In re Tremont Housing Corp.

137 Misc. 141, 242 N.Y.S. 128, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1253
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 18, 1929
StatusPublished

This text of 137 Misc. 141 (In re Tremont Housing Corp.) 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 Tremont Housing Corp., 137 Misc. 141, 242 N.Y.S. 128, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1253 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1929).

Opinion

Thomas,

Official Referee. As early as 1740 a large tract of wild and wooded land in the county of Suffolk was held in common proprietorship, and allotments thenceforth were made from time to time, and in the third division in April and May, 1793, allotments were made that now give rise to the present contention, which relates to the division line between land allotted to Philip Smith Platt, and land allotted to Isaac Powell lying immediately southerly of it. The sole question is: Where is that division line located? The locus in quo was overgrown and hidden by.pine and brush that trammelled in obscurities and entanglements survey and identification, save that at present, and for some years, there has been clearing of lands far to the east now occupied by the nuns of St. Dominic or the convent.

The proprietors appointed a surveyor and associates to make the allotments, who not only prepared a map of the allotments, known as a map of the Baiting Place Purchase, Third Division, herein referred to as the map of 1793, but also recorded descriptions and notes of survey in a book still preserved and known herein as the notes.” The Tremont Housing Corporation, petitioning to register title of a part of the Powell tract, refers to the map of 1793 as an outline sketch ” and the Marion De Vries, Incorporated, respondent, resisting the application regards the map of 1793 as a “ picture.” But it should be kept steadily in view (1) that the map and notes constitute the instrument of grant; (2) that they are products of technical engineering skill, and practical knowledge gained by laying out the many separate parcels and defining their relations to each other and to the whole section. Therefore, departure from their terms is tolerable only in instances where [143]*143boundary line and measurements are so inconsistent that one or the other must yield something to perfect or to approximate the identity of the grant.

Hence it is to the notes (Exhibit 9) and map (Exhibit 7, copy Exhibit 13) of 1793 that attention is primarily due, and it is by them with relevant aids, such as measurements on the ground, that the rights of the parties should be determined. The Baiting Place Purchase, Third Division, shows many tracts allotted with several exterior or boundary roads of the Third Division, and some portion of a division (the Second) on the west, and some portion of a division (the Fourth) on the east. The westerly boundary of the Third Division in question is the two-rod highway which forms a southerly junction with the Bethpage road (known also as the Great Neck road), which last road runs from the junction southeasterly to make a junction with a road unnamed on the maps (now known as the Albany Avenue road), which is depicted as running in a general northeasterly direction, and making a junction with a road known as the new highway, which was not existing in 1793, save in its northerly portion then terminated some three miles north of the appointed junction. But the continuation of this new highway with its courses and distances was clearly noted on the 1793 map and the entire road then so in part built was fully delineated on the map. It also should be stated that from the Second Division (west of the Third Division) a road is shown entering the Third Division and running southeasterly across it, which was plainly marked “ Seketogue Path.” That path is not identified, but its coincidence with the later constructed Babylon and Farmmgdale road, which succeeded to its general location and took over its uses, is asserted by the respondent and denied by the petitioner. For present purposes, it may be conceived that there are three sections of the Third Division, viz., the western section, containing lots bounded on the two-rod road; the eastern section, bounded easterly on the new highway, and north of the east and west line which running between the parties hereto extend across the whole division, and the third section which lies southerly of that line and abutting on the Beth-page road, or Albany avenue. Each allotment carries folio references to the 1793 notes, states usually the acreage, in some instances the course or distances. The allotments in question illustrate the detail of the map and notes. The respondent’s predecessor allottee appears on the map as Phillip Smith Platt;” the acreage as fifty-eight; the easterly boundary as fifty-four (rods meaning); the westerly boundary the two-rod road and the Bethpage road, and the notes refer to it at “ Folio 13 ” where it is described: in ye westermost tier of lots bounded West by a two rod highway which [144]*144divides it from ye land laid out to Cornelius Heartt on ye Second division * * . * by ye Bethpage road running from thence East about 168 rods then ye course of ye highway 54 rods on a square then West 168 rods to ye Sd highway and down ye same to ye place of beginning See ye General Map laid out by us.”

The map shows that the petitioner’s allottee, Isaac Powell, is allotted a triangular piece of land, the northerly line of which is the east and west division line between Powell and Platt, the southeasterly line as 120 rods on the Bethpage road and terminating northwesterly at some distance from the junction of the Bethpage and the two-rod road, and terminating southeasterly in a line running from the Bethpage road “ N 31 E ” to the east and west line. This third boundary line of Powell' separates his allotment from that of Rubin Ketcham. The Powell allotment is noted as containing twenty-two and one-half acres, and there is a reference to Folio 17” wherein the description is as follows: Laid out to Isaac Powell a piece of land Northward of ye land laid to Rubin Ketcham & Smith Conkling 120 rods on ye bethpage road then east till it meets ye afore Sd containing 22| acres laid out by us NB there is a watering place throne out of this lot and not recorded in ye 22| acres. The Sd watering place is 12 rods one way & 20 ye other.”

The petitioner proposed to oust the respondent’s land from the access to, or boundary on, the Bethpage road, accorded to it by map and notes of 1793, and from all access to, or boundary on, the two-rod road for several hundred feet above its junction with the Bethpage road, and petitioner proposes in addition to add to its land, that is, the Powell tract, what it would take from the respondent, although the map and notes of 1793 gave Powell no position on the two-rod road, and an occupation on the Bethpage road apparently some hundreds of feet southeasterly of its junction with the two-rod road. Such capture by the petitioner would result in an increase of the acreage of the Powell tract from the appointed twenty-two and one-half acres to an amount hereafter discussed.

The history the petitioner presents to justify this apparent nullification or transposition of the boundary lines indicated by the map and notes of 1793 relieves it of the charge of bad faith, and indicates that its claim conforms to beliefs and opinions largely entertained for many years by some allottees and surveyors, especially, those interested in allotments in the eastern part of the Third Division of the Baiting Place Purchase, where there was more use of the allotments. The map and notes of 1793 intended that what is the division line between Platt and Powell should be a part of an east and west line with a westerly terminal in the Bethpage road [145]*145and an easterly terminal in or near the junction of the new highway, when actually laid down, as directed, and the Albany avenue highway.

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Bluebook (online)
137 Misc. 141, 242 N.Y.S. 128, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-tremont-housing-corp-nysupct-1929.