Parent v. Boswell
Parent v. Boswell
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit in equity to enjoin the defendants from obstructing and closing up an alleged street in Menominee, which the complainants claim the right to use as such — and to compel the defendants to remove therefrom certain obstructions which they have placed therein.
The complainants claim that they are entitled to the use of this street, by virtue of certain conveyances, and the representations of the defendants Boswells when the conveyances were made.
The evidence shows the complainant Charles Parent to be the owner in fee of lot E, block 15, as indicated upon said diagram by virtue of a deed from one La Chappelle to whom the Boswells conveyed the same July 15, 1869. Complainant Samuel Peltier owns lot. E, which yp-as sold and conveyed by the Boswells to Thomas Parent, February 1, 1869. Thomas Parent owns lot M, conveyed to him by the Boswells April 21, 1872, and Joseph Parent is the owner of lot N, deeded to him by the Boswells April 21, 1872. All these deeds contained full covenants of warranty. The strip of land, running from Dunlap street to Ogden avenue, and betweeen lots N and E on one side, and lots M and F on the other, is the street claimed by complainants.
Previous to the first conveyance; the land represented in the diagram was part of a forty-acre tract, of which the defendant Catharine Boswell was the owner in fee.
It is alleged on the part of the complainants that, when the purchases of these lots were made the defendants Boswells represented in each case that they had surveyed, laid out and platted this forty acres into lots, streets and alleys, and that
The Boswells deny making the representations claimed ; or that they, or either of them, before or at the time of the sale, exhibited to the purchasers, or either of them, any map, plat, or drawing whatever showing this strip of land marked as a street or highway; and deny that they have ever, by any action, recognized or acquiesced in the use of this street.
The first question arising, therefore, is as to this allegation of oral and written representations made at or befoi’e the time of the purchases of these lots. If not sustained by the proofs, it is the end of complainants’ case.
We have carefully exaxxained the evidence in the recox'd.
A majority of the court ar.e not satisfied that the testimony supports the claim of complainants as to the representations being made by defendants Boswells that this strip of land was to be platted as a street.
As the bill of complaint was dismissed in the court below, it would serve no useful purpose to discuss the bearing of the evidence given by the various witnesses upon this point. Nor is it necessary to decide what would have been the legal or equitable standing of the parties, or the relief that could have been granted by the court, if any, had the averments contained in complainants’ bill been sustained by the record.
The decree below must be affirmed, with costs of both courts.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Charles Parent, Joseph Parent, Samuel Peltier and Thomas Parent v. William G. Boswell, Catharine Boswell and Charles H. Showard
- Status
- Published