Baxter v. Arnold
Baxter v. Arnold
Opinion of the Court
The reservation inserted in all the deeds of the •everal lots, when read in connection with the plan showing the street extending across them all, indicates an intent of the grantors to make the rights of the several grantees mutual and common throughout the whole length of the street. It is not merely a reservation of the right to pass across the strip of land defined, but of so much land, “ to be used as a street or passageway ”; that is, of the use of it as and for a street or passage-way. It is declared to be for the accommodation of all the lots, “ num
The question then arises whether the intent of the grantors, thus manifested, can be affected by the instruments which they have executed.
There are no express words of grant or covenant from which the grantees can derive any right of way. But the reference to the plan, and the words in the deed defining the way and declaring its purpose, are equally effective, operating by implication or as an estoppel. See Fox v. Union Sugar Refinery, 109 Mass. 292.
It does not appear from the agreed statement in what order of time the several lots were conveyed by the original owners of the entire track. If the conveyances were simultaneous, then the rights reserved to the grantors in each deed, would pass at once to the several grantees of all the other lots. If the plaintiff’s lots, numbers twelve, thirteen and fourteen, were conveyed first, the rights reserved to the grantors would become appurtenant to their remaining land, and pass with it by their subsequent deeds of the several lots. If the defendant’s lot, number eleven, was conveyed first, the remaining land of the grantors would thereby be made subject to the easement of way defined in the deeds The servitude would then pass with the subsequent conveyances through which the plaintiffs derive title, and the words of reservation would be construed, in respect to rights of way already existing, as words of exception.
By this construction all the words of the several deeds may have their full operation without violating any rule of law.
There had been no such continuous maintenance of a fence across the way, by the plaintiff, as to defeat this right.
Judgment for the defendant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Thompson Baxter v. Daniel F. Arnold
- Status
- Published