Meredith v. McCormick

175 N.W. 280, 208 Mich. 563, 8 A.L.R. 669, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 603
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1919
DocketDocket No. 19
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 175 N.W. 280 (Meredith v. McCormick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meredith v. McCormick, 175 N.W. 280, 208 Mich. 563, 8 A.L.R. 669, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 603 (Mich. 1919).

Opinion

Stone, J.

The bill of complaint herein was filed to obtain an injunction restraining the defendant from building a garage upon the rear of certain premises, alleged to be leased to the plaintiff; also to restrain defendant from interfering with, molesting or removing any wood or other materials that plaintiff might put on the premises involved, for his own personal use, that would not interfere with the use of said premises by other tenants. The plaintiff is the tenant and occupant of the house and premises known as 145 Harper avenue, Detroit, under and by virtue of a written lease for five years from the first day of April, [565]*5651916, wnerein Walter W. Smith, was the lessor and the plaintiff was lessee. The defendant has succeeded to the rights of Smith in the premises. The written lease contains the following by way of description of the premises:

“The following described premises situated and being in the city of Detroit, county of Wayne, and State of Michigan, to wit: House No. 145 Harper avenue * * * for the term of five years from and after the first day of April, 1916, on the terms and conditions hereinafter mentioned, to be occupied for a rooming house.”

The 8th and 9th paragraphs of the bill of complaint are as follows:

“8. Your petitioner further shows that for the purpose of his home and in order to supply fuel for next winter, he has caused certain green wood to be piled up temporarily, to dry, along the easterly line of said premises, and east of the cement walk which your petitioner has, to go to and from said alley, and that said William H. McCormick, the present owner, defendant herein, now claims that your petitioner has no right to leave said wood there, or to use the back yard of said premises, and has removed some of the wood of your petitioner from off the rear end of said lot, or court.
“9. Your petitioner further shows that the said William H. McCormick, in derogation of your petitioner’s rights as a tenant, has torn down the easterly and rear fence, has cut down certain shade trees, and against the express objection and protests of your petitioner, is proceeding to build a large garage on the rear of said lot, which will occupy more than four hundred (400) square feet, and will thereby deprive your petitioner of the use of four hundred (400) square feet of said small back yard or court, which now exists, and that if the said William H. McCormick is permitted to build said garage, it will interfere with the quiet and peaceful possession of your petitioner, and will cut off the enjoyment of a large portion of the present back yard, to which he is lawfully entitled, which loss cannot be fully compensated in damages, and which would be irreparable.”

[566]*566The defendant, by his answer, virtually admits the acts above charged, but claims that the same were not in derogation of any of plaintiff’s rights, and denies that plaintiff has acquired any rights by reason of said acts.

The testimony was taken in open court and the bill of complaint was dismissed, the decree stating that the defendant have power and authority to proceed with the erection of the structure in said bill of complaint mentioned, allowing plaintiff access to the alley tn the rear of said premises by the four-foot way mentioned in said proofs.

A diagram of the premises, known as Exhibit 2,

[567]*567hereto appended, will aid in an understanding of the situation.

The house leased and occupied by plaintiff is on the easterly end of a terrace of houses situated on the corner of Brush street and Harper avenue, and there are three separate and distinct houses of the terrace facing on Harper avenue and one facing on Brush street. The width of the house, No. 145, is 30 feet. The other three houses in the terrace are occupied by the defendant for rooming house purposes, and in the rear of No. 145 there is a cement walk that goes direct from the kitchen door to the alley on the north. This sidewalk is used exclusively by the plaintiff and the occupants of his house. There is another cement walk on Brush street that comes around the rear for the accommodation of the other three houses, including the one on Brush street. The other tenants in the terrace do not use any portion of the lot in the rear of the terrace east of the line, if it were extended 24 feet from the east line of the lot. Plaintiff has used exclusively the entire east 24 feet of the lot in the rear of No. 145 Harper avenue. He does not use the other portion of this lot west of the 24-foot line. Plaintiff’s business is that of a cement paving contractor, and he had been in the habit of storing, for a short time, wheelbarrows, etc., on the rear of the lot, in what he claimed was his portion thereof. He also piled green wood on the rear end of the lot between the sidewalk and fence on the east line, and would leave it there until it got dry, and then would put it in the basement of No. 145. Referring to the wood, plaintiff testified as follows:

“This spring I had some wood piled on the rear end of this lot, between the sidewalk and the fence, a space of about four feet east of the sidewalk. It was green wood sawed in two-foot lengths for the grate. I put it there until it got dry, and then I put it in the basement. While that wood was there Dr. McCormick [568]*568asked me to remove it. I did not remove it and the doctor started some proceedings in the circuit court commissioner’s court, and from that court it has been appealed to the circuit court.”

He further testified that the defendant interfered with, and removed some of the- wood which the plaintiff had piled there. The full width of the rear end of the lot on the alley on the north is 24 feet. The defendant tore down the fence upon the alley and upon the east side near the northeast corner of the premises, and had brought material and had taken steps to erect a garage 20x20, intending to set it back some 8 or 10 feet from the alley line, and directly over the cement walk used by the plaintiff in carrying garbage to his garbage can, which was kept in the alley in the rear of the premises. As soon as the plaintiff found that the defendant had tom down the fence and put some building material upon the premises, preparatory to building the garage, this bill was filed and a temporary injunction was obtained.

The defendant testified as follows:

“My plans contemplate a garage 20x20 in the northeast corner of the lot. That will leave four feet up to my line on the west side of the garage. It is vacant beyond that to the side for 85 feet. Then I will have to set in a little from the alley because it is a narrow alley. I plan to deflect this cement walk where it comes to the garage, and build it around the front of the garage, and then at the side, so that the tenant in 145 will have access to the alley the same as before. The distance from the front of the garage to the back end of the house is 42 feet; that would leave the plaintiff still 42 feet of back yard for clothes lines.”

He estimated that setting the garage back 8 feet from the alley would make the space occupied 28x20, or 560 square feet. The defendant testified that that would leave ample room between the garage and the back end of No. 145.

[569]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 N.W. 280, 208 Mich. 563, 8 A.L.R. 669, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meredith-v-mccormick-mich-1919.