Ritchey v. Welsh

40 L.R.A. 105, 48 N.E. 1031, 149 Ind. 214, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 3
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1898
DocketNo. 18,157
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 40 L.R.A. 105 (Ritchey v. Welsh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ritchey v. Welsh, 40 L.R.A. 105, 48 N.E. 1031, 149 Ind. 214, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 3 (Ind. 1898).

Opinion

Monks, J.

This action was brought by appellee against the appellants, to enforce a way of necessity. The demurrer to the complaint was overruled. The court made a special finding of facts, and stated its conclusions thereon in favor of appellee, to each of which appellants excepted. Final judgment.was rendered in favor of appellee.

The errors assigned, and not waived, call in question each conclusion of law, and the action of the court in overruling the demurrer to the complaint.

It appears from the special finding that Mary C. Ritchey died intestate, the owner of a body of land bounded on the west and south by a highway; that afterwards, in 1887, partition was made of said real estate, so that the real estate allotted to each was bounded on the west or south by said highway. The eighteen acres set off to appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey, was thirty-six rods wide, north and south, and divided the fifty-three acres set off to Samuel W. [216]*216Ritchey, husband of said deceased, from the twenty-nine acres set off to appellee. Afterwards said Samuel W. Ritchey died the owner of said fifty-three acres, and in 1891, in an action for partition the same was divided in such a manner that the part set off to appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey, was between the public highway and the part set off to appellee, so that the tract set off to appellee could not be reached from a public highway over said fifty-three acres, except by crossing oyer the part thereof set off to said Osiander K. Ritchey. No mention was made in said partition proceedings of a way from appellee’s tract to any highway. Samuel W. Ritchey occupied said fifty-three acres from the time the same was set off to him until his death, and entered from the highway through a gate on the part of said land afterwards set off to said appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey, going over the land in the most convenient route. After the partition of the fifty-three acres, a gate was still maintained upon said land at the highway for the convenience of appellee, she going thence north to a point west of the southwest corner of her said tract; thence east to her land. The part of the fifty-three acres set off to appellee was not fenced until 1893, when she erected a gate at the southwest corner thereof, and has since used said gate, and a route extending directly west therefrom to the east line of the southwest quarter, and thence south to the gate at the highway. The entire way so used being upon the part of said fifty-three acres set off to appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey, and with his consent.

Appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey,. before the commencement of this action, offered to appellee the priv • ilege of passing over the eighteen acres which were set off to him in the partition of his mother’s land, in 1887, from north to south. By the way so offered. [217]*217appellee could go from the twenty-five acres set off to her in the partition of her father’s land in 1891, to the twenty-nine acres set off to her in the partition qf her mother’s land, in 1887, which last named tract was bounded on the west by a highway.

Appellants insist that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the complaint, and in each of the conclusions of law, because — “First, a right of way oí necessity does not arise out of partition proceedings; second, appellee had another way offered before this action was commenced; third, appellants had selected another way.”

It is settled law that if one conveys a part of his land in such form as to deprive himself of access to the remainder, unless he goes across the land sold, he has a way of necessity over the portion conveyed. This is because the law presumes an understanding of the parties that the one selling a portion of his land shall have a legal right of access over the part sold to the remainder, if he cannot reach it in any other way. If the the part conveyed is in such form that the grantee cannot reach the same except over the part not conveyed, such grantee has a way of necessity thereto over the land of the grantor, not conveyed, for the reason that the law presumes that one would not sell his land to another without an understanding that the grantee should have a legal right of access thereto over the part not conveyed. Collins v. Prentice, 15 Conn. 39, 38 Am. Dec. 61, 62, and cases cited; Stewart v. Hartman, 46 Ind. 331, 341, 342; Logan v. Stogsdale, 123 Ind. 372, 376, 377, 8 L. R. A. 58; Ellis v. Bassett, 128 Ind. 118, and cases cited; Kimball v. Cochecho Railroad, 27 N. H. 448, 59 Am. Dec. 387; Nichols v. Luce, 24 Pick. 102, 35 Am. Dec. 302; Pernam v. Wead, 2 Mass. 203, 3 Am. Dec. 43, 44; Pinnington v. Galland, 9 Exch. 1; White v. Bass, 7 Hurl. & Norm. 722; Wash[218]*218burn’s Easements, 164, 166. These, presumptions prevail over the ordinary covenants of a warranty deed. Brigham v. Smith, 4 Gray 297. The rights of the grantor and grantor would not be different or any more extensive if by the terms of the deed express provision was made for such way of necessity. Viall v. Carpenter, 80 Mass. 126; Blum v. Weston, 102 Cal. 362, 36 Pac. 778, 41 Am. St. 188; Brigham v. Smith, supra. The law thus giving effect to such grant according to the presumed intent of the parties.

Appellant contends that this right of a way of necessity can only exist when there is a grant by one owning both the dominant and servient estate. This right, however, has not only been raised between parties to the conveyance of one or more parts of land, when the part granted or retained can only be reached over the other part, but also where a part of a tract of land has been sold or set off on execution or by an executor or administrator. Ellis v. Bassett, supra; Pernam v. Wead, supra; Taylor v. Townsend, 8 Mass. 411, 5 Am. Dec. 107; Russell v. Jackson, 2 Pick. 574; Schmidt v. Quin, 136 Mass. 575; Smyles v. Hastings, 22 N. Y. 217; Howton v. Frearson, 8 T. R. 50. It has been held that such a right exists in partition proceedings in favor of any tract allotted which is not accessible except over the part or parts of the tract allotted to others. Viall v. Carpenter, supra; Blum v. Weston, supra. See, also, Goddard’s Law of Easements (Bennett’s ed.), 348.

Under the authorities it is clear that if the parts of said real estate allotted to appellant, Osiander K. Ritchey, and appellee, respectively, had been conveyed or devised to them by Samuel W. Ritchey, their common ancestor, a way of necessity would have been created in favor of the part conveyed or devised to appellee.

[219]*219The reason for the doctrine of a way of necessity is thus stated in Collins v. Prentice, supra: “And although it is called a way of necessity, yet in strictness, the necessity does not create the way, but merely furnishes evidence as to the real intentions of the parties. For the law will not presume, that it was the intention of the parties, that one should convey land to the other, in such a manner that the grantee could derive no benefit from the conveyance; nor that he should so convey a portion as to deprive himself of the enjoyment of the remainder.” The reasons given to support a way of necessity, in case of a grant, support such' a rule with equal force, when there is partition of land by deed or by a proceeding in court.

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Bluebook (online)
40 L.R.A. 105, 48 N.E. 1031, 149 Ind. 214, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ritchey-v-welsh-ind-1898.