Pinsky v. Sloat

279 P.2d 584, 130 Cal. App. 2d 579, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1939
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 3, 1955
DocketCiv. 20301
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 279 P.2d 584 (Pinsky v. Sloat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pinsky v. Sloat, 279 P.2d 584, 130 Cal. App. 2d 579, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1939 (Cal. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

VALLÉE, J.

This suit involves the rights in and the title to a parcel of realty in the county of Los Angeles which was formerly a public highway.

*581 On July 2, 1948, defendant Sloat by grant deed acquired title to three parcels of property. Parcel one consisted of Lot 1 and a part of Lot 2; parcel two consisted of Lots 24, 25, and a part of Lot 26; parcel three consisted of a part of Scherzinger Lane. The deed by which Sloat acquired title described the three parcels separately. The part of Scherzinger Lane so conveyed is the property in controversy. It was formerly a dead-end public street. On March 31, 1950, Sloat executed a deed of trust which described parcels one and two “as per map recorded in Book 137 Pages 6 and 7 of Maps, in the office of the County Recorder of said County [Los Angeles].” The map in the recorder’s office showed Scherzinger Lane as a highway surrounded on three sides by parcels one and two. Plaintiffs were named as beneficiaries in the deed of trust. On March 7, 1952, plaintiffs on foreclosure of the deed of trust acquired title to the property described therein.

On February 2, 1937, prior to the execution of the deed of trust, the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles abandoned that part of Scherzinger Lane surrounded by parcels one and two. The part abandoned had never been “improved as a street for public use.” A strip about 14 or 15 feet wide had been black-topped and paved by Sloat for convenience in getting to the house on parcel one. Sloat testified that she did not include Scherzinger Lane in the deed of trust. Since parcel three was abandoned it has been assessed and taxed separately, and the taxes have been paid by Sloat from the time she acquired title.

The court found that Sloat did not by the deed of trust convey parcel three, nor did she intend to do so; parcel three appears on the recorded map as a roadway surrounded on three sides by parcels one and two; a strip 11 feet wide in parcel three has heen used as a roadway by plaintiffs for access to their home since they acquired title to parcels one and two; and defendants have interfered with and threaten to prevent plaintiffs’ use of the 11-foot roadway. The judgment decreed that plaintiffs have an easement over the 11-foot roadway which is appurtenant to parcels one and two and enjoined defendants from interfering with plaintiffs’ use of the easement. Plaintiffs appeal.

Plaintiffs’ contention is that the conveyance by the deed of trust of parcels one and two as per the recorded map extended to the center line of Scherzinger Lane on which each parcel fronted, and that the fact that Scherzinger Lane had *582 been abandoned as a public street did not affect that title. The contention must be upheld.

A grant of land by lot, block or tract number, with reference to a map which shows that the property abuts on a highway generally conveys to the grantee the fee to the center of the highway. (11 C.J.S. 583, § 35c (1) (b); anno.: 2 A.L.R. 6, 17.) Plaintiffs, as ground for reversal, rely on this well-settled proposition of law and cite Anderson v. Citizens Sav. etc. Co., 185 Cal. 386 [197 P. 113], and Brown v. Bachelder, 214 Cal. 753 [7 P.2d 1027].

In the deed before the court in Anderson v. Citizens Sav. etc. Co., supra, the property was conveyed to one Martin and was described by lot and block number on a subdivision map. The map showed that the lot was bounded by two streets, Grand and Vandal, each 60 feet wide. In 1898, while Martin was still the owner of the property and of the fee to half of the streets on which it abutted, the two streets, Grand and Vandal, were with Martin’s consent abandoned as public streets by order of the board of supervisors of the county.

In 1911—that is, after the abandonment of the streets— Martin conveyed the property to one Lempertz by deed, likewise describing the property merely by its lot and block number according to the subdivision map. The plaintiff succeeded to any interest which remained in Martin. The defendant succeeded to the interest of Lempertz. The dispute was as to whether the deed from Martin to Lempertz operated to convey the 30-foot strips which were part of the adjoining streets as shown by the map. The court stated the controlling question thus (p. 392) :

“Did or did not that deed, describing the property conveyed as lot so and so in block so and so as, shown by a certain map, operate to convey the land in front of the lot to the center of the streets shown on the map, although such streets had been abandoned as public streeets? There can be no question but that the deed would so operate except for the circumstances that the streets had been abandoned, so that the question is, Does such abandonment change what would otherwise be the rule? ...”

The court held (p. 392) :

“In other words, where land is conveyed by a description which bounds it by a street, and the grantor is the owner of the fee in the street, as he is presumed to be, the real boundary line of the property is not the side line of the street but its center line. . . .
*583 “A description of a lot as that shown on a certain map is a description of it as bounded by a street when the map shows it to be so bounded, so that to such a description the same reason and the same rule apply. [Citations.] Putting it in another way, the fee in the half of the street upon which the lot abuts is in fact a part of the lot, so that a conveyance of the lot conveys the fee in the street as a part of it.
‘ ‘ Such being the reason or theory of the rule it would seem that it should make no difference that there is in fact no public street there, provided the conveyance be one which describes the lot as bounded by a street. By such a description a street is created as between the grantor and the grantee, regardless of whether or not there is an existing dedication as between the grantor and the public. This is the settled law of this state. [Citations.] Under these decisions, there can be no question but that Lempertz, under her deed from Martin, which, in effect, described the property as fronting on the two streets in question, took the property as between herself and Martin as so fronting, whether there were public streets there or not. Such being the case, there would seem to be no reason for not applying as between them the rule that a conveyance of a lot bounded by a street carries the fee to the center of the street as a part of the lot. . . .
“ [P. 394] The final question after all is one as to the intention of the parties, and it would seem not unreasonable to consider such a description as one of a lot bounded by what is now private property, although once a street, so that the real boundary was the line of that property. But it is to be noted that the description in this case is a description of the lot as shown by the map, and the map shows the street as existing and not as abandoned, so that by the description the boundary line of what is conveyed would normally be the center line of the street as shown. . . .
“ [P.

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Bluebook (online)
279 P.2d 584, 130 Cal. App. 2d 579, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pinsky-v-sloat-calctapp-1955.