Bast v. Mason
Bast v. Mason
Opinion of the Court
This is an action to recover twenty-five dollars actual damages and $100 punitive damans, brought by plaintiff against defendant for the alleged unlawful, wanton and malicious removal of a fence between their two lots, the lots situated in the city of Mexico, plaintiff claiming that the fence was wholly upon his lot No. 3, in block 4, of H. P. Warden’s Addition to the city of Mexico, whereas defendant claims that the fence was wholly upon his lot No. 2 of the same block and addition, the two lots adjoining, that of plaintiff being immediately south of that of defendant, each lot, according to the plat and deeds, supposed to have a width of seventy-five feet on Jefferson street in that city.
At the conclusion of the trial the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff, awarding him one dollar actual damages but finding no punitive damages. Interposing a motion for new trial and excepting to it being overruled, defendant has duly perfected appeal to this court.
It is true that the amount involved in this case is small But as usual in the case of disputed boundaries the real controversy turns on the'boundary line between the two lots, so that the case warrants careful
The weight of the evidence as to where the fence in controversy and which defendant removed was actually located with respect to the two lots, that is, whether it was on lot 2 or lot 3, is not open for our determination. The verdict of the jury finds it was located wholly upon lot 3. That verdict is supported by substantial testimony. being so located, the fence was appurtenant to lot 3 (Climer v. Wallace, 28 Mo. 556, l. c. 559), and admittedly that lot was purchased by plaintiff from defendant and belongs to plaintiff.
The only questions open to us on this appeal arise over the admission and exclusion of testimony and the giving and refusal of instructions. These questions are covered by three assignments of error made by the learned counsel for appellant, defendant below. First, that the court erred in refusing instructions requested by appellant. Second, that the court committed error in giving instructions on behalf of respondent, and'third, that it committed error in admitting incompetent and improper testimony offered in Behalf of appellant. • Learned counsel for appellant have taken up these questions in inverse order and we will follow them in that course.
The error complained of as to the exclusion of evidence is as to the evidence of four witnesses, one of them the defendant, it being claimed that the trial court had refused to permit them to testify fully to the location of the boundary line of these lots as marked by pegs set in the ground at the time the addition in
The three instructions Nos. 2, 4 and 5 asked by defendant and refused are the ones to which error is now assigned. The second instruction asked by defendant is to the effect that if the jury believe from the evidence that plaintiff, before he purchased the lot in' question from defendant, examined the lot and saw the fence in question on the lot and noted where it was located, and if the jury further believe from the evidence that in purchasing the ground from defendant, plaintiff intended to purchase and did pur-' chase the ground located between the fence in question as it stood and the north line of the lot which he purchased, then their verdict should be for defendant. We hardly think that it lies in the mouth of defendant to complain of the refusal of this instruction. It distinctly admits that when plaintiff purchased the ■ lot he saw and noted that the fence was on it. The more ’ serious objection to it is to that clause which undertook to instruct the jury that if they found from the
- By the fourth instruction the court was asked to charge the jury, in substance, that if they found from the evidence that the lots in controversy were marked off by stakes at the corners thereof by the owners of the lots and that the lots were put up and sold at public auction with boundaries as shown by the stakes and that the purchasers of the lots took possession thereof and located their fences and improvements according to the line as marked out and designated by these stakes and for a number of years regarded the lines as marked out by the stakes as the true line between the lots, then the line as shown by the stakes' was the true line between the lots. That is not a correct proposition of law. It is the law of our state .that a fence is part of the freehold and passes along with the land on which it is built. [Climer v. Wallace, supra.] If it has been put up by agreement between two -parties, it may be binding as to them but it is not binding as to a third party unless he had notice of such agreement and assents to it. Even a purchaser of one of the lots, not a party to the agreement, in mak
By the fifth instruction defendant asked the court to charge the jury that if they believed from the evidence that at the time the fence herein sued for was erected by defendant, there were stakes set in the line between lots 2 and 3 to designate the line between them and that the stakes did designate the true line between said lots 2 and 3, and that the defendant when he built the fence placed it on that line, then their verdict should be for defendant. In the case at bar plaintiff purchased his lot from defendant. In instructions given at the instance of plaintiff the court distinctly instructed the jury that if they found that at the time plaintiff purchased the lot and accepted the deed, the fence was standing wholly upon lot 3 and was built upon it as a permanent fence, then the fence was part of the realty and title to it passed with the deed to lot
The testimony as to the character of the stakes falls far short of constituting them permanent monuments, as is contended for by learned counsel for appellant. It appears that when this addition was laid off the corners of the whole addition, comprising four blocks, possibly of the blocks also, were marked by iron stakes. While the lots and blocks were carefully described in the plat, their width and depth, the width of alleys and streets carefully designated, no stakes or monuments marked the lot corners or lines. Several years after the addition was laid off it appears that lots in the addition were to be sold at auction and some one, the actioneer apparently, had driven wooden stakes, the length not given, “more properly pins,” the witnesses describe them, or as defendant himself says, “wooden pins probably an inch square or such a matter, an ordinary wooden pin,” at what was supposed to be the corners of the lots in the blocks. These are what are called “monuments,” which the learned counsel contend must control in the interpretation of the deed and in the location of the lot. One of the principal cases relied upon for this by learned counsel for appellant is that of Whitehead v. Ragan, 106 Mo. 231, l. c. 234, 17 S. W. 307. The difficulty that confronts counsel as to this case is that in the same case when it subsequently came before the Supreme Court
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.