Naughton v. Elliott

59 A. 869, 68 N.J. Eq. 259, 2 Robb. 259, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 47
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedJanuary 30, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 59 A. 869 (Naughton v. Elliott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Naughton v. Elliott, 59 A. 869, 68 N.J. Eq. 259, 2 Robb. 259, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 47 (N.J. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Emery, V. C.

This is a suit for the specific performance of an agreement or agreements to convey lands and is brought by the purchaser against the vendor. The first question -which arises under the ¡headings and proofs relates to the boundaries of the lot to be conveyed. The defendant owns a lot on the corner of Ocean avenue and New street, in the borough of Seabright, and executed two papers to the complainant, both drawn by himself, relating to the lease and sale of the lot. The first was an agreement, dated February 11th, 1899, for the sale to defendant of the buildings then standing on the lot in connection with a lease of the premises and an option to purchase; and the second was the lease subsequently -executed on May 15th, 1899, which contained an option to purchase. In the first agreement the buildings are described as standing “on my lot on corner of Ocean avenue and New street," and the “said lot" is to be leased and sold. In the lease itself the lot is'described as being-on the “northwest corner of Ocean avenue ancl New street, said lot having a frontage of thirty-one and a half feet on Ocean avenue and at least one hundred ancl four feet on New street," and the option given in the lease is to purchase “tire lot .or premises hereby-leased." While the lease gives two lines only,. the whole lot owned by defendant is an L-shaped lot, the rear of tire -lot, on New street, being for about thirty-seven and one-half feet wider by twenty-five feet than the front portion of the lot. Complainant claims that the entire lot was leased and agreed to. be sold, while defendant claims that the portion of the lot intended to be leased or. sold was a rectangular lot, thirty-one and one-lralf feet on Ocean avenue and one hundred and four feet on New street, and further that the one hundred and four feet on New street is to be measured from a corner of the1 lot designated in [261]*261the deed conveying the premises to him, and that, as so located, there was reserved from his entire lot on the corner, and from the operation of the lease and agreement to sell, a strip on the rear of the lot about eight feet in width, together wi£h the rear of the “L,” about twenty-live by thirty-eight feet. At the time of the first agreement (February 11th, 1899) the buildings on the premises were a building, used as a hotel or saloon, about twenty-five feet square, located on the corner, and a barn on the rear of the lot. This barn fronted on New. street and was about thirty feet in width on New street and was located within.a few inches of the rear line of the lot; its depth, taking in an addition or lean-to at the rear, was about fifty-four feet, and, with the lean-to, the barn covered practically the entire rear of the lot. The bam was moved to this location by one of the defendant’s former tenants, named- Eeese, and originally had been a building about two stories or one and a half stories high and about thirty feet square. The addition or lean-to to the barn on its north side was built by one Zigler (or Sigler) the tenant, whose administrator sold the house and bam to the defendant. This addition was a one-story structure, connected with the barn by opening or sliding doors, and was used for stalls for horses. In the bill of sale, by which defendant purchased the buildings for $425 from the administrator, they were described as “all that certain house and barn erected and being on leased ground on west side of Ocean avenue, at Seabright, Monmouth county, known and called ‘Eeese’s Saloon.’ ” About the time of his purchase of the lease and buildings the defendant made the agreement with the complainant, dated February 11th, 1899, in his own handwriting, by which, in consideration of $175 received from complainant, he agreed

“to give to the said Naughton a bill of sale of the buildings now standing on my lot on corner of Ocean avenue and New street, Seabright, N. J., formerly owned and occupied by Arthur M. Sigler and wife; also a lease on same lot expiring on the eleventh day of November, 1899. I also agree to renew the lease for the said lot, at a rate of $650 per year, for three years, ending November 11th, 1902; also, will give said William Naughton privilege of purchasing said lot. at $4,000 at the expiration of the lease as above.”

[262]*262Upon the execution of this agreement, and before the execution of any other paper, the complainant (Naughton) entered into possession of the premises, including the whole lot and all of the buildings thereon. On May 15th, 1899, the defendant delivered to complainant two- other documents, also- written by himself. One was a bill of sale for $425 for

“all that certain house and barn, erected and being on leased ground on the northwest corner of Ocean avenue and New street, borough of Sea-bright, N. J., known and called ‘Reese’s Saloon,’ the same being property conveyed to Elliott by Hirschfield, admr. of Sigler, on February 17th, 1899.”

The other document was a lease to November 11th, 1902, in which the premises leased were described as being

“all that certain lot, tract or parcel of land, premises, situate in the borough of Seabright, * * * on the northwest corner of Ocean avenue and New street, said lot having a frontage of thirty-one and a half feet on Ocean avenue, and at least one hundred and four feet on New street.”

In the lease it was further agreed that Naughton “shall have the privilege of purchasing at the expiration of the lease the lot or premises herein leased and described for the sum of $4,000,” and Elliott agreed “that at the expiration of the entire term, upon the said William Naughton paying to him the sum of $4,000, he would give a warranty deed, giving title to said lot,” and the lease was not negotiable or transferable. The defendant now claims that the lot leased and intended to- be sold, as described in this lease of May 10th, 1899, was not the entire lot then occupied by the buildings, nor his entire lot on the corner, but was only a rectangular lot, fronting thirty-one feet six inches on Ocean avenue and one hundred and four feet on New street. He further claims that, for the purpose of locating the line of the leased lot on New street, the corner or beginning point is not the line of the hotel building, as it tiren stood on the- building line of Ocean avenue, but is tire corner of Ocean avenue, as it existed when defendant himself purchased the property, in June, 1886, and before the avenue was widened, in 1881'. If the line of the leased lot of one hundred and four feet on New street begins at this former line of Ocean avenue, and the lot leased is only a rect[263]*263angular lot, then there will be reserved to the defendant from the entire lot a strip of about eight feet in width at the rear of the lot, together with 'a lot twenty-five by thirty-eight feet in the “L” extension. Defendant says that this rectangular lot, reaching only to within eight-feet of the rear of his lot, is the lot which he leased, and which he intended to lease- and to sell, and he now offers to execute a deed for this rectangular, so described, lot. Complainant claims that he is entitled -to a deed for tire entire lot and refuses to accept the deed tendered by defendant. The question of boundaries depends, in the first instance, on the proper location of the corner or beginning point for the line of one hundred aird four feet along New street, as described in the lease. It appears that in the deed conveying the lot to the defendant it was described as a lot

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Bluebook (online)
59 A. 869, 68 N.J. Eq. 259, 2 Robb. 259, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/naughton-v-elliott-njch-1905.