Thackray v. Crager

43 Pa. D. & C. 301, 1941 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 220
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedAugust 1, 1941
Docketno. 1789
StatusPublished

This text of 43 Pa. D. & C. 301 (Thackray v. Crager) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thackray v. Crager, 43 Pa. D. & C. 301, 1941 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 220 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1941).

Opinion

Crumlish, J.,

Plaintiffs filed this bill in equity as property owners to enjoin defendants’ use of their neighboring premises as a tourist house in violation of a restrictive covenant, binding all the properties involved, against any use other than as a private dwelling. Plaintiffs allege that defendants are advertising their premises as a tourist house by large illuminated signs in front thereof and that such use of the premises is interfering with plaintiffs’ enjoyment of their property and is injuring the value thereof, for which there is no adequate remedy in damages.

Defendants deny that their property is subject to the restrictive covenant, that they are conducting their premises other than as a private dwelling, and that their use of the premises has caused any inconvenience or damage to plaintiffs’ use of their property. Defendants aver that plaintiffs have abandoned the restriction and released their right therein by acquiescence in similar uses of neighboring properties and that it would be inequitable to enforce the restrictive covenant because the condition of the neighborhood has changed.

Findings of fact

1. Plaintiffs are the respective present owners of the various properties situated on the north side of the [303]*3035900 block of Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia, and acquired their respective titles on the following dates:

5900, Mulholland, December 19, 1928;

5902, Elizabeth Garlick, first acquired title on November 7, 1929, and by subsequent conveyance title became vested in Ellwood Garlick and Elizabeth Gar-lick, on June 9,1939;

5904, Calvert, April 18, 1929;

5908, Iverson, May 8, 1939 ;

5910, Spangler, April 1, 1929;

5912, Keehfuss, December 15, 1928;

5914, Brown, April 2, 1929;

5924, Cobb, February 7,1929;

5926, Burnett, April 20, 1937;

5930, Lister, March 3,1937;

5932, Thaekray, August 1, 1929;

5936, Fischer, December 9,1933;

5938, Kelleher, May 17,1939;

5940, Savoy, March 22, 1929;

5942, McKewen, January 14, 1929;

2. Defendants are the present owners of premises known as 5934 Roosevelt Boulevard, having purchased that property on October 25, 1940.

3. On August 7, 1929, George Edel was the owner in fee of a tract of land situated and described according to deed of Frank J. Bayer et al. to George Edel, dated October 26, 1927, recorded in Philadelphia in Deed Book J. M. H. no. 2648, p. 270, and that tract of land included within its boundaries the above properties presently owned by plaintiffs and defendants herein respectively.

4. On August 7,1929, George Edel conveyed to Fred Bradford Horton by deed recorded in Philadelphia in Deed Book J. M. H. no. 3031, p. 405, a portion of the above tract of land with building thereon, now known as 5934 Roosevelt Boulevard, subject to the following restrictions:

[304]*304“That no building or buildings now or hereafter erected or to be erected upon the above described lot of ground shall extend any further front than the present building as erected by the said George Edel, grantor herein, nor shall the said building or buildings hereafter erected be used for any purpose other than as a private dwelling house.”

5. By divers indentures, certain lots or portions of the above tract of land, originally owned by George Edel, were conveyed in single lots to plaintiffs in fee, as fully described in finding no. 1, under and subject to the above restriction and with knowledge of its existence on the part of plaintiffs at the time of the conveyances.

6. On October 25, 1940, the premises known as 5934 Roosevelt Boulevard were conveyed by Fred Bradford Horton to defendants by deed recorded in Philadelphia in Deed Book D. W. H. no. 1079, p. 577. .

7. Beginning in November 1940, defendants have conducted a tourist house on their premises, without altering the structure of the building thereon, and pursuant thereto have rented rooms to strangers by the day or for any longer period desired.

8. In conjunction with the tourist business, defendants placed upon the front of their property two pasteboard signs and two neon signs bearing the following illuminated legends, “Tourists” and “5934”. The neon signs were removed following the preliminary hearing in the present case on January 3, 1941, but the two pasteboard signs remain and are illuminated by a light placed behind them.

9. Further in conjunction with defendants’ tourist business, people have been going in and out of their premises at all hours of the day and night with baggage, and cars have been parked in the front and in the rear of the premises on the private driveway, bearing out-of-State license plates.

10. For more than nine years, William D. and Anna [305]*305L. Moore have been conducting a tourist house on their premises 5916 Roosevelt Boulevard, in the same manner as defendants herein, as described above, without any objection from plaintiffs.

11. All the properties on the north and south sides of the 5900 block are private dwellings, except as otherwise indicated in these findings.

12. The presence of tourist houses in the close vicinity of plaintiffs’ properties has tended to depreciate the value and to interfere with plaintiffs’ full enjoyment thereof.

13. On the south side of the 5900 block of Roosevelt Boulevard, to which the above restriction also applies, at 5903, 5919, and 5927, tourist houses have been conducted for many years in the same manner as defendants herein, as described above.

14. Defendants knew of the existence of the above tourist houses on the north and south sides when they purchased their property.

15. Roosevelt Boulevard at the 5900 block is 300 feet wide and consists of four driveways, each separated by a grass lawn from which trees are growing.

16. Of twenty-one commercial establishments in the neighborhood in question, one group is centered around Oxford Circle on the Roosevelt Boulevard about one half block from the western end of the 5900 block, a distance of approximately 500 feet, and the other is situated off the boulevard on Castor Road at a walking distance of almost two blocks behind the 5900 row. Most of these commercial properties have been used as such for more than five years, and many were business properties prior to the creation of the restrictive covenant as to the 5900 block.

Discussion

The facts material to the issues presented herein are for the most part not in dispute, and the evidence clearly supports the above findings.

[306]*306There is little doubt that the restrictive covenant was included in the line of title through which defendants acquired their property and that it may be enforced against them by subsequent grantees of other properties subject to the same restrictions, as a covenant running with the land: Adams et al. v. Field et al., 297 Pa. 247 (1929) ; Finley v. Glenn et ux., 303 Pa. 131 (1931); Benner et al. v. Tacony Athletic Assn. et al., 328 Pa. 577 (1938). Therefore, the first question is whether defendants’ use of their property as a tourist house as described herein violates the restriction of the use of the property to a “private dwelling”.

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Bluebook (online)
43 Pa. D. & C. 301, 1941 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thackray-v-crager-pactcomplphilad-1941.