedication of the half of the Third avenue and Fourth avenue, and of Ninety-ninth-street and One-hundred-and-first-street, to the public, and would not require McGown to convey to Clark any of his right in those avenues and streets, and would give Clark a right to an absolute conveyance of the whole site of One-hundredth-street between the Third and Fourth avenues. But the-deed conveys to Clark the lands bounded by those streets, and gives to Clark the right, title, and interest of McGown in the two avenues and three streets. The deed gave only the right of the grantor to Ninety-ninth-street, when the judgment required a full conveyance of it with warranty, and gave the right of the grantor in One-hundredth and One-hundred-and-first streets, and in the two avenues, which the judgment did not require to be given.

It is evident, therefore, that the parties did not mean to follow the judgment, both by their departure from it in these several instances, and their omission to refer to it.

It would be an imprudent rule to allow a judgment to control a deed between the absolute owner of land and the purchaser from him, when no reference was made in the deed to the judgment. The deed, being subsequent to the judgment, may have been made to differ from it purposely, because the parties voluntarily assented to the change, or concluded.that the deed, as changed, would best carry out their contract. In this respect the case is entirely unlike a deed executed by an officer of the court, who has no power to act, except as the judgment directs. As between buyer and seller, the judgment is like a contract—the deed merges the contract. This judgment, too, was entered by consent, and thus is still more like a contract.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Abb. Pr. 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-fourth-avenue-nysupct-1854.