Snyder v. County of Monroe

2 Misc. 2d 946, 153 N.Y.S.2d 479, 1956 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1744
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 2, 1956
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2 Misc. 2d 946 (Snyder v. County of Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snyder v. County of Monroe, 2 Misc. 2d 946, 153 N.Y.S.2d 479, 1956 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1744 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1956).

Opinion

James C. O’Brien, J.

Very few facts are in dispute. Plaintiff owns some 25 acres of land in Irondequoit, lying just easterly of a subdivision known as Winton Village. He claims in this action that he owns also the beds of the various streets in the subdivision and certain irregularly shaped open spaces at street intersections shown on a map of the subdivision and there designated Park ”. Defendant Schantz Construction Corporation, hereinafter referred to as Schantz ”, has bought or is buying from defendant County of Monroe, hereinafter referred to as “ County ”, most of the numbered lots in this subdivision, which the County had acquired as the result of a tax foreclosure. The County and Schantz claim that they together own, and that plaintiff has no title to, either the beds of the streets or the so-called ‘‘ Parks ’’. This is the principal controversy.

Schantz, buying the lots from the County, has eliminated or proposes to eliminate certain roads as originally laid out on the map, and to relocate others. Moreover in improving some of the streets of the subdivision, Schantz has interfered temporarily and occasionally with the complete use of the various roads. It is to prevent these acts on the part of Schantz, as to roads which plaintiff claims to own, that plaintiff seeks an injunction.

I have concluded that the plaintiff is entitled to a judgment providing that he is entitled to an easement by implication over the part of Irondequoit Boulevard running west from plaintiff’s driveway and over other streets of the subdivision, continuing by the most direct routes to Empire Boulevard and Winton Road. Without such easement his home is practically inaccessible. Moreover his right to such easement is not disputed by- the defendants. The judgment may also provide that plaintiff is seized in fee of the easterly one half of the part of Irondequoit Boulevard which runs north and south. The remainder of plaintiff’s prayer is denied without costs to any party.

Some 40 years ago Myron C. Snyder, who was plaintiff’s father, inherited the 521/2 acres of land with which we are now [949]*949concerned. The westerly half of it, flat in character, eventually became Winton Village Subdivision, which is referred to hereinafter as “ Winton Village ”, or as the “ Subdivision ”. The easterly half of it, mostly hillside property, abuts Winton Village on the east and is the property which the plaintiff now owns. The plaintiff’s home is at the northerly end of this easterly half.

Plaintiff’s father, Myron C. Snyder, conveyed the whole 52% acres to one Summers. Summers gave back to Snyder a purchase-money mortgage and thereafter conveyed all the property to one Will. Will in turn conveyed it to Winton Village, Inc., which sold and conveyed a number of lots to purchasers who built houses in the Subdivision. Thereafter (1929) Snyder foreclosed the purchase-money mortgage which Summers had given him. As a result the whole 52% acres were conveyed by the referee to Myron 0. Snyder, with certain exceptions which included principally the lots which theretofore had been sold and released from the mortgage. Thereafter in 1931 Myron 0. Snyder and wife conveyed to the Winton Snyder Realty Corporation (sometimes referred to hereinafter as “ Corporation ”), of which he was sole stockholder, all the unsold lots in the tract, describing them by number with reference to the map of the subdivision which had been filed in Monroe County clerk’s office. In this deed to the corporation there is no specific mention of the bed of the streets in the Subdivision nor of the so-called “Park” areas. Myron C. Snyder and his wife both died intestate and plaintiff, their sole distributee, inherited the land of which they died seized. He claims that this land included the beds of the streets and the so-called Park areas.

I have come to the conclusion that the conveyance by Myron C. Snyder and his wife to the corporation of the lots by number, carried title to the center of the streets and the Park areas on which those lots abutted. When land is bounded by a street it is presumed that title conveyed extends to the center of the street. (Bissell v. New York Central R. R. Co., 23 N. Y. 61.) This presumption does not operate where the description of the property conveyed runs along the side of a street plainly excluding the fee in the roadbed (Kings County Fire Ins. Co. v. Stevens, 87 N. Y. 287; Matter of City of New York [165th St.], 258 N. Y. 42) or where an express provision in the deed shows that the highway was not intended to be conveyed (Van Winkle v. Van Winkle, 184 N. Y. 193; White’s Bank of Buffalo v. Nichols, 64 N. Y. 65); also in a case where public authorities are the grantors (Graham v. Stern, 168 N. Y. 517; Dunham v. [950]*950Williams, 37 N. Y. 251) and own the street, and where the grantor, himself, does not own the fee of the street (Nemet v. Edgemere Garage & Sales Co., 73 N. Y. S. 2d 921, 924). It is true also that the presumption that the title extends to the center line of the street, under certain circumstances, may be rebutted. (White’s Bank of Buffalo v. Nichols, 64 N. Y. 65, supra; Tietjen v. Palmer, 121 App. Div. 233.) Also in a proper case some additional evidence may be admitted to explain the deed or the surrounding circumstances or the situation of the parties (Haberman v. Baker, 128 N. Y. 253). However, such evidence is admissible only where the language of the deed is susceptible of more than one interpretation. When the deed is complete and unambiguous all other evidence is excluded. (Loch Sheldrake Associates v. Evans, 306 N. Y. 297, 304, 305; Uihlein v. Matthews, 172 N. Y. 154, 159; Blackman v. Riley, 138 N. Y. 318; Armstrong v. Du Bois, 90 N. Y. 95.)

It is well settled that where a conveyance describes property as a numbered lot, referring to a map upon which the lot appears, the conveyance includes the fee to the center of the street on which the lot abuts, unless expressly reserved. (Fiebelkorn v. Rogacki, 280 App. Div. 20, affd. 305 N. Y. 725; Johnson v. Grenell, 188 N. Y. 407; Hennessy v. Murdock, 137 N. Y. 317, 323; Bissell v. New York Central R. R. Co., 23 N. Y. 61, supra; Goulding v. Town of Tonawanda, 282 App. Div. 321; Nemet v. Edgemere Garage & Sales Co., 73 N. Y. S. 2d 921, 924, supra.) Such construction of a deed has so long prevailed that it has now become a rule of property (Hennessy v. Murdock, 137 N. Y. 317, 323, supra).

Plaintiff calls our attention to certain evidence outside the conveyance, viz.: the oral testimony of Mr. Bly as to the advice which he gave to the plaintiff’s father before the latter conveyed to the corporation, and the difference in the description employed in the various deeds, viz.: the deed by which the referee conveyed to plaintiff’s father and the deed by which plaintiff’s father conveyed to the corporation. As to Mr. Bly’s testimony we feel that it cannot be considered under the authorities already cited. However, if it were considered, we do not feel that that testimony and the difference in the two deeds would be sufficient to justify a different conclusion.

Also we feel that for all the purposes involved in this case the small areas at street intersections referred to as Parks

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2 Misc. 2d 946, 153 N.Y.S.2d 479, 1956 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snyder-v-county-of-monroe-nysupct-1956.