Earl v. Dutour
Earl v. Dutour
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a decree quieting plaintiff’s title to a strip of land fifteen feet wide adjacent to the center line of lot 17 of the Hilliard Tract in the county of Los Angeles.
Plaintiff and defendant own, respectively, the easterly and westerly halves of lot 17, and the sole question in dispute is whether the center line of the lot forms the eastern or western boundary of the strip of land in suit. The answer to this question depends upon the construction to be placed upon the word “lot” in the deed by which was conveyed to defendants the “westerly one-hálf of lot seventeen (17) of the Hilliard Tract, as per amended map recorded in book 43, page 64, miscellaneous records of said county.”
Inasmuch as the map referred to clearly indicates that the western boundary of lot 17 is the center line of an avenue sixty feet in width, it was contended on behalf of plaintiff and held by the trial court that the thirty-foot strip covered by the street was part of the “lot” within the meaning of *60 the deed and that, therefore, the eastern boundary of defendants’ land was a line halfway between the center line of the avenue and the eastern boundary of lot 17.
With this conclusion we are unable to agree.
Plaintiff contends that the circumstances revealed by an analysis of the map referred to in the deed indicates that the defendants’ grantor used the word “lot” as including the portion lying in the street as well as the portion set apart for private use. These circumstances are stated as follows: “First—The length of all lot lines is.given in chains on the face of the map, and extend to the center of the avenues in front. The widths of the streets are not given on the map itself, but are stated in the legend on the map, such width being given in feet; Second—The side lot lines them
*61
selves are extended by dashed lines to the centers of the avenues in front; Third—The gross area is given in acreage marked on each lot; Fourth—The center line of each avenue is marked on the map by a dashed line which is intersected in nearly all instances by dashed lines extending the heavy lines of the lots to the center of the avenues.”
The- judgment appealed from is reversed.
Wilbur, J., and Melvin, J., concurred.
Hearing in Bank denied.
All the Justices concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- EDWIN T. EARL, Respondent, v. L. A. DUTOUR Et Al., Appellants
- Cited By
- 22 cases
- Status
- Published