Prentiss v. City of Gloucester

127 N.E. 796, 236 Mass. 36, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 809
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedMay 21, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 127 N.E. 796 (Prentiss v. City of Gloucester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prentiss v. City of Gloucester, 127 N.E. 796, 236 Mass. 36, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 809 (Mass. 1920).

Opinion

Jenney, J.

This case is here on the respondents’ exceptions in proceedings for registration of the title to land on Eastern Point in Gloucester. The exceptions are to certain findings of fact and rulings made, all relating to easements claimed to exist over the petitioner’s land. While the existence of ways public and private by prescription was in controversy, the findings of fact disposed of these contentions and no question relating thereto is now involved.

The petitioner’s land in 1887 was included in the Niles farm, a tract of about four hundred acres, bounded easterly and southerly by the ocean, westerly by Gloucester Harbor, and northerly by the Patch farm. Its northerly line was then marked by a stone wall extending from ocean to harbor. Within its bounds, there was a small tract owned by the United States and used as a site for a lighthouse, and a fresh water lake of approximately thirty-six acres separated from the ocean by a barrier beach at Brace’s Cove, which formed part of the easterly ocean frontage. The Niles farm did not bound on any public or private way, although a public way then terminated at a point on its northerly boundary at a gate near the harbor side, where a gate lodge was built in 1888. [49]*49Questions relating to the Niles farm were before the court in Niles v. Patch, 13 Gray, 254.

The petitioner’s land consists of a little over twenty acres of upland, and bounds on Brace’s Cove, the ocean, the fresh water lake, and on a line substantially parallel with the shore of the cove. The easements in controversy are in a private way claimed to exist over this land and close to the shore.

In 1887, the Niles farm was conveyed to the trustees of the Eastern Point Associates, a voluntary association. The trustees caused William H. Foss to make a plan dated March 1, 1888, which showed a division of the entire tract into lots and also “a considerable number of (unnamed) ways.” One of the ways designoted thereon' led from the gate lodge around the entire shore front, past Brace’s Cove, past the northerly end of the lake and back to a junction with the same way not far from the gate. The plan also showed a road near the ocean from the northerly end of the lake to the boundary of the Patch farm at about the point where a road to Bass Rocks was subsequently built across that farm. There was no evidence that this plan ever was recorded, referred to in any deed or used in any maimer.

Under date of September 1, 1888, Foss made for the trustees a series of plans which consisted of an index plan showing an outline of the entire tract with ways substantially as on the first plan, with a division into sections, but with no division into lots, and separate plans of many sections indicated in outline on the index plan. There was no evidence that sectional plans were made of the part of the tract including the land of the petitioner. The sectional plans contained no reference to the index plan. The index and sectional plans were recorded in the registry of deeds in the same book of plans. The index plan has never been referred to in any deed except in those passing title from trustees to their successors in trust, and then only with an express statement that the reference was made for convenience. Under date of May 1, 1889, a lithographic plan was made which was substantially the same as the Foss plan of March 1, 1888. Roads and ways shown thereon were not in fact built at that time, and never have been built exactly as delineated. While the scheme as to roads has been followed in a general way, sometimes material changes have been made in locations; substitutions have been made in some [50]*50cases; and other roads never have been constructed. There was no evidence as to the origin or use of this plan, except that it appeared that it had been inserted in a booklet containing a description of the property. It was produced by the petitioner at the request of the respondents. It did not appear that the plan or booldet ever had been used in the sale of land. In the year 1892, a new lithographic plan substantially like that of 1889 was made. This was distributed to brokers, but it was not recorded, and no reference has been made to it in any deed. The judge found that “It was used as showing in a general way the location of the property, but not as showing any lots which were to be sold in accordance therewith, or as showing the streets and ways as actually constructed, or to be constructed.” The evidence stated in the bill of exceptions as to the making of plans, the construction of streets and the way in which the land was divided into lots when actually sold, amply justified this finding.

There were other general plans in evidence, but they do not add to nor detract from the effect of those herein described, and they were not referred to in any deed nor used in the sale of land.

In 1889, the trustees of the Eastern Point Associates mortgaged the property, and in 1892 this mortgage was foreclosed, and the property then subject thereto was conveyed to the trustees of the Eastern Point Company.

The land has been developed as a “seaside residential property” and roads have been opened over it in various places as needed throughout a period of thirty years. The part of the way around the harbor side from the gateway to a point near the lighthouse is and has been called Eastern Point Boulevard (West), while the shore road along the easterly front is designated as, Eastern Point Boulevard (East). In 1891 a rough road extending through land of the petitioner was cut through the bushes close to the shore. By 1892 this had become passable, and in 1894 the company built a good road on the same location. This road was. materially nearer the shore than Eastern Point Boulevard (East) as shown on the plans. In 1910, it was widened and extended across the beach between the lake and Brace’s Cove to a connectian with a temporary way, which entered Eastern Point Bouleyard (West) near the gate lodge. A road, known as Atlantic Road, which connected through the Patch farm with the Bass Rocks. [51]*51Road, also was built. This did not closely follow any way shown on the plan. Eastern Point Boulevard (East) has never been constructed from Brace’s Cove northerly and westerly of its westerly terminus except for a small section near Brace’s Cove, for the reason that its construction is “impracticable because it would take a twenty foot drop” at one point.

Since 1887 when the Eastern Point Associates acquired title, there have been between seventy and eighty conveyances by said associates or their successors in title on the Eastern Point Boulevard (East) and the Eastern Point Boulevard (West) or on ways connected directly or indirectly therewith. The bill of exceptions states that “Many of these deeds referred to small plans recorded therewith which showed the lot of land conveyed, the abutters, the bounding streets, and the adjacent boulevard or street appearing as open in each direction and disclosing a small part of it beyond the property in question at both ends.”

The only landowners who are here presenting exceptions to the rulings of the Land Court, and whose rights are in question, are Joseph O. Procter and others, trustees, referred to hereafter as Procter; George O. Stacy; Herbert E. Smith and Arthur W. Smith, referred to hereafter as Smith; and the city of Gloucester. Hence there is no necessity of considering what rights of way, if any, other landowners have, except so far as their existence may be pertinent to the exceptions of these respondents.

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Bluebook (online)
127 N.E. 796, 236 Mass. 36, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prentiss-v-city-of-gloucester-mass-1920.