Lawson v. Murden

60 Misc. 163, 112 N.Y.S. 140
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1908
StatusPublished

This text of 60 Misc. 163 (Lawson v. Murden) 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
Lawson v. Murden, 60 Misc. 163, 112 N.Y.S. 140 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1908).

Opinion

Mills, J.

The plaintiff and defendant are the owners of adjoining lots on the north side of South street in the village of Peekskill, the plaintiff’s premises being the easterly parcel and the defendant’s the westerly. This action is brought by the plaintiff to restrain the defendant from continuing the [165]*165erection of a building upon her premises so as to encroach upon the plaintiff’s premises.

There is no dispute as to the facts. On and prior to the 10th of April, 1850, the two lots, constituting a parcel of land fronting for nearly sixty feet on the north side of South street, then known as the Post road, were united in ownership in two persons. In April, 1850, they conveyed away the easterly lot, which through several intermediate conveyances became the property of the plaintiff, the deed to him being dated May 12, 1905.

At the time of the conveyance in 1850 there was erected upon the parcel a double, frame dwelling house, fronting upon South street and being divided into practically two houses by a lath and plaster partition wall, the studding of which was four inches in width. Each house or half of the entire house was used as a separate and distinct house, there being no direct connection by door or otherwise between the two. It is obvious that the owner supposed the partition to be upon the dividing line of the two lots. The deed made in April, 1850, of the easterly lot, contained the following description :

“All that certain lot and east half of a dwelling house, situate in the village of Peelcskill, aforesaid, bounded as follows, viz.: Beginning at the Post road at the southwest comer of Mrs. Ann Mitchell’s land, thence northerly, along the west line of the aforesaid Mrs. Ann Mitchell’s lot, one hundred and twenty-five feet to a stone wall, thence westerly on said wall twenty-nine feet to other lands of the parties of the first part, thence southerly through the centre of a dwelling house parallel with the first mentioned line one hundred and twenty-five feet to the Post road, thence easterly along said Post road twenty-nine feet to the place of beginning, being a lot twenty-nine feet front and rear and one hundred and twenty-five feet in depth together with the east half of the house situate on the above mentioned premises. The west half of the same belonging to the parties of the first part.”

No question has at any time arisen as to the easterly bound of the parcel conveyed by this deed and therein referred to [166]*166as the “ west line of the aforesaid Mrs. Ann Mitchell’s lot.” The original owners or their executors subsequently, in or about 1887, conveyed the balance of said entire parcel to the defendant by the following description:

Beginning on the north side of said street at the southwest corner of a lot now of Mary Depew, formerly of Nancy and Elizabeth Depew; thence Northerly with the Westerly line of said lot of Mary Depew and through the center line of the frame dwelling house in a course North 16 deg. 30 min. West about Two hundred and twenty-one (221) feet to McGregory Brook; thence following said Brook Westerly about Twenty-seven (27) feet three (3) inches to the Northeast comer of a lot heretofore conveyed to Edwin B. Lent; then with the East line of said lot of Edwin B. Lent in a course South 16 deg. 22 min. East about Two hundred and seventeen (217) feet to the North side of said Street; thence Easterly with the North line of said Street as fenced, Twenty-nine (29) feet and six (6) inches to the place of beginning.”

In 1905 the plaintiff, after having purchased his premises, the easterly parcel, undertook to tear down the easterly half of the frame dwelling house and to replace the same with a brick structure. He proceeded upon the theory that the true dividing line between his parcel and the defendant’s parcel was a line drawn from the point in his rear line twenty-nine feet along the old stone wall from the former Mitchell lot to the middle of the partition of the frame house on the northerly side or end thereof, thence running southerly directly through the middle of the studding of such partition to the southerly end or side of the house, and thence to the north side of the street, at a point twenty-nine feet distant along that side of the street from the Mitchell lot. Such dividing line so located lies, except at each end thereof, entirely west of a straight line drawn parallel with the westerly line of the Mitchell lot and twenty-nine feet distant therefrom; such westerly variance from such parallel line reaching a distance or width of thirteen inches at the rear of the building now being constructed by the defendant.

The plaintiff, acting upon his theory of the true dividing line, in 1905 proceeded to erect his wall directly adjoining [167]*167the east side of the studding of the old partition in the frame house, tearing down and removing all of the house lying east of such studding. After he had proceeded some way in constructing his building, which was to be three stories in height for a considerable depth and then with an extension of one story to the rear, the defendant in this action instituted in this court, as plaintiff, an action against the plaintiff herein to obtain an injunction against him. A verified complaint in that action, being put in evidence by the plaintiff in this action, alleged that she, the defendant herein, owned to the middle of such timbers,” meaning the studding in said partition; and that the plaintiff herein by his operations was removing the easterly part of the house and thereby leaving her part of it uninhabitable, i. e. “ impossible to heat it or keep the rain from pouring in.” It is perfectly clear that that complaint was drawn upon the theory and in the belief on the part of the pleader, the present defendant, that the center line of the studding constituted the true dividing line of the two parcels; and such complaint contains no intimation of any claim on the part of the defendant here to the contrary.

Such action resulted in a settlement by a written stipulation or agreement. The part or duplicate of it, signed by the defendant in this action, is in evidence here. In such agreement the defendant here releases to the plaintiff herein all her right and easement in the parts of two of the closets which had been in the old partition and part on one side of the center of the studding and part on the other. It recites in its second paragraph that the plaintiff herein is constructing a brick building on his lot, and that it is for the mutual advantage of both parties that the two chimneys now standing one half on the premises of each of such parties should be utilized.” Such chimneys stood, one-half on one side of the center of said studding, and the other half on the other side, and were adapted to be used, and were used, one-half by each house. The agreement provided that the plaintiff herein should carry up, at his own expense, the whole of such chimneys to such height above his new building as he may deem advisable,” It also provided that the plaintiff herein [168]*168should flash the roof of plaintiff (meaning the defendant herein) with tin flashing into his (meaning the plaintiff herein) west wall, that such flashing may remain there so long as said Murden owns her present property.” The plaintiff herein shortly thereafter completed his building.

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62 N.E. 175 (New York Court of Appeals, 1901)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 Misc. 163, 112 N.Y.S. 140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawson-v-murden-nysupct-1908.