Mulrooney v. Obear

71 S.W. 1019, 171 Mo. 613, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 30
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 71 S.W. 1019 (Mulrooney v. Obear) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mulrooney v. Obear, 71 S.W. 1019, 171 Mo. 613, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 30 (Mo. Ct. App. 1903).

Opinion

GANTT, P. J.

A temporary injunction was grant[616]*616ed in this case by the probate judge of St. Louis county, during the temporary absence of the circuit judge. Afterwards, on a full hearing, Judge Hirzel dissolved the .injunction, and from that judgment plaintiff appealed. The appeal was certified to the St. Louis Court of Appeals, and owing to a dissent of one of the judges the cause has been transferred to this court. This proceeding was begun June 22, 1897, and its purpose was to obtain a perpetual injunction against defendants restraining them from discontinuing or shutting off plaintiff ’s water service. Defendant Deavers is a mere nominal party, being the agent of Obear, his co-defendant.

The petition in substance states the following facts:

In September the Hodiamont Bealty Improvement Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of this State, platted a subdivision of land in St. Louis county, immediately west of and adjoining the city of St. Louis, and named it “Hodiamont” and recorded the plat. To better enable it to sell its lots the said realty company obtained permission of the road overseer and laid a water-supply pipe in a public road known as Maple avenue, and by permission of the city authorities of St. Louis connected said pipe with the city waterworks, and put in a large water meter at the point of connection, just inside the city limits. In selling off its lots it reserved certain strips of land as alleyways, and in these alleys it laid service water pipes, which it connected with its supply pipe in Maple avenue, and also constructed sewers, and made the necessary connections with the water system.

After this water system had been laid, it constructed a house on parts of lots 96 and 97 in Hodiamont, and sold and conveyed said house and the ground on which it was erected to the plaintiff, Mulrooney, “together with all rights, privileges, immunities and appurtenances, ” by general warranty deed. The premises were afterwards connected with the water system, and plaintiff received his water supply from the city waterworks. Other lots were sold and the buildings connected with the service pipes and water supplied [617]*617from the city waterworks.

In 1893, the company having disposed of all its lots, wound up its affairs and formally relinquished its charter. Before doing so, however, it sold to defendant Obear, who was one of its incorporators and stockholders, the water pipes and meter and all appurtenances by written bill of sale.

The city charged one hundred and sixty-five dollars for six months’ supply of water to the subdivision, and by a mutual understanding this amount was distributed among the several householders in the subdivision, and it was collected through a voluntary association of the citizens and paid to the city. This course was pursued until June, 1897, when Obear, the defendant, asserted his right to control the pipes and in a contest between him and the citizens the city water commissioner recognized Obear as the owner and issued the license to him and he paid the tax. Thereupon, he assessed the tax on the citizens of Hodiamont at the-same rate as that charged by the city. The plaintiff .Mulrooney refused to recognize Obear’s right, and refused to pay his water tax, and Obear having threatened to shut off his water unless he paid, Mulrooney brought this' suit to enjoin him from so doing.

In his bill he alleges that Obear and Deavers have no rights in said water meter, sewer or water pipes or any of them, and have no right to control or manage the same as against plaintiff and the other property-owners of the subdivision; that his threatened interference will work irreparable damage to plaintiff and other property-owners and they have no adequate remedy at law.

Obear in his answer pleaded his ownership of the water pipes and meter, and his right to manage the same and charge for the water. He alleged that his charges were reasonable, being the same as those imposed by the city.

In his reply plaintiff denied Obear’s purchase and title to the meter and pipes, and alleged that at the time he claimed to have bought them, the realty company [618]*618had disposed of all its property and yielded up its charter. He further averred that by its deeds the realty company had conveyed a common and exclusive right to use said water pipes and meter to the grantees in its said several deeds.

It is obvious not only from the pleadings but the contentions of counsel and the opinions of the circuit court and the Court of Appeals, that the one issue after all is. who owns and has the right to control the said meter and water supply pipes?

On the part of plaintiff it is insisted that the right is a common one belonging to the aggregate body of property-owners in Hodiamont, and any one . of them can sue for himself and all the others to enjoin an interference with this right. "Whereas Obear asserts that after the execution of the deeds to the lots the realty company continued to own the meter and water pipes and was obligated only to permit the several owners to connect therewith and receive a supply of water at reasonable rates.

If the realty company had not conveyed the meter, and water pipes by its deeds, then Obear’s purchase vested them in him. The meter and pipes were personalty and the bill of sale was sufficient to transfer the meter and supply pipes. It was not at all essential to its validity that it should be acknowledged or recorded, and the finding of the circuit court that the transfer was made, is supported by the evidence.

The plaintiff’s rights have not been seriously endangered by the action of Obear, as it is clear he could have continued to receive his water supply by paying the usual and regular city rates therefor, which were not shown to have been in excess of his proportion of the amount assessed to the whole subdivision under the previous voluntary arrangement. The controversy is narrowed down to the question of the medium through which he. is to receive his water supply and that at last must be determined by the ownership of the meter and supply pipes.

In its last analysis the contention is reduced to [619]*619the effect to be given to the word “appurtenances” in the realty company’s deed to plaintiff. It is clear that his deed does not otherwise purport to carry the right to the supply pipes in Maple avenue outside of his lots. Obear does not claim the service pipes which connect plaintiff’s premises with the supply pipe in Maple avenue, and in view of the fact that these pipes were laid as an inducement for the purchase of plaintiff’s lots, and by the grantor of those lots, we think they would pass as appurtenances to the lots which they were intended to serve.

Read in the light of the attendant circumstances in which the deed was made, we .can go further and say that as between the realty company and Obear, who was a shareholder therein and who took his bill of sale with full knowledge of all the facts, on one side, and the several purchasers of the lots in Hodiamont, the latter also acquired the right to have water supplied to their premises at a reasonable rate, so long as it could be obtained from the city. But did his deed convey the supply pipe and do the facts in evidence justify such a construction of the deed? The right to have the water furnished at reasonable rates is one thing, and the title to the water main through which it is furnished is another.

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Bluebook (online)
71 S.W. 1019, 171 Mo. 613, 1903 Mo. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mulrooney-v-obear-moctapp-1903.