Scott v. Baird

108 N.W. 737, 145 Mich. 116, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 736
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 23, 1906
DocketDocket No. 43
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 108 N.W. 737 (Scott v. Baird) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Baird, 108 N.W. 737, 145 Mich. 116, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 736 (Mich. 1906).

Opinion

Grant, J.

(after stating the facts). 1. The center line of lot 4 as claimed by the defendant and upon which he has constructed his party wall under the terms of the partition deeds is a line established by the original plat- and monuments fixed by the plat. The surveyors, in locating the line, started from the monument in the center of Michigan avenue and measured northward to the center of lot 4 according to the plat. They verified this measurement by another from the established monument in Saginaw street. The two exactly agree. The lots west of the alley of block 83 correspond substantially with the original plat. The line between lots 10 and 11 west of the alley correspond with the line between lots 2 and 3 east of it. On this line between lots 10 and 11 there has existed for 25 years an old fence. This line corresponds with the surveys from the known monuments and is in accord with the original plat. The location of lot 4 as claimed by the defendant is beyond dispute the location originally established. This location must prevail unless the parties interested have acquiesced in another' one. Plaintiffs claim that the monument from which the measurement of the lots in block 83 is to be determined is the corner of Ionia street and Washington avenue as it was marked and defined by the old Longyear building, 12 years after the making and. [123]*123recording of the town plat. They therefore claim that they are entitled to one-half of the open space between the south wall of the Barker block and the north wall of the Hinchey block. This open space is 65 feet 2 inches in width. Under their claim they would therefore obtain 32 feet and 7 inches of open space. They also concededly own the undivided one-half interest in the 15 inches of the north part of lot 4 under the partition wall, as deeded by the owners of lot 4 to Mr. Barker. They have the absolute use and benefit of this wall for building purposes, while defendant upon the south would not have the benefit of the partition wall except as he purchased it from the owners of the Hinchey block, because the north wall of the Hinchey block stands exclusively within lot 5. The Longyear or Buck building clearly encroaches upon the street. Its location was undoubtedly a mistake; whether of Mr. Preston, the county surveyor, or the failure of Mr. Longyear to build in accordance with the line which Mr. Preston gave him, does not appear, and is immaterial. There is no evidence that any stakes were placed along Ionia street, and if any were placed, there is no presumption that, they existed when the Longyear building was erected, 12 years after the land was platted. Only those who have acquiesced in such location are bound by it. The only ones who have acquiesced in it are the owners of lots 5 and 6 and the buildings thereon. Their acquiescence can bind no one else. It was many years ago understood that the Buck building encroached upon the street. There is no proof that the owners of lot 4 acquiesced in changing the north line of Ionia street, and thereby changing the location of their lot. On the contrary, whenever the original location was attacked they have asserted their rights. When Barker and Parker ascertained that they had encroached upon lot 4, they purchased a half interest in the north 15 inches of lot 4 in order to secure the maintenance of the partition wall which they had there erected. Holding to the original plat does not disturb the location of any other street or [124]*124block in the city. Neither does it disturb or affect the rights of the owner of any lot in block 83. The owners of lots 5 and 6 have acquiesced in the encroachment. So evidently has the municipality. These lines cannot now be disturbed. The boundaries of no other lots are injuriously affected.

The case does not fall within Koenigs v. Jung, 73 Wis. 178, and similar cases, where the location of blocks, lots, and adjacent streets has been made by official engineers of a city, the streets graded and improved and buildings erected with reference thereto, although a new survey showed them to be incorrect. Neither does it fall within City of Racine v. Plow Co., 56 Wis. 539, where the new survey resulted in changing the lines of streets, blocks, and lots from those which had be'en generally and uniformly recognized and acquiesced in. Neither does it fall within those cases cited by plaintiffs where land is described in deeds bounded by a highway in which it is presumed that the deed referred to the highway as it existed at the time of the execution of the deed, and not as shown by the record of the survey. No street or highway is referred to in any deed of any of the lots in block 83. The presumption is that every one sold and purchased his lot in accordance with the original plat and the monuments thereby established. Until cogent evidence can be produced to show that owners of lots have acquiesced in other monuments, and in a change of the plat, the original must prevail.

Counsel cite as applicable to this case the following statement from Twogood v. Hoyt, 42 Mich. 609:

“ So, where the streets, although not so designated, have by the parties interested or by the public authorities been opened, used, and acquiesced in, they thereby become permanent boundaries, and form new starting points in subsequent surveys of the premises.”

The statement was not essential to the determination of that case. In any event, it has no application here. The south line of the Longyear or Buck building was not lo[125]*125cated by the public authorities. It was very soon understood by all parties that that building encroached 15 inches upon the street. The only parties who have acquiesced in it are those who have built on lots 5 and 6. It is not in the power of one individual to encroach upon a public highway, even with the acquiescence of the public authorities, and thus establish a new monument or starting point by which all the other owners in a given block must locate their lots and set aside all the established monuments. The same reasoning applies to the following statement in Van Den Brooks v. Correon, 48 Mich. 283.

“Where, however, streets have been opened and long acquiesced in, in supposed conformity to the plat, they should be accepted as fixed monuments in locating lots or blocks contiguous thereto or fronting thereon.”

The question in that case was not an encroachment by one lot owner upon the street, but the location of the streets of the city. If the contention of the defendant in that case had been sustained, it would have resulted, as the trial court instructed the jury, in changing the location and boundaries of many streets and blocks in the city. The statement was applicable to the facts of that case. In this case, by adhering to the original monuments, neither the rights of the public in the streets nor the boundaries of any other lot or block are affected. There is no evidence of any existing stakes at the time the Long-year building was erected, 12 years after the survey of the plat. All the other streets are of the width established by the plat. If presumptions were to be indulged in, it would be that the original surveyors platted Ionia street ■ of the same width as the others. We held in Woodbury v. Venia, 114 Mich. 251:

“Monuments control courses and distances, and that, when monuments and measurements vary, the monuments always control; but this reference is to monuments and measurements made by the original survey.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 N.W. 737, 145 Mich. 116, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-baird-mich-1906.