Patterson v. Chambers Power Co.

159 P. 568, 81 Or. 328, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 271
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 1, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 159 P. 568 (Patterson v. Chambers Power Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patterson v. Chambers Power Co., 159 P. 568, 81 Or. 328, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 271 (Or. 1916).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McBride

delivered the opinion of the court.

1-6. The whole case here turns upon the construction of the deed from Shaw. It is plain and direct in its terms, and was executed and recorded before any of the plaintiffs purchased their property, and they therefore took title with constructive notice of any burden which it created upon their holdings. "We are aware of no rule of law, and there is none, prohibiting the grant of an easement to take effect or to be enjoyed in the future, and that is this case. We have first a grant of the water-power upon the premises conveyed which necessarily made the raceway which carried the water across the grantor’s premises to the 23-acre tract a present easement in the land conveyed. Then we have the right to dig the raceway as deep and wide as may be necessary to run the mins now on the tract sold, and all other mills or machinery that may, at any time, be placed thereon, which creates a right or easement in the land of the grantor to be taken advantage of and enjoyed whenever the necessity of the case requires. In this there is nothing indefinite, nothing that calls for action upon the part of [334]*334the grantee until the exigency contemplated in the deed shall arise. It is contrary to the general policy of the law to restrict the power of citizens to make any kind of contract which they may see fit to enter into so long as the proposed contract does not affect the morals or well-being of society to such an extent as to be against public policy; and it is also a well-recognized principle of legal construction that a contract will not be held void for ihdefiniteness when by considering it as a whole and taking into consideration the surrounding circumstances the true intent of the parties can be ascertained: Chitty, Contracts (17 ed.), 97, 98.

7-13. Let us now consider the circumstances under which the grant under consideration was made. The conveyance was executed on March 1, 1856, at a time when the now flourishing City of Eugene was a very small country village, which did not arise to the dignity of a corporation until seven years later. The land over which the raceway extended had not been platted, and was all owned by the grantor, who had a sawmill and gristmill upon the 23-acre tract now owned by defendants. Presumably there was water enough, and more than enough, to operate the machinery then employed, and it is evident from all the circumstances, as well as from the terms of the deed, that the parties had in mind at the time the construction of additional factories and mills upon the tract conveyed, and also contemplated the necessity for additional water-power to operate them when they should be so constructed. Hence it was natural that the purchaser should require from the grantor such a conveyance as would effectuate this intention. Plainly it was vital to the grantee in view of the contemplated development of the tract as a factory site that these facilities should be secured, and it was clearly to the advantage of the grantor, [335]*335that until the occasion for widening the ditch arose, he should have the use of all the land lying adjacent to it which the present necessities of the grantee did not require. There was no method by which the exact future requirements of the grantee could be estimated or even approximated. As population increased and commerce extended the natural result would probably be to increase the demand for factory and mill sites, which would result in an increased demand for waterpower. The demand for manufactured products was then local, for the reason that navigation of the river was only seasonal and difficult, and a transcontinental railroad was a dream and a hope only realized many years after. In this condition of uncertainty as to the developments of the future the parties made the contract in question. The grantee wished to secure all that might be necessary for the possible future development of his power site. The grantor did not wish to grant more than such development might require, and not until it might be so required. Therefore they provided in the deed that the lateral extent of the easement should be measured by the growth of manufacturing industries upon the tract. That this was indefinite as to the extent laterally is in a sense true, but it is no more true than it is in contingent contracts and grants which are made every day and universally recognized by the courts. The principles here enunciated are not new, and have been applied in this state in a case where the grant of .an easement was much less specific than in the case at bar. In Salem Capital Flour Mills Co. v. Stayton Water-Ditch Co. (C. C.), 33 Fed. 146, 148, decided by Judge Deady, the grant was:

“The right of a canal-way through all and any lands then owned or occupied by [the grantors] in Marion [336]*336County necessary to be passed through, in conveying the water of the Santiam into the channel of Mill Creek,” and also the right “to enter upon the same for the purpose of cutting a canal sufficiently large to admit the flow of any amount of water required by said company for their purposes at Salem.”

A ditch was constructed in 1857, but in 1873 the Santiam Biver was so deflected from its course as to leave the intake of the ditch quite a distance from the new channel of the river, and the plaintiff prolonged its ditch for a considerable distance up the river to a point where it was practical to establish a new intake. The grantees of the original owner of the land interfered with the operation of this extension of the ditch, contending, as here, that the easement became fixed when the original ditch was dug. Upon this point Judge Deady observes:

“The power and privilege was not exhausted by the construction of the ditch to a certain point on the river in 1857. For the purpose of maintaining a canal or ditch on, over, and through the Porter donation, so as to receive and take water from the Santiam thereon, in such quantity as the company or its successors in interest might or may need or require at Salem, it continued and still continues in full force. * * At the date of the grant of the easement Porter and wife were seised of an estate of inheritance in the land, and there is nothing in the terms of their deed or the nature or purpose of the easement which at all indicates an intention to grant the easement for a less time than the duration of their own estate in the premises, but the contrary. Hence the right to maintain a ditch on and through the Porter donation was to conduct water from the Santiam to the channel of Mill Creek, for the purposes of the woolen company at Salem, is perpetual; and if, in the course of time or events, it becomes necessary, to accomplish such purposes, to widen, deepen, or lengthen said ditch, the then owner of the easement may do so.”

[337]*337In Everett Water Co. v. Powers, 37 Wash. 143 (79 Pac. 617), there was a conveyance to defendants’ grantor of a right of way for a water-pipe line over the grantor’s land, and the right to divert the flow of water with a habendum to the grantee and his heirs and assigns forever. There was no time limit for the execution of the purposes of the grant. It was contended that the deed was void for uncertainty for that reason, and the court thus disposes of this Contention:

“It is claimed that the instrument is void for uncertainty, in that no time certain is fixed for the execution of the purpose of the grant.

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Bluebook (online)
159 P. 568, 81 Or. 328, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patterson-v-chambers-power-co-or-1916.