Warren v. Blake

54 Me. 276
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJuly 1, 1866
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 54 Me. 276 (Warren v. Blake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warren v. Blake, 54 Me. 276 (Me. 1866).

Opinion

KeNT, J.

Nathaniel Hatch, being owner of a considerable tract of land in Bangor, caused the same to be laid out into lots, and, by the plan made by the surveyor, which was recorded, a certain portion of the land is represented as streets, with designating names ; one of these streets on the plan is called " Bridge street.” Samuel Farrar, under whom both parties claim distinct parcels, became the owner of the land on both sides of this Bridge street. Whilst the title to the whole tract was thus in him, he, by deeds of the same date, conveyed to two persons, the plaintiff and the defendant’s grantor, each a portion of the land, both conveyances [280]*280including the whole tract. The defendant’s deed was recorded one day before the plaintiff’s. The deed to the plaintiff in terms, and beyond dispute, includes the whole of the land in what is called Bridge street on the plan. The deed to the defendant’s grantor, of same date, as clearly excludes from the lines therein given the land laid down as such street.

The plaintiff brings this real action to recover the land included in the street. The defendant pleads the general issue, and, by brief statement, claims an easement on Bridge street, and title to so much of the street as is covered by his stable and a narrow passage-way thereto.

Assuming that the defendant has such easement, or right to use the street as a private way, or for any purpose, we do not readily perceive why the plaintiff may not- assert his legal title to the land, and recover possession under his title; leaving to the defendant to assert whatever right he may have by way of easement, or any similar legal right, after such recovery.

But the parties seem desirous to have all the questions between them determined by the Court, and we therefore have examined the whole case, and will now give the result of our investigations. What was the effect of the union of title in Samuel Earrar to both tracts of land, or rather, of the whole tract through which this street was laid on the plan?. Mr. Earrar first acquired title to the portion on the southerly side of the designated street by deeds from Nathaniel Hatch, which clearly and distinctly, by the description, bounded him on Bridge street. He acquired, subsequently , title to the portion on the northerly side through a levy made by a ci’editor of Hatch. The description in that levy included all the land covered by the street, as it made the south line of the tract levied on, the south line of what was called Bridge street. Samuel Earrar obtained this title under the levy, and in the deed to him the whole of the land covered by this street is expressly conveyed, but this portion is excepted from the covenants of warranty. The [281]*281whole tract, through which the street was designated, thus became the absolute property of Samuel Farrar. "When the possession of two closes is united in one person all subordinate rights and easements are extinguished.” Whalley v. Thompson, 1 B. & P., 373.

The street was not a public street in any sense. It has never been laid out or accepted as such. If required as a public highway, it could only become such by a legal laying out. Harwood v. Hutchinson, 10 Maine, 335. But it is unquestionably true that individuals, who have taken deeds referring to a plan and bounded on a street, may claim a right to have it kept open for their reasonable use as a way, although the fee in no part of the street passed. Sutherland v. Jackson, 32 Maine, 80.

Wo are not called upon to discuss or decide the question, how far individuals holding deeds of lots on other streets, laid down on this plan of twelve acres, can claim a right to have this distant street always kept open. The question here is one of legal title, and the question of easement or right arises between grantees of the same individual, under deeds from him, after the whole tract through which the street passes had become his sole property. When the same person owns a tract of land or two adjoining lots, when no public or private rights are interposed, he may carve out and sell any portion that he pleases, and the terms of the grant as they can be learned from the language of the deed, or by just and legal construction, will regulate and measure the rights of the grantee. Salisbury v. Andrews, 19 Pick., 250.

He may sell a house, without the easement; he may sell a part of a house, or a house without the outbuildings ; and, if this appears to have been done, in clear and explicit and unmistakeable language, there is no place or right for a Court to doubt or question, or to refuse to carry out, in its judgment, the legal result. Ibid. And so, if there is a private way over such premises, actually in use, or designated on a plan, and no one else has a legal right to use it, [282]*282he may discontinue it, in whole or in part, and may sell and convey the fee in the land over which such way was laid out or used. Whalley v. Thompson, 1 Bos. & Puller, 373.

What did Samuel Farrar actually do, after this union of titles in himself? The defendant claims that, by his deed to Isaac Farrar, his grantor, he in fact conveyed the fee to the middle of Bridge street, by bounding him on that street. But did he thus bound him? By deeds of the same date, he conveyed, as before stated, all the land on both sides of the street and including the land in the street.

, In the deed to Isaac Farrar, he commences the description of the premises granted at a point on Court street, where the southerly line of Bridge street intersects that street. This is the only reference in that deed to Bridge street. The lines then run southerly by Court street, and from thence to Kenduskeag stream, then up the stream to a point, where a line drawn from the point of beginning, at right angles with said Court street, would strike said stream, thence westerly, at right angles with Court street, to the place of beginning. In this last line, and in the fixing of the points of its departure, there seems to be a studious avoidance of any recognition of the line of Bridge street as the boundary. It may be that the line, as described, would nearly, if not entirely correspond with the line of that street on the plan. But the deed does not bound him on that street, eo nomine, and the reason for this careful .omission is doubtless to be found in the fact, that in the deed of the other parcel to the plaintiff, on the same day, the description of the premises, as clearly and carefully included all the street in the grant. And this in fee, and not as a street. For, instead of beginning on the north line of •this Bridge street, as he naturally would, if he had intended ¡to recognize it as a street, and running by such north line, he begins at the same point that he does in the deed of •the other parcel, viz. : the point in the southerly line of Bridge street; but instead of running as before along Court street, he, in this deed to the plaintiff, describes the next [283]*283line as " easterly by the line of said street, as laid clown on the plan, to Kenduskeag stream, then around the lot lines, on the stream, and then to Court street, and then on Court street "to the point of beginning,” i. c. the southerly line of Bridge street. This description very clearly conveys the fee in the whole street as a part of the lot, and not as a street.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Me. 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warren-v-blake-me-1866.