May v. Smith

14 D.C. 55
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 1884
DocketNo. 20,521
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 14 D.C. 55 (May v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
May v. Smith, 14 D.C. 55 (D.C. 1884).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Cox

delivered tbe opinion of tbe court.

Tbis is an action of trespass on tbe case, brought for an alleged obstruction of tbe plaintiff’s right of way over land belonging to tbe defendant. The way is described in tbe declaration, as follows:

■ “An alley, or way of eleven feet seven and a half inches wide, leading from tbe alley heretofore laid out in said square [456] by tbe commissioners in tbe division of said square between tbe original proprietors and them, and thence to tbe north end of the above described moiety herein conveyed.”

Tbe declaration bad previously averred that tbe plaintiff was seized of part of lot 7 in square 456, to which the claim is made that tbe right of way was an appurtenance. Tbe verdict was rendered in favor of tbe plaintiff; but several exceptions were taken in tbe course of tbe trial by tbe defendant, and tbe case comes up here on a motion for a new trial, based upon those exceptions.

[56]*56In order to make the case intelligible it is necessary to give some explanation of the locus in quo. Lot No. 7, in square 456, fronts on the north side of E street, and is the second lot in the square counting eastwardly from 7th street-It has a front of 59 feet llj inches. Of course 29 feet Huinches would be one-half the front of the lot. The plaintiff shows a conveyance from Alexander Kerr to John H, Oswald, dated May 17, 1800, conveying the west half of lot 7 in square 456, with appurtenances, and “ the free use, privilege and convenience forever of an alley or way, 11 feet 7|- inches wide, leading from the public alley heretofore laid off by the commissioners in the division of the square between the original proprietors and them; and thence to the north end of the above described moiety or piece and parcel of grouud,” intended to be conveyed. That is to say, the deed conveyed the west half of lot 7 in square 456, of the width of 29 feet 11J inches, and running back 99 feet 8 inches, together with an alley or way of the width of 11 feet 7J inches running east and west to the north end of this half lot from the public alie/ in the middle of the square. Of course this alley was taken out of the land of somebody else.

By sundry conveyances, this property, on the 15th of May, 1858, became vested- in James J. Waring. Waring afterwards purchased part of the east half of the same lot, adjoining what he already owned, this last purchase having a front on E street of 14 feet Ilf- inches, and running back that width 88 feet 1} inches, to the alley reserved for the west half of the lot. So that, by these sundry conveyances, Waring became entitled to the west half of the entire lot 7 and the alley way, 11 feet 7} inches in width, running from the northeast corner to the middle of the square, and also an addititional strip contiguous thereto, and running back to that alley.

In December, 1860, Waring made a deed of trust to Wm, B. Webb and Bobert S. Patterson, in order to secure a certain debt therein recited, conveying the whole of the property acquired by him as above mentioned. On the 21st of [57]*57■July, 1862, Webb and Patterson sold a part of this property which they thought sufficient to pay the debt. They describe the part sold as the “ brick house built on lot 7 in square 456, as the same is laid out and described on the ground plan of the city of Washington, and the-lot attached to the same, together with all and singular the improvements, ways, rights, tenements and hereditaments and appurtenances unto the same belonging or in any way ajDper■taining.” This brick house had a width of 22 feet 5 J inches, so that that was sold from off the west half, leaving a strip of that west half, still in Waring, 7 feet 6 inches in width, in front.

The question is made, how far back the lot so sold extended. The house was sold, and the “ lot attached to the same.” It is in proof that from the east wall of the house there was extended, to a point 29 or 30 feet from the north line of said lot 7, a fence which was continued from that point westward across the lot so as to make a complete enclosure, that enclosure thus being 29 or 30 feet from the north end of-the lot, at which end this alley begins. The pertinency of the question thus becomes obvious.

The plaintiff claims that a stable had been erected by Waring on the northeast corner of his premises in such a manner as to entirely coyer the way named in the deed from Kerr to Oswald, and extending about 22 inches over the east line of the house extended. We assume for the present that the lot sold did extend to the rear of the entire lot 7. At that point there was a strip of land left at the west part of lot 7 not conveyed by the trustees, and the title to which still remained in Waring, 9 feet in width, between the lot sold by the trustees and the commencement of the alley which has already been described; and the main question is whether, under these circumstances, the purchaser under that deed took the right to cross that intervening strip for the purpose of communication with the public alley. It should here be stated that the purchaser under that deed of trust sale was J. F. Callan, who subsequently conveyed to [58]*58Dr. May, and after that Waring conveyed all the remaining part of lot V that he owned to the defendant.

The plaintiff claims that after this conveyance to Callan, he had the privilege for a short time of going from the north part of this lot through a stable, door in the west end of the stable to the alley; but he complains that afterwards the defendant closed up that door and cut off all access to the alley.

The case then is presented, in the first instance, of a conveyance of part of a lot from one end of which an alley is laid out, and which part is separated from that alley by the intervening part remaining in the grantor, and the question is, whether that conveyance gives the grantee a right of way over the remaining part to the public alley.

To maintain that, the plaintiff says, in argument, that this alley was laid out for the benefit of the whole lot that was conveyed in 1800 by Kerr to Oswald. In other words, he must claim that the way extended within the lot conveyed in fee, and to every part of it, and bach from every part to the public alley. . In terms, the alley is laid out to, not into, the north end of the lot which is conveyed in fee simple, and by the ordinary construction of language, the lot conveyed in fee simple is the terminus and limit and boundary of that way. In this case there was no right of way from the western part of this lot conveyed in fee simple to the eastern part, as a separate easement or incorporeal JiericHtament. A man cannot have a right of way over his own land as something separate from the fee simple ownership; all siich rights are considered merged in the ownership of the soil. Consequently, if Waring conveyed away a part of this lot, he did not convey with that, under the head of “ appurtenances,” a subsisting easement or right of way to go from the part of it which he conveyed to any part of that which remained vested in him. If a man owns a tract of land in fee simple, and afterwards conveys it in separate parcels, that does not carry with it, as incident to it, a right to pass over the remaining part of it. The law does not imply such a right; [59]*59it must be expressed.

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Bluebook (online)
14 D.C. 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/may-v-smith-dc-1884.