Stockwell v. Fitzgerald

70 Vt. 468
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedMay 15, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 70 Vt. 468 (Stockwell v. Fitzgerald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stockwell v. Fitzgerald, 70 Vt. 468 (Vt. 1895).

Opinion

Munson, J.

In July, 1871, Abram N. Pruyn was the owner of a tract of land, which was subject to a mortgage, executed to one Sumner and then held by I. F. Paddock. This tract was partially bounded on the south by a highway, and was not elsewhere accessible from a highway. On the 28th of the month, in anticipation'of a division of the tract among different purchasers, Pruyn had a road, two rods wide, surveyed through it from the highway by one Edward Rice. On the first day of April, 1872, he conveyed three parcels of the tract by separate deeds, which contained grants or reservations based on this survej'-. One was a conveyance to John H. McKinty of a parcel which included all of the tract contiguous to the highway, and which reserved for a road to premises sold to Aaron R. Moon a strip two rods wide across the premises described, as the same had been surveyed by Rice. Another deed conveyed to Aaron R. Moon a parcel adjoining McKinty's lot on the north, excepting a strip two rods wide across the premises described, as the same had been surveyed by Rice, to be used as a road to other lands of the grantor lying further north. The remaining deed conveyed to Gilbert W. Pruyn a parcel of the land further north, reserving a strip two rods wide through the premises described, as surveyed by Rice, for a highway to lands beyond, and granting a right of way through lands before deeded to Moon, and McKinty where the road then ran to the main road. The orator is now the [470]*470owner of the land conveyed to Moon, and of other parcels of the tract above described. The defendant Fitzgerald, is the owner of that portion of the McKinty purchase which lies east of the road in question.

When McKinty received his deed he executed to Pruyn a mortgage of the land conveyed, and this mortgage was soon after assigned to Paddock. October 22, 1873, McKinty gave to Edward, John and Catherine Fitzgerald, executors of Michael Fitzgerald, a mortgage in usual form of that part of his land west of the road that was adjacent to the highway, making the easterly line of the land mortgaged “the center of a private passage-way used for houses further north,” and conveying “subject to a right of way one rod wide across the north and east sides of the lot.” This is the piece set up in the bill as occupied and claimed by the widow and heirs of Patrick Morrissey. April 1, 1874, McKinty conveyed by warranty deed to Margaret Jones the remainder of his purchase lying west of the road, making the west side of the road the easterly bound of the land conveyed. May 26, 1874, Paddock executed to McKinty a quit claim of that part of McKinty’s purchase lying west of the road, bounding it on the east “by the road leading northerly” from the highway. July 10, 1876, McKinty conveyed to John and Edmund Fitzgerald by quit claim the land before mortgaged to the executors of Michael Fitzgerald, but the terms of the description do not appear.

Paddock obtained a decree on the Sumner mortgage at the June Term, 1875, and a decree on the McKinty mortgage at the December Term, 1881. The equity of the last foreclosure expired in January, 1883. On the second of April, 1883, Paddock conveyed the McKinty premises by quit claim to Mary A. McKinty, the wife of John H. McKinty, bounding them on the west “by the lane leading northerly” from the highway. March 21, 1884, McKinty and his wife conveyed the premises to the defendant Fitzgerald, describing them as bounded on the west “by a lane running from the highway” to lands of the orator.

[471]*471In February, 1874, John H. McKinty obtained from Abram N. Pruyn a quit claim deed of all that the grantor then owned of the entire tract before described as having been held by him in July, 1871. November 25, 1884, McKinty and wife conveyed to one Catherine McCabe by warranty deed the road as surveyed by Rice, reserving the rights of way of the orator, Margaret Jones and the Harney estate; and October 15, 1886, Catherine McCabe executed to the orator a warranty deed of the same two-rod strip, with a reservation of the same rights.

On the 13th of April, 1877, Paddock conveyed to the orator certain parcels of this tract with the appurtenances, which parcels were accessible from the highway only by means of this road. April 10, 1889, Paddock quit claimed to the orator a strip of land two rods wide extending from the main highway through lands formerly owned by Abram N. Pruyn, with a statement of the grantor’s intention to convey his right to the lands in and over which the grantee, the heirs of Thomas Harney and the widow Jones had a right of way as appurtenant to lands owned and occupied by them respectively, through, across and over lands formerly owned by the said Abram N. Pruyn, to the highway. Paddock never claimed nor exercised any rights in the road as surveyed by Rice, adverse to the right of the orator or other owners of the land for whose benefit the road was surveyed.

The survey of the road in question was never placed upon record. The year McKinty took his deed, he procured from Rice a copy of the survey, and a map showing its exact location. He went into possession of the lot about the time of his purchase. The travel was not confined to any particular route until the summer of 1874, when McKinty enclosed his land by a permanent fence. This was built further west than the east line of the road as surveyed by Rice, and was so built with the permission of Moon. In 1879, McKinty rebuilt the southerly part of the fence, [472]*472carrying it still further west. He never claimed the right to maintain the fence where located, and expected to withdraw it to the line of the survey whenever called upon to do so by any one interested in the road. Before the fence of 1874 was built, the owners of the back lots crossed McKinty’s land wherever convenient, and the travel was not so concentrated as to leave upon any particular course the indications of a road. Since then the travel has been in the path now used, and has always been sufficient to mark it plainly. Fitzgerald knew at the time he bought that the lane referred to in his deed was a surveyed road, but did not know the location of the survey. The fence before mentioned was still standing, and he supposed it was substantially on the line. He made no inquiries in regard to the survey, but maintained the fence where he found it, and claimed to own to it.

The fence as finally located by McKinty was crowded so far to the west that it brought into his enclosure all of the road as surveyed for six rods or more from the highway, and a considerable part of it across his entire lot. His grantees on the opposite side built their fences up to the travelled path before he sold to defendant Fitzgerald, but at what time does not appear. The result was that the road as thus located was made less than two rods between fences, and in places so narrow that it was difficult to pass with loads of hay. In 1889 the orator i-equested the owners to put the fences on the lines of the Rice survey or to move them back so as to leave the road two rods wide. The defendant Fitzgerald refused to move his fence, claiming to own to the line of it. The owners on the other side refused to move back their fences, claiming to own to the westerly line of the Rice survey. The orator thereupon brought this bill to the June Term, 1889, filing the same April 25th.

None of the defendants have answered except Fitzgerald and the administrator of Patrick Morrissey. The master reports that all the defendants have the rights and make the [473]*473claims set up in the bill.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Vt. 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stockwell-v-fitzgerald-vt-1895.