Kahn v. Delaware Securities Corp.

153 So. 308, 114 Fla. 32, 1934 Fla. LEXIS 1772
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedFebruary 19, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 153 So. 308 (Kahn v. Delaware Securities Corp.) 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
Kahn v. Delaware Securities Corp., 153 So. 308, 114 Fla. 32, 1934 Fla. LEXIS 1772 (Fla. 1934).

Opinion

*33 Ellis, J.

— This case is one of a boundary line dispute. The question is whether the narrow strip of land described in the declaration lies in a lot 1 or lot 2 of a subdivision of land known as Indian Mound Tract lying in Sections 10 and 11 of Township 43 South, Range 43 East. The section line between Sections 10 and 11 is about 540 feet west from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The greater part of the “Indian Mound Tract” therefore lies between the section line and the waters of Lake Worth on the west. The distance from Lake Worth to the line between the two sections is about 1,750 feet, according to the “Knoydton” survey, a map of which was introduced in evidence.

William Leighton, Jr., in 1890, acquired by deed from Melville, Valorus and Jane Spencer a strip of land in Sections 10 and 11, north of the south line of Lot 3, Section 10, and that line extended to the ocean, and lying between the waters of the lake and the ocean three chains and seventy-nine links wide and thirty-four chains and twelve links long to the ocean, which, expressed in lineal feet, is 250 14/100 feet wide and 2,251 92/100 feet long. The Knowlton map shows the east and west line to be slightly longer.

The Delaware Securities Corporation, which was the plaintiff below in this action of ejectment, and Otto H. Kahn, who was the defendant, both claim under the Leighton title, so no question of adverse title is involved.

The corporation owns lot numbered 2 and the defendant has title to lot numbered 1 of the subdivision. The two lots lie contiguous to each other along the entire east and west line dividing them.

Lying between the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the section line between Sections 10 and 11 there is an “Indian Mound” about half way between the two points. It lies on the northern side of lot numbered 1 and almost entirely *34 within that lot. Whether the northern boundary line of lot numbered 1 runs on the northern side of that mound or across its crest or topmost point is the question which gave rise to this controversy.

The plaintiff Delaware Securities Corporation brought its action in ejectment against Otto H. Kahn for the possession of a rectangular strip of land about 545 feet long, extending from the east line of the right-of-way of the county road to the Atlantic Ocean. The west end of the strip is nine and a half feet wide and the east end of it is twelve and fifty-five one-hundredths feet wide.

The boundaries of the strip of land contended for in this litigation are given in the declaration as beginning at a point on the east line of the county road, according to a certain plat, 1,474/^ feet north of the south line of Government Lot 2, Section 11, Township 43 South, Range 43 East, in Palm Beach County; thence run north nine and a half feet'; “thence easterly, making -an angle with the said east line of the right-of-way of the county road, measured from south to east, of 88° 35', a distance of 545 feet, more or less, to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean,” thence southerly along the “waters of the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 12.55 feet to a point,” thence westerly “a distance of 545 feet, more or less, to the point of beginning.”

It is estimated that the area of the strip of land contended for is about 138/1000 of an acre.

It will be seen that the strip of land lies in the eastern end of Lot 1 .or 2 accordingly as it may be found by the boundary lines of the two lots as they were laid out on the surface of the earth to lie in the one lot or the other.

The defendant pleaded not guilty. The parties went to trial and the jury found for the plaintiff and judgment was duly entered upon the verdict.

*35 At the close of the evidence each party moved the court for a directed verdict in his behalf which motions were denied. The court then instructed the jury as to the law of the case and the verdict was rendered for the plaintiff.

The defendant moved for a new trial and the motion was denied. The motion contained the usual grounds that the verdict was contrary to the evidence and the law and that the court erred in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant and erred in admitting in evidence certain plats in plaintiff’s behalf “contradictory to the plat in evidence on which the plaintiff’s declaration was based.” The fifth ground was that the court “erred in admitting and/or rejecting certain evidence in the trial of the case material and relevant to the issues over the objection of the defendant.”

That ground of the motion was too general and indefinite to direct the trial court’s attention to the particular error alleged by the mover to have been committed. The purpose of a motion for a new trial, which in the early history of the common law was not allowed (Warner v. Goding, 91 Fla. 260, 107 South. Rep. 406), is to specifically direct the attention of the trial court to the alleged error if committed by him in order that he may' reconsider his ruling and correct it if he deems proper to do so, but to state in a motion that the court admitted or rejected evidence and did both over the defendant’s objection which evidence was “material to the issues” introduce an element of vagueness into the point sought to be presented which cannot be easily overcome if at all.

• The plaintiff seeks to reverse the judgment on a writ of error which was returnable to this Court in August, 1932, and orally argued here on October 31, 1933.

Whether the strip in controversy lies in lot numbered 2 or lot numbered 1 presents merely a question of boundaries. *36 There have been two surveys of the tract. More correctly speaking, there has been one survey of the subdivision and one resurvey of the subdivision, but the controversy arises over a dispute between the two surveyors as to the correct location of the governmental lines defining the fractional Sections 10 and 11 of Township 43 South, Range 43 East.

In March, 1895, A. L. Knowlton, a civil engineer, subdivided Lots 3 and 4 of Section 10 and a portion of Lot 2 of Section 11 as surveyed by George Potter, County Surveyor, in 1890, and subdivided the same into lots as shown by plaintiff’s exhibits No. 10 and exhibit No. 22. In 1893, a man named Birchfield attempted to relocate the lines of the survey made by Potter. There was a discrepancy between Potter and Birchfield as to the location of the east and west lines of the government lots. That discrepancy gave rise to litigation resulting in the acceptance by the court of the “Birchfield” survey which located the east and west lines seventy-three feet south of the “Potter” survey.

But the Spencers had sold to Leighton according to the Potter survey and had delivered to Leighton possession of the land as laid out by Potter. So a boundary agreement resulted in abrogating the Birchfield survey and recognizing the Potter survey. That transaction was evidenced by an agreement between M. E. Spencer and his wife and William Leighton in which the Spencers agreed never in anywise to disturb or attempt to disturb any of the lines or boundaries by which said tracts were sold and designated as computed by and from the said “Potter” survey but would warrant and assure unto the said Leighton and his heirs and assigns, to Edward Balbach and E. M.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 So. 308, 114 Fla. 32, 1934 Fla. LEXIS 1772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kahn-v-delaware-securities-corp-fla-1934.