Timms v. Griffith

68 S.W.2d 535
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 28, 1934
DocketNo. 4146.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 68 S.W.2d 535 (Timms v. Griffith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Timms v. Griffith, 68 S.W.2d 535 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

HALL, Chief Justice.

Block No. 3 of the Country Club Park addition to the city of Amarillo contains eighteen lots. Lots 1 to 9 front west upon La Salle (Flamingo) street. Lots No. 10 to 18 front east. There is no alley running north and south through the block, and the east line of lot No. 9 and the west line of lot No. 10 are identical. Lots 8, 7, and 6 are situated north of lot No. 9. Ben H. Stone owns a residence upon lot 6. This residence is occupied by the appellee Griffith and his fam *536 ily. Timms and wife own lot No. 10 and lot No. 9 and have leased lot No. 8 from the owner thereof, Mrs. Victor Smith. Lot No. 7 is vacant property. Timms and wife have constructed on lot No. 9, immediately back of lot No. 10 upon which their residence is situated, a small barn or stable which 'has been designated as a summer house by counsel in their pleading.

Griffith filed this suit alleging that, in addition to the barn which had been constructed on lot No. 9, Timms and wife were inclosing with a wire fence lot No. 8 to be used as grazing and exercising territory for a mare and young colt which were housed in the barn on lot No. 9. Stone, the owner of lot 6, joined by Griffith, the tenant, instituted this suit against Timms and wife alleging that in the deeds from E. R. Lewis and wife to E. L. Allen and other assignees of said lots “the use and occupancy of the lots above described was expressly restricted and limited in a' number of particulars, including the following: ‘(1) This lot shall not be used for business, apartment house, duplex, or any other purpose whatsoever except for residence purposes,’ ” and expressly conferred upon all subsequent vendees and assignees of any of said lots the right to restrain by injunction any violation or threatened violation of the restrictions contained in said deed. They alleged that Griffith, his wife and child, occupied lot No. 6; that Timms and wife are in possession of lots 8, 9, and 10 of said block No. 8, and that, by reason of the restrictions in their chain of title, they are not entitled to use any of said lots 8, 9, and 10 for any other than residence purposes as those purposes were understood and contemplated by the parties to the original deeds from E. R. Lewis and wife, the common source of title to the respective grantees to whom they conveyed said lots; that, notwithstanding the restrictions upon the uses which the defendants could make thereof, they, in violation of the legal and equitable rights of plaintiffs, “have used and are now using said lot No. 9 for maintaining a barn in which they have kept one or more horses for several months past and in which they are now keeping two horses, to-wit: a mare and colt. That defendants are now engaged in the construction of a fence around the west, north and east side of lot No. 8 and have announced their purpose of using said lot No. 8 as a corral or lot for the confinement of horses and perhaps other live stock. That said lots and the barn and corral in which defendants are keeping their horses and intending to keep them and perhaps other live stock, are immediately south of and alongside the residence occupied by plaintiff Griffith and his family; that the summer breezes in Amarillo are principally from the south and that as the respective properties of defendants and plaintiffs are situated,, the breezes come directly across said lots 8 and 9 to lot No. 6 occupied by plaintiff.” With much particularity plaintiffs further allege that the maintenance of the barn and stable is and will hereafter constitute a nuisance. The prayer is for a temporary restraining order enjoining the defendants from keeping or confining on any of said lots Nos. 8, 9, and 10 horses or other live stock; that upon a final hearing plaintiffs have judgment permanently restraining defendants from keeping and confining any horses or other live stock on any of said lots 8, 9, and 10; that plaintiffs have judgment for costs and all general and special relief, either in law or in equity, which they shall show themselves entitled to in the premises.

The court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law and rendered judgment in favor of Griffith and Stone restraining Timms and wife from keeping or confining any horses or other live stock on lots 8 and 9 and denying injunctive relief to plaintiffs as to lot. 10, because it was not shown that defendants had kept any horses or other live stock on said lot 10 nor threatened to do so.

The court further found that Timms and wife, in keeping the mare and colt on lots 8 and 9, were not guilty of maintaining a nuisance.

According to the court’s findings, Timms and wife acquired title to lots 9 and 10 by separate conveyances executed at different times. The several deeds in the chain of title contain other restrictions which properly construed are building restrictions. Our construction of the restriction which is made the basis of this suit is that it relates to the use of the lots. The rule is that a person entitled to the benefit of restrictions may, at his option, enforce any one or more of them without enforcing the others. 4 Thompson on Real Property, § 8433. Briefly stated, the question before us is: Under the particular restriction relied upon by plaintiffs, will Timms and wife be permitted, while residing upon lot No. 10, to acquire the title to lot No. 9 through conveyances containing the same restrictions and erect upon lot No. 9 a stable and keep horses there for riding? We think this question must be answered in the negative.

Blakemore v. Stanley, 159 Mass. 6, 33 N. E. 689, 600, by the Supreme Court of Massa *537 chusetts, is a case in point. In that case it appears that Blakemore sued Stanley and others to compel the removal of a tent and stable from certain lots and to enjoin defendants from maintaining them thereon. While the restriction in that case was only for ten years, it stipulated that no building should be erected other than dwellings with necessary outbuildings, said dwellings to cost not less than $2,000 each. The plaintiff further alleged that defendants in violation of this clause had placed a stable and tent costing less than $2,000 in which defendants lived during the summer. The answer admitted the erection of the stable, but alleged that it was a necessary outbuilding and that the tent was placed on the lot for a temporary purpose and not as a permanent dwelling. The trial court’s findings recite that the defendants placed on the lots a stable about twelve feet wide and twenty feet long -covered with common boards where they kept three horses; that it was to be used in connection with the tent and with a dwelling house if one was ever erected thereon; that they have since used the tent to live in but not to sleep in, being fitted up with a cook stove and other furniture and is temporarily placed on the lot, the defendants living in their own home in Somerville in the winter; that said lots are a part of a large lot of land divided on said plan into about 230 house lots; that the streets in the immediate neighborhood are partly filled up and occupied by dwelling houses. In disposing of the contention, the court said:

“The tent in question was used by the defendants to live in with their family, although they did not sleep in it. It was fitted up with a stove for cooking, and with other furniture. While the defendants lived in their own house in another town in the winter, the fair construction of the report is that the tent was used as a dwelling at other times of the year during the daytime.

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Bluebook (online)
68 S.W.2d 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/timms-v-griffith-texapp-1934.