Mannherz v. Edgely Developers, Inc.

52 Pa. D. & C.2d 510, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 10
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas
DecidedOctober 24, 1969
StatusPublished

This text of 52 Pa. D. & C.2d 510 (Mannherz v. Edgely Developers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mannherz v. Edgely Developers, Inc., 52 Pa. D. & C.2d 510, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 10 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1969).

Opinion

BODLEY, J.,

ADJUDICATION AND DECREE NISI

This equity action involves the legal status of a paper street located in Bristol Township, this county, as platted in a recorded plan of lots known as “Plan of Headley Manor.” Coordinately, it concerns the rights of the respective parties to this action, and the public generally, to use the same as a street. Plaintiffs, by their complaint, seek to enjoin defendants from using that part of the street involved which is physically [511]*511located upon their respective lots. In turn, defendants, by way of counterclaim, ask that plaintiffs be enjoined from interfering with their alleged right to use the street and from obstructing the way in any fashion. Hearings have been held and counsel have submitted requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law as well as briefs in support of their respective positions. Set forth hereunder is a narrative of those facts, as found by the chancellor, which are deemed necessary for the determination of the issue.

The plan of lots entitled “Plan of Headley Manor,” bears date of October 31, 1910, and was recorded November 3, 1910, in the office for the recording of deeds of this county in deed book 356, at page 640. Upon the plan, one finds 78 lots and a number of streets laid out, including Cedar Lane, the subject of this dispute. Cedar Lane runs, generally, in a northerly-southerly direction between lots nos. 36 and 45, owned respectively by plaintiffs Mannherz and Martin. So far as it may be here pertinent, it can be said that Cedar Lane begins at the southerly side of Edgely Avenue and proceeds in a southerly direction bisecting Woodside Avenue, upon the southerly side of which plaintiffs have their homes. It then extends across portions of plaintiffs’ lands to join Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs in an easterly-westerly direction, one block to the rear of plaintiffs’ respective properties.

It appears to be undisputed that Edgely Avenue, Woodside Avenue, and that portion of Cedar Lane between Edgely and Woodside Avenues have been used and accepted as public streets for many years. However, the extension of Cedar Lane, since renamed Curtis Avenue, between Woodside and Pennsylvania Avenues has never been taken over by the Township of Bristol nor improved as a public street. When plaintiffs Mannherz purchased their home in 1946, and also [512]*512when plaintiffs Martin purchased their home in 1964, the portion of Cedar Lane (which we shall hereinafter refer to as Curtis Avenue) running between their lots bore no outward manifestations of any such use as might lead one to believe that it was, in fact, a street. There is substantial dispute among the parties as to what, if any, use this area was put to prior to the year 1966, but it is clear that the area had not been used continuously over the years for either vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

During the years 1965, 1966, and 1967, each of the defendants, at various times, and individually, acquired title to certain lots as shown on the Plan of Headley Manor. All such lots were located to the rear or the south of plaintiffs’ respective lots. The dispute between plaintiffs and the various defendants was generated in the latter part of November 1966, when Edgely Developers, Inc., and defendant Camerlengo secured building permits and began construction of industrial buildings upon their lands. At this time, trucks bearing materials and vehicles transporting workmen began passing daily from Woodside Avenue over that area of Curtis Avenue situated between the Mannherz and Martin properties in order to reach the construction sites. As a result of this new, and no doubt aggravating, use of that area of Curtis Avenue now in dispute, plaintiffs eventually filed a complaint in equity seeking to enjoin defendants’ further use of this area as a way and alleging that defendants, being without right to use this land as a means of ingress and egress to their lots, were trespassing upon plaintiffs’ land.

Hearing on the matter was set for June 26, 1967, but, before that date arrived, defendants filed an answer, new matter and counterclaim alleging, inter alia, that plaintiffs, without right, had blocked de[513]*513fendants’ passage over the street by placing trucks, poles and vicious dogs in the area, thus preventing defendants’ access to their lots. Under these circumstances, defendants prayed for and were granted a preliminary injunction restraining plaintiffs from obstructing the street until further order of the court, and requiring the removal of all barriers in order that defendants might continue to have access to their land.

Hearings were held June 26, July 5, and October 30, 1967, at the conclusion of which the court directed counsel to file memoranda of law together with their respective requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Communications between the court and counsel revealed that serious settlement negotiations were engaged in for a protracted period of time. It becoming apparent that settlement could not be effected, counsel then requested that the chancellor dispose of the case by way of adjudication, and the requested memoranda and findings finally came to the chancellor in late September 1969.

As indicated heretofore, the disputed portion of the paper street, Curtis Avenue, has never been accepted by the Township of Bristol in any formal manner. It has never been paved, improved or maintained by that municipality. Testimony offered on behalf of defendants revealed that in the years following 1910, the year in which the Plan of Headley Manor was prepared and recorded, this portion of Curtis Avenue was used from time to time by Headley Manor lot owners, and perhaps others, for many purposes, including a foot-way to the rear fields for hunting purposes, the dumping of trash, parking of automobiles, strolling, occasional access for fire trucks and police vehicles, and for diverse other purposes. A 1965 aerial photo and [514]*514certain testimony from witnesses indicated that tire tracks appeared in the dirt at one time or another.

On the other hand, a witness called by plaintiffs testified that he had lived in the Headley Manor area for some 56 years, his parents having been one of the original lot owners in the development. This witness maintained that the area in question was “just part of the field”; that it was just “fields and brush”; that there were no fences in the area and that as a child, he and others “roamed all over” the area. The witness further stated that the only additional use to which this land area was put by anyone prior to the early 1930’s was that of the owner of lot no. 34, one lot removed from plaintiffs Mannherz, who was accustomed to drive his car over the area in order to reach his garage in the rear of the property. He told us that there were no barricades erected upon this land at any time until possibly the 1950’s.

As we will note shortly hereafter, the only period of time of concern to the court was the period of 21 years following the recording of the Plan of Headley Manor. Although voluminous testimony was received from both sides of the case respecting the use or nonuse of the Curtis Avenue area in question, the chancellor concludes from all of this testimony that until long after 1931, Curtis Avenue was traversed only upon infrequent occasions and in such instances the persons using the area were, for the most part, lot owners. There is no evidence in this record of continuous public use of Curtis Avenue during the critical 21-year period.

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Bluebook (online)
52 Pa. D. & C.2d 510, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mannherz-v-edgely-developers-inc-pactcompl-1969.