Muscogee Manufacturing Co. v. Eagle & Phenix Mills

54 S.E. 1028, 126 Ga. 210, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 362
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedAugust 13, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 54 S.E. 1028 (Muscogee Manufacturing Co. v. Eagle & Phenix Mills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Muscogee Manufacturing Co. v. Eagle & Phenix Mills, 54 S.E. 1028, 126 Ga. 210, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 362 (Ga. 1906).

Opinion

Lumpkin, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

The plaintiff’s petition does not rest upon the general law of riparian rights, but upon contractual rights. It claims that there were certain covenants running with the land, embraced in the deeds from the Mayor and Council of Columbus to John II. Howard and Josephus Echols and to John H. Howard. In the' deed to Howard and Echols executed in 1841, conveying the lots of even numbers, there was an agreement or covenant that the grantees [216]*216should erect a suitable and sufficient dam across the river at a point on or above lot No. 1, “so that when said river is at its usual height five feet head of water may be obtained on lot No. 1, and an increase had [in the resolutions of the municipal council the expression is, “and an increased head”] on each of the lots below it (for the purpose of propelling machinery) by an almost level canal or race; and to construct a firm and safe and well-constructed canal or race extending from said dam through all of said lots; said dam to be so high, and said canal or race to be so capacious, that when said river falls to the lowest height at which it usually stands in very dry weather, 'all the water of said river may, as it runs down, pass through said canal or race; and keep said dam or race forever in good repair.” The deed also provided that the grantees should commence the erection of the dam and the construction of the race within twelve months, and have the dam completed and the canal or race so far completed that “a five-feet head of water” might be obtained on lot No. 1, available for propelling machinery, within 27 months from the date of the deed; and that the canal or race should be fully completed within five years; and there was a condition subsequent, that, in the event of a failure to construct the dam and race within the time limited, the lots so conveyed should revert to the mayor and council. The resolutions of the council also required that a bond should be given, conditioned for the completion of the dam and the construction of the canal or race to lot No. 1 within the time named.' It is evident that, relatively to them, what they wished to have guaranteed was that a dam and race of a certain character should be constructed within a certain time. They did not require that manufactories should be built or improvements or machinery should be placed upon any o.f the lots; but they doubtless took it for granted that the building of a dam and race would be followed by the construction of some character of manufactory. They also retained the title to the odd-numbered lots, which it was most probably believed could be sold to persons who would wish to utilize them after the construction ■of the dam and race. It is alleged in the petition that they were constructed in accordance with the covenants, and it does not apirear that the municipal authorities ever complained. So far, therefore, as that portion of the agreement directly affecting the mayor and council is concerned, we need not give it further consideration.

[217]*217There was also this covenant: “Said lots of even numbers and their improvements, and no other property whatsoever, to be forever liable for the payment of any damage which said city or any person or persons or company of persons, to whom they may sell and convey any one or more, of said lots of odd numbers, may sustain by reason of a failure to complete said race or canal, or to keep the same and said dam in good repair.” This contained a ■covenant running with the land. Howard Manufacturing Co. v. Water Lot Co., 53 Ga. 689; Colquitt v. Howard, 11 Ga. 568. As to the distinction between a personal covenant and one running with the land, see Spencer’s case, 5 Coke, 16, 1 Smith’s L. C. 174; Willcox v. Kehoe, 124 Ga. 484; Atlanta, K. & N. Ry. Co. v. McKinney, 124 Ga. 929; Tiedeman, Real Prop. § 190, p. 158; Atlanta Consolidated R. Co. v. Jackson, 108 Ga. 638. We are not prepared to hold, however, that the covenant relied on can be extended by implication to the limits claimed by the plaintiff. Grants by implication are not favored. Civil Code, § 3675(7); McDonough v. Martin, 88 Ga. 680, 681; 3 Farnham on Waters, § 774; Hoard v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry., 123 U. S. 222; Trustees of Wabash & Erie Canal v. Brett, 25 Ind. 410; Hudson Canal Co. v. Pennsylvania Coal Co., 75 U. S. 276. The rule as to appurtenances and necessary inci■dents will be considered later.

Controversies growing out of these water lots have been several times before this court, and the plaintiff in error contends that the ■decisions are authority for the claims now asserted by it. But an ■examination of those decisions will show that they were not based ■on a construction of the original deeds to Howard and Echols and to Howard, but involved deeds made by subsequent holders of some of the water lots and the particular provisions in them. See Colquitt v. Howard, 11 Ga. 556; Water Lot Co. v. Leonard, 30 Ga. 577; Howard Manufacturing Co. v. Water Lot Co., 53 Ga. 689; Moses v. Eagle & Phenix Mfg. Co., 62 Ga. 455.

It is contended, that, under the general' scheme evidenced by the acts of the legislature and the action of the municipal council, ■each water lot was impressed with rights as claimed in the petition. It will be observed, however, that the act of 1840 authorized the municipal authorities of Columbus to dispose of the water lots by •sale or lease “for such times and on such terms as they may deem ior the interest of said city.” Thus the terms on which such dis[218]*218position might be made were not fixed by the legislature, but left entirely to the mayor and council. The charter granted by the legislature will be mentioned later. The mayor and council first conveyed the lots bearing even numbers to Howard and Echols, and the deed included a covenant running with the land, as already stated. Subsequently they conveyed the lots bearing odd numbers to Howard. Later Echols conveyed all of his interest to Howard, and all of the lots became the property of the latter. Thus the title and the covenant running with the land both found their way into the hands of the same person. So that ‘it may be said that some of his lots were encumbered with a covenant for the benefit of others of his lots. He stood practically in the situation of both covenantor and covenantee. If he violated the. covenant in favor of some of his property, other parts of his property were liable for the breach. As the owner of the whole, in case of a breach of the covenant, he would have been both plaintiff and defendant in its enforcement. What'was the result of such a condition? In Post v. Weil, 115 N. Y. App. 361, 5 L. R. A. 422, it is said: “A covenant in a deed of land restricting the mode of its use, and inserted for the benefit of adjoining land of the grantor, will be extinguished by the subsequent vesting in one person of the title to both tracts of land.” Bouvier (Law Diet, word “merger,” subtitle “of rights”) says: “Eights are said to be merged when the same person who is bound to pay is also entitled to receive. -This is more properly called a confusion of rights, or extinguishment.” See also Rawle on Covenants (5th ed.), §223; Sibley v. Beard, 5 Ga. 550;

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Bluebook (online)
54 S.E. 1028, 126 Ga. 210, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/muscogee-manufacturing-co-v-eagle-phenix-mills-ga-1906.