Alden v. Noonen
Alden v. Noonen
Opinion of the Court
The demandant claims title under Joseph Sewall and others, by virtue of a levy made in their favor against Samuel Greenleaf, to whom Cailerine Haynes conveyed two parcels of real estate, extending from the county
If the third levy commences at the north line of the second, then the demandant is entitled to recover, but if it commences eighty-five and a half rods from the road, then the tenant is entitled to recover. The location of the hemlock tree and the stake and stones cannot be ascertained. No witness is produced, who is able to testify to their existence. The levy of Blake and Dix is referred to as a boundary thee several times in that of Sewall and others, and there could be no difficulty in finding its northern limits by running from the county road. It is quite apparent that it was intended to make the third levy contiguous to the second, but not to interfere with it. And it is more probable that the hemlock tree was in fact at the north-west corner of the Blake and Dix lot, than fourteen and a half rods south of it. The error might have originated by
Assuming the second levy to be a monument, the limits of which can be clearly ascertained, then the levy under which the demandant claims, being the third one, must be bounded by it, and the line, eighty-five and a half rods from the road, must yield to the monument as more certain evidence. If the location of the hemlock tree had been found, not in the northern line of the second levy, then there would be two monuments incompatible with each other, and it would have become necessary to determine which of them should prevail, as in the case of Lincoln v. Wilder, 29 Maine, 169. But it cannot be found, and the place where it stood is declared in one part of the levy by a length of line merely, and in another part by the northern line of the second levy, and the places are not coincident. It is more satisfactory to believe, that the two monuments, which, to meet the intention of the parties, ought to coincide, did so in fact, railer than that they were several rods apart. Yiewing the case as if no tree had been mentioned, the southern boundary of the demanded premises is well defined by the northern line of the second levy. The fact, that the demandant’s land, if it commences at the second levy, would by its length of lines extend nine rods beyond the land of the judgment debtor, is evidence of some weight in favor of the tenant, but not sufficient to control the boundary by the second levy. So also the declarations of the demandant, that his land embraced a part of that, which lay within the limits of the second levy, cannot be regarded of much importance, for there was no location of the dividing line between the parties, nor any agreement in relation to it, and it is manifest that they were made under a mistake. Gove v. Richardson, 4 Greenl. 327.
According to the view taken of the case, the demandant is entitled to recover, and he claims thee-fourths of the demanded premises. He does not disclose a title to but one-fourth.
The -right to betterments does not appear to be contested. There was but one witness, who testified to them, and to the value of the premises. The former he estimates at one hundred and fifty dollars, and the latter to be worth from twenty to twenty-five dollars, and a medium would be twenty-two dollars and fifty cents. The parties must be governed by the estimate made by the witness, which was upon the whole lot, as to the proportion, which the demandant must pay or receive, in the same' manner as is provided by the statute, if those sums had been found by a jury.
Judgment for the demandants.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Alden versus Noonen
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- Published