Proprietors of Liverpool Wharf v. Prescott
Proprietors of Liverpool Wharf v. Prescott
Opinion of the Court
1. The first instruction to which the tenants have taken exception was correct. The jury were instructed that if the parties were in doubt as to a dividing line between them, and fixed the line by a paroi agreement, and occupied according to this agreement for twenty years, it would be binding on the parties, and would settle their rights. This instruction was given without objection. But they were further instructed “ that although the presumption was that such was
2. The remaining exception raises this question : Whether, if a boundary line has been erroneously run between adjoining owners of land, without fraud, and under a mutual mistake, there being no determination of the line by arbitration or other judicial decision, one party is estopped from claiming his land to the true line, because the other has, with his knowledge, erected buildings or incurred expense in consequence of the mistake ?
We are of opinion that it was rightly held at the trial that there is no estoppel under such circumstances. There is nothing in the case to show that there was any “ standing by,” and permitting the expenses to be incurred without notice, which was the case put in Thayer v. Bacon, 3 Allen, 165. The parties did not even undertake to fix a doubtful line by agreement, but only to point the true boundary as fixed by the deed. The authority of Tolman v. Sparhawh, 5 Met. 469, is therefore direct and conclusive.
The case chiefly relied on by the tenants, Kellogg v. Smith, 7 Cush. 375, is wholly different. There the line in question had
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.