Nichols Copper Co. v. Connolly

208 A.D. 667, 203 N.Y.S. 839, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5116
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 14, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 208 A.D. 667 (Nichols Copper Co. v. Connolly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nichols Copper Co. v. Connolly, 208 A.D. 667, 203 N.Y.S. 839, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5116 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinions

Kelby, J.:

The action is for an injunction restraining the city of New York and defendant Connolly, as president of the borough of Queens, their servants and agents, from trespassing upon lands claimed to be owned by the plaintiff, and from removing or interfering with buildings or other property on said premises.

The plaintiff is now, and has been for many years past, conducting the business of refining copper upon the said premises, using and operating a narrow gauge railway for interplant communication, and also operating railroad sidings and connections with the Long Island railroad, which is immediately north of the plaintiff’s property. The specific property which is the subject of this action is described on certain maps and deeds as South avenue (also called Creek street) and River avenue.

The defendants claimed in their answer that. Creek Street forming a strip of land 60 feet in width and running along the southerly line and adjacent to the Long Island Railroad as well as River Avenue forming a strip of land 60 feet wide running along the easterly portion of the land alleged to be owned by plaintiff, are public streets of the City of New York and that easements for street purposes exist thereon * *

The plaintiff conducts, on five blocks of land in what was .formerly known as the village of Laurel Hill in the town of Newtown, county of Queens, a large manufacturing plant for the refining of copper. The total value of the refinery is about $6,000,000, and there are employed therein from 1,800 to 1,900 men at maximum capacity, and at the time of the commencement of this action, when operating at reduced capacity, there were employed from 1,000 to 1,100 men. There were produced normally about 45,000,000 pounds of refined copper a month. Creek street, so called, is said to parallel the right of way of the Long Island railroad, and the defendants claim that Creek street is situated immediately, north of the plaintiff’s property. The plaintiff claims title to this property, and the evidence shows that since plaintiff purchased the same it has been used for private purposes in the storage of wood, poles [669]*669and other material in large quantities, and that it has also been devoted to uses which are incident to the receipt and shipment of raw materials and finished products. Since 1918 there have been located on the so-called Creek street a loading shed and two railroad sidings connected with the Long Island railroad, over which an average of 150 cars per week operate. In addition to these sidings there are certain narrow gauge industrial tracks running from the southerly end of the plant, where the refining process originates," and ending in between the railroad sidings and Creek street. There is no other place on plaintiff’s property for the sidings and railroad connections, and it is claimed that the plaintiff could not do business without them, the necessity for the railroad connection being that plaintiff refines smelted copper ore, seventy-five per cent of which comes by rail and bakes what is known as a “ milling in transit ” rate; that is, it receives a through railroad rate from a producing point to a consuming point, allowing the copper to stop in transit to be refined, and for this a lesser rate is given than the total of the individual rates from the same shipping point to the refinery and from the refinery to the consuming point. It further appears that plaintiff has contracts based on the “ milling in transit ” rate, which could not be carried out without the railroad sidings on Creek street.

The immediate cause of the commencement of this action was bhe threat of the borough president of Queens to tear up and remove railroad sidings, industrial tracks and structures which were alleged by the defendants to be on River avenue and on Creek street or South avenue.

' It is conceded that the city of New York has never taken proceedings to acquire the fee for street purposes on Creek street or River avenue, or to acquire any other interest in these alleged streets. It also affirmatively appears from the record that the city has never repaired, maintained or in any way kept up either Creek street or River avenue as public highways.

The learned trial justice found that the streets known as Creek street (South avenue) and Brook avenue (River avenue) as laid out on the Schieffelin Map, has been continuously used by the public for vehicular and pedestrian traffic and kept open by the City of New York and its predecessors as a highway for 20 years next preceding the year 1918.”

The plaintiff claims title to Creek street, so called, and to River avenue, so called, through various deeds. The first deed is a deed from Waters to Van Mater, recorded September 17, 1853. It conveys a farm of ninety-six acres, the southerly boundary of which was the high-water mark of Newtown creek. Van Mater, [670]*670the purchaser, gave back to Waters, the seller, a purchase-money mortgage as part of the purchase price. Thereafter that purchase-money mortgage was foreclosed on or about June 11,1863. Neither the deed nor the purchase-money mortgage, in the description of the property affected by either instrument, contains any reference whatever to streets or avenues as lying within the tract; nor is any map referred to for the description of the property. The boundaries are by adjacent owners, the highway at the north and the creek at the south. On October 26, 1863, Jacob P. Carll, sheriff of Queens county, conveyed part of the mortgaged premises to Alfred Dickinson by deed. The deed to Dickinson conveyed All those certain lots * * * of land situate * * * in the Village of Laurel Hill Township of Newtown County of Queens and State of New York and laid down and designated on a certain Map entitled Map of part of The Village of Laurel Hill * * * filed in the office of the Clerk of the County of Queens Oct. 15, 1863.” That deed in foreclosure conveyed several parcels of land north of the Long Island railroad, and blocks Nos. 4 and 5 to the south of the railroad, the latter two parcels being part of the premises now owned by the plaintiff. The map, hereinafter referred to as the 1863 map, shows a so-called River avenue, fifty feet in width, located in the easterly part of the premises owned by the plaintiff. This location of River avenue, however, varies by ten feet to the westward from the River avenue now claimed by the city to exist, and is the same River avenue as located on a later map, called the Schieffelin map, and the city maps, which will be alluded to later. This map shows no Creek street or South avenue located to the north of the plaintiff’s property. The various lots to the south of the Long Island railroad are depicted as abutting immediately on the railroad; in other words, there is no intervening street depicted between the railroad and the northerly boundary of the plaintiff’s property. An inspection of this map shows an unnamed paper street running from Hamilton avenue, which street is not shown on any subsequent map.

Prior to the filing of the 1863 map, and in 1858, another map was filed. It also fails to show any Creek street or South avenue between the northerly boundary of the plaintiff’s premises and the Long Island railroad. It does show a fifty-foot wide street, called River avenue, running from Newtown creek northerly to Clinton place, which is one block north of the railroad track. Neither the map of 1858 nor the map of 1863 shows for what purpose or by whose direction either of said maps was filed. Neither of them is drawn to scale, nor is there any legend on them showing a scale.

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Bluebook (online)
208 A.D. 667, 203 N.Y.S. 839, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nichols-copper-co-v-connolly-nyappdiv-1924.