Morton v. Thompson

69 Vt. 432
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedJanuary 15, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 69 Vt. 432 (Morton v. Thompson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morton v. Thompson, 69 Vt. 432 (Vt. 1897).

Opinion

Rowell, J.

This is a bill to enjoin the obstruction of a way over the land that the defendant occupies and claims to own, to adjoining land that the orator occupies and claims to own.

On January ll, 1853, Samuel H. Barlow, the then owner of all the land, on the south side of which was a tavern known as the American House, by his warranty deed of that date, conveyed to the president, directors and company of the Franklin County Bank, the land occupied by the orator. In and by said deed, he covenanted, among other things, as follows: “And the said Barlow, for himself, his heirs and assigns, doth covenant and agree that the space between the [434]*434tavern-house and the land herein conveyed shall be kept open for the passage of teams to the west end of the land herein conveyed, until said Barlow shall, by deed, convey to said bank a convenient passage for teams to the rear of said land herein conveyed, from some known public street.”

The orator claims to have derived title to the bank property by several mesne conveyances, and the defendant claims to have derived title in like manner to the rest of the original hotel property. Each party, in argument, disputes the title of the other; but the orator's title is admitted, as it is well alleged in the bill and not denied nor put in issue by the answer. Chancery Rule 20. The defendant's title is not admitted nor found by the master. While there is probably no doubt that he has title, it is difficult to make it out from the abstract before us. There are, however, some things about it that are certain enough. The master finds, and the cross-bill asserts, that Hiram Pierce owned the American House property in November, 1866; and the exhibits show that he continued to own it for several years thereafter. The original bill alleges that the defendant claims title to that property under a deed thereof from Stroud and wife, dated January 27, 1893, and that all the title he has thereto he derives through Samuel H. Barlow and his heirs, representatives, and assigns; and it appears that Mrs. Stroud was in that chain of title. Take this in connection with the finding that the owners and occupants of the hotel property have used it for a hotel from the time Barlow occupied it down to the present time, and it sufficiently appears that the defendant's deed is the last link in a chain of deeds down which the possession, at least, passed from Pierce to the successive grantees, including the defendant, and that all were' in claiming under and according to their deeds.

There is no doubt that by grant the owner of land may create out of it any incorporal hereditament with which, in its nature, it is capable of being affected. In this way land may be charged with rents, commons, ways, the privilege of [435]*435light, air, water, and the like. Moreover, with the exception perhaps of rent, such incorporeal hereditaments may, as in the case of common appurtenant, be attached to other land so that the right to enjoy them will vest successively in every one to whom such other land shall come by assignment. Nor need the instrument by which an incorporal hereditament of this kind is created or enlarged be a formal grant; for although it be in the guise of a covenant, yet if it be properly executed, and express an intention to grant, the effect of a grant will be given to it, and rights will- pass thereunder by assignment when nothing would have passed by the assignment of a mere covenant. Holms v. Seller, 3 Lev. 305; Greene v. Creighton, 7 R. I. 1; Bronson v. Coffin, 108 Mass. 175, 180; 1 Smith’s Lead Cas. [*143].

Although the language quoted from Barlow’s deed sounds in covenant, yet it manifests an intent to grant, and therefore it is held to amount to a grant, and to create an easement in the defendant’s land that attaches, and is appurtenant, to the orator’s land, and enures to his-benefit, especially as it is admitted that he is in privity of estate with the original grantee of said land. Gunson v. Healy, 100 Pa. St. 42.

But we do not regard it essential that he should be in such privity; for there is a distinction between things that run only with the estate in the land and things that are attached to the land itself. “Note,” says Lord Coke, “a diversity between a use or warranty, and the like things annexed to the estate of the land in privity, and commons, advowsons, and other hereditaments annexed to the possession of the land.” Chudleigh's Case, 1 Rep. [122b]. In the latter class of cases, of which easements are a conspicuous example, when the right is once acquired, whether by prescription, grant, or covenant, it attaches to the land for the benefit of which it was acquired, and sticks so fast to it that it goes with it, regardless of privity, into all hands, even those of a disseisor. “So a disseisor, abator, [436]*436intruder, or the lord of escheat, etc., shall have them as things annexed, to the land.” Chudleigh's Case, 1 Rep. [122b]; Norcross v. James, 140 Mass. 188; Brewer v. Marshall, 18 N. J. Eq. at p. 344: Nevil's Case, Plowd. 377, 380.

But the defendant says he has not infringed the orator’s right of way, as the master finds that notwithstanding the structure complained of, a part of which is on the rear of the “space” that Barlow covenanted to “keep open,” there is still.“room left for a convenient right of way for the passage of teams from Main Street to the west end of the orator’s premises for all reasonable purposes required by the owners of the bank property.” On the west end of the orator’s lot, in the rear of his building, there is an open space, eight feet wide, upon which, according to Barlow’s deed, n'o building can be erected that shall exceed eight feet in height. The orator claimed before the master that he has not only a right of way for the passage of teams to the west end of his premises, but also for the passage of modern two-horse coal teams, and other two-horse teams, to and upon said eight-foot strip. The master finds that before the erection of said structure, such teams could be driven over the space between the buildings, to and upon said eight-foot strip, but that since its erection, and because of it, they cannot be.

The language of the covenant is, that “the space between the tavern-house and the land herein conveyed shall be kept open for the passage of teams to the west end of the land herein conveyed, until,’’etc. This language covers the whole space, and when we consider, as we must, the subject-matter of the covenant and the circumstances in which it was made, the words, “to the west end of the land herein conveyed,” cannot well be limited to mean that teams might pass over said space to, but not upon, that end, for it is fair to suppose that the parties intended a way as beneficial to the property conveyed as it reasonably could be, as that end of it was not [437]*437otherwise accessible; and it is obvious that to drive upon that end might often be extremely convenient in discharging heavy articles into the basement and other parts of the rear of the building. It is considered, therefore, that the defendant has infringed the orator’s right of way by the structure complained of.

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Bluebook (online)
69 Vt. 432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morton-v-thompson-vt-1897.