Fonda v. Borst
Fonda v. Borst
Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
[After stating the facts.]— The plaintiff having succeeded to the rights of Hatch, the defendant’s grantee, is plainly entitled to an easement or right of way over and upon the street called Broadway, to the public highway. This result follows from the rule that when the gran tor boun ds the lands which he conveys, by roads, whether existing or to be made over the lands retained by him, the purchaser takes as an incident of the grant the right to the use of such roads. This is the rule with regard to rural property. So that whether the servitude which the plaintiff claims be a rural or an urban ■ servitude, to this extent his claim could admit of ho dispute. In regard to sales and conveyances of property in cities made with reference to maps in which streets are laid down and delineated, the rights of the grantees extend much further. Under certain circumstances, to which I will
Judge Weight, in the opinion, says: “ To complete the dedication of a highway, if there be no formal acceptance by the public authorities, the acceptance should be made out by common user as a highway of the land dedicated. If the way attempted to be dedicated is not susceptible of public use or passage and cannot become a highway, it is difficult to see how a mere use by the public can be any evidence of acceptance.” The case which the learned judge had under consideration was that of a cul de sac and could not be used as a public thoroughfare. The case now before us resembles it in this particular. The public authorities of the village of Fonda never had signified their acceptcnce-of the street called Broadway. They had not taken any proceedings to open it, and the public had
Hp to the time of the commencement of this action, the plaintiff had never been in possession of his lot, No. 390, but he walked to it once and climbed over the fence, and went upon it just before he commenced his action. There is a very sufficient reason why the public authorities did not accept and open the street, and why the public never used it. It was, at certain times of the year, incapable of public use, being overflowed by the waters of the Mohawk river. This overflow created an insurmountable obstacle to its use as a public street. For more than twenty years after the filing of the map, this proposed street has remained in a state of nature, nnworked, untraveled and unused by any human being. Neither the plaintiff, nor any of those under whom he claims, has had occasion to go upon any part of it. If he or any of the other owners upon the street desire to have it accepted by the public authorities of the village of Fonda, and opened and worked for public use, and he or they are willing to bear their share of the burden of the improvement, it is open to them to do so. But, until it is accepted, either formally or inferentially, if he has at all times the right of passage over it, it is all he can demand. If this right is interrupted or impeded he has his common law action for damages against those who obstruct him in the enjoyment of this right. He is not satisfied with that, but invokes the equitable powers of the courts to open, under its judgment, this unmade street, to the extent of one hundred feet wide, when it will benefit no one, and there is every reason to think the public and the public authorities will have nothing to do with it. The authorities cited by Mr. Justice Pottee, in his dissenting opinion in the court below: Van Bergen v. Van Bergen, 3 Johns. Ch. 282; Attorney-General v. Nichol, 16 Ves. 338; Olmsted v. Loomis, 6 Barb. 152,160; Story Eq. Jur. 925; are to the effect that the court of chancery does not interfere to prevent or remove a private nuisance unless erected to the prejudice or annoyance of a right long previously enjoyed. It must be a strong and mischievous case of pressing necessity, or the right
The judgment of the general and special terms should be reversed, and a new trial ordered, with costs to abide the event.
All the judges, except Davies and Weight, JJ., concurred.
Weight, J., delivered a dissenting opinion, to the same effect as the decision of the court below.
Judgment reversed, and new trial ordered, costs to abide event.
Reference
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- FONDA v. BORST
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