Wilcox v. Danforth

5 Ill. App. 378, 1879 Ill. App. LEXIS 59
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 24, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 5 Ill. App. 378 (Wilcox v. Danforth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilcox v. Danforth, 5 Ill. App. 378, 1879 Ill. App. LEXIS 59 (Ill. Ct. App. 1880).

Opinion

Lacet, J.

This was an action in covenant brought by appellee against appellant to recover for alleged breach of warranty in a warranty deed given by appellant to appellee, dated Feb. 16, 1869.

The deed contained the usual covenants for the title, seizin and. against incumbrances. The deed in question conveys a portion of corner lot 2, in block Ho. 14, in the town of Minonk. Woodford county, Illinois, as follows: commencing at the point 18 feet and 1 inch north of the S. E. Cor. of said lot; thence north 19 feet and 3 inches; thence west 160 feet, thence south 19 feet and 3 inches; thence east 160 feet, to the point of beginning.

H. and J. A. Simpson in 1806 purchased the whole of lot. Ho 2, of one Oholwelh

The Simpsons purchased the lot on joint account for themselves and the appallant, E. A. Wilcox, but took the deed to themselves. There was a building on the lot at the time, with shed roof on the north side. On the south part there was a room up stairs. Wilcox was to have the north side, and Simpsons the south side. They raised the building, and lengthened it. The stairway was there when it was bought, and in repairing it appellant and the Simpsons let it remain. The building was double. The stairway was on Wilcox’s part, and run from the sidewalk to the second floor, for the accommodation of rooms in both buildings. After the improvements were completed the Simpsons conveyed the north part to Wilcox. They made a hall between the rooms the whole length of the building, half on each. From this hall the stairway jogged off to the north, and was wholly on Wilcox’s part. The expenses were divided between them. This stairway being the only access to the upper rooms, except from the rear, Wilcox’s lot, in consideration for the stairway, was to be 13 inches wider than Simpson’s as claimed •by Simpson. The whole lot two was 40 feet wide.

This arrangement between the Simpsons and Wilcox was made before the improvements were commenced, and after-wards, Nov. 16, 1866, the deed was made to Wilcox.

On the same day Wilcox executed and delivered to H. Simpson a lease contemporaneously with this deed, as follows: “ The right-of-way to a certain stairway, situated 4 feet south of the southeast corner, of the north half of lot 2, block 14, for the term of 99 years, in the town of Minonk,” making however, a misdescription as to the exact location of the stairs. No repairs were made on the stairs before appellant deeded to plaintiff. The Simpsons continued to occupy the south half of the lot, from 1866 to 1869, when they deeded the last mentioned half to Sidney Kidder.

In 1873, the whole building was moved back twelve feet Kidder then owning the south and appellee the north half. All the buildings in the block were moved back the same distance, and the space of twelve feet in front has since been used for a sidewalk.

Kidder and the appellee, by agreement, moved the building back at joint expense, and repaired the stairway at joint expense, Kidder only claiming to use it at joint expense. In the night time ,in August, 1878, while Kidder was asleep, the appellee tore out the stairway which has remained out ever since. Thereupon, Kidder brought suit against appellee in an action •on the case, and recovered the sum of $500 and costs of suit. On the trial in the court below, it was shown that appellant, before the commencement of the present suit, tendered to appellee $25 in full for all damages on, account of the cause of action sued on, the, tender being kept good by bringing the money into court. The jury found a verdict in the court below for $441 damages in favor of appellee, against appellant, and judgment was rendered thereon.

It is assigned for error that the court below admitted improper evidence on the part of appellee, and also gave improper instructions. That proper instructions were refused on the part of appellant.

It is especially complained that the court admitted in evidence the judgment in tlie case of Kidder, against the objection of appellant, and in the same connection gave appellee’s twelfth instruction, as follows :

“If there was an easement, as claimed, then, in law, Wilcox had no right to complain that Danforth took the stairway down, for under the covenants in the deed, Danforth had a right, so far as Wilcox is concerned, to remove such stairway, and if he was damaged in consequence of having exercised his right of ownership over the property, then, in law, he is entitled to recover such damages in the case.”

This instruction in substance tells the jury that no difference if the existence of the stairway is of but little damage, or even of no damage, to appellee, he has the legal authority, because he has a warranty deed, to tear it away, even if by so doing his neighbor Kidder, who has a right to have the stairs remain, is damaged to a very much larger extent in his property and building than appellee would be were the stairs allowed to remain, and that if Kidder recover such damages of appellee, the latter can recover it from appellant, and the judgment of Kidder in evidence maybe taken as that measure; otherwise the instruction has no meaning. How was appellee damaged in consequence of tearing the stairs away, unless it subjected him to recovery on the part of Kidder? We cannot subscribe to this doctrine. A party who holds a warranty from anothertm a piece of property, and there is a breach of such warranty, may recover his proximate and necessary damages of the warrantor, and no more. He should be fully indemnified, after having used reasonable care to prevent unnecessary loss. He cannot be allowed to recover damages which he has unnecessarily brought on himself by his willful misconduct.

If Kidder had an easement on the portion of lot 2, for which appellee held a warranty, or covenant of seizin from appellant) the fact that the former held such a warranty, did not authorize him to become a tort feasor and to commit a willful trespass on the rights of Kidder. The latter had a right to the stairway, and the warranty of appellee or his covenant cannot properly be construed into a license or request to him to commit a trespass, so as to make the appellant responsible as principal. The value of the incumbrance is all that can be recovered. If the stairway had been purchased of Kidder for less than the damage to appellee, appellant would have been entitled to the benefit of the purchase; or if the recovery by Kidder were less than or equal to the value of the appellee’s damages, and that were a final settlement, there would be no impropriety in allowing a recovery for the amount, but not otherwise.

On the same principle, instruction Ho. 9 given for appellee is erroneous, which tells the jury that they have no right to consider whether the stairway was a benefit or damage to the upper portion of the building.

If the upper rooms could have been rented on account of the stairway, to prevent loss, appellee should have let them and whatever he received would have rendered his losses less.

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Bluebook (online)
5 Ill. App. 378, 1879 Ill. App. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilcox-v-danforth-illappct-1880.