Miller v. Grandey
Miller v. Grandey
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Cook, trustee of Frazier’s estate, subdivided by leave of court a tract of land abutting upon an alley in the borough of Rochester, known as Prospect alley, of the width of twelve feet. By adding in his plot or plan eighteen feet north of said alley, he described it in the plot as Prospect street, thirty feet wide. Inasmuch as, in order to secure the recording of such a plot or plan, it is necessary, under the provisions of sec. 12 of the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, that it shall be first approved by the town council, this was done in February, 1906, and the Cook plan, so-called, was recorded in the recorder’s office at Beaver in Plan Book, No. 1, p. 276.
Cook sold none of the lots laid out in the plot separately but, at a public sale, sold the entire plot to one Black, who, in December, 1906, made a new plot or plan, abolishing the addition of the eighteen feet made to Prospect alley by Cook and restoring the alley, as it had been before, to twelve feet in width. This plan was also approved by the town council and burgess and was duly recorded in the recorder’s office of Beaver county in Plan Book, No. 2, p. 1.
The plaintiff (appellant here), regarding his rights as invaded by the defendant, filed his bill in equity, asking the court to restrain the defendant from erecting the said stable, on the ground that it was being erected on a public street, and that, as a citizen of the borough, he was entitled to the free and uninterrupted use of Prospect street throughout its width of thirty feet, as dedicated in the Cook plan.
It is to be noted that the plaintiff was not a purchaser of a lot contained in the Cook plot or plan, nor did his property abut upon the eighteen feet added to the width of Prospect alley, so as to make it a street, but was bounded on its northern side by the said Prospect alley. It is plain, therefore, that the plaintiff acquired no rights of any kind to the ground upon which the defendant was erecting his stable, unless the eighteen feet added by Cook to the width of the alley by his plot or plan made that a part of a public street, in which the plaintiff had a right simply as a citizen of the borough.
Under the second section of the Act of April 3,1851, P. L. 320, the borough had power “to survey, lay out, enact and ordain such roads, streets, lanes, alleys, courts, and common sewers as they may deem necessary, and to provide for, enact, and ordain the widening and straightening of the same.” The supplement to the Act of April 3, 1851, P. L. 320, of May 24,1901, P. L. 299, does not change, take away, or add to the powers of the borough, except as to subjects not herein specifically involved.
It is clear from the findings of fact by the court, based upon the evidence taken at the hearing for the dissolution of the preliminary injunction, it having been agreed by a stipulation of the solicitors for plaintiff and defendant “that the testimony taken at the hearing, upon the motion
The appellant quotes the amendment to sec. 9 of the act of May 16, 1891, as contained in the Act of May 22, 1895, P. L. 106, as the law under which streets can be vacated, but the provisions of the said amendment relate as well to the opening, widening, straightening or extending streets or alleys as to vacating them, and his argument, therefore, proves too much, for if, under the approval of the town council of the Black plan, the street could not be vacated, neither under the approval of the Cook plan was it opened.
If the defendant, Grandey, had purchased from Cook the lot upon which he was attempting to build his stable, which called for a street thirty feet wide, he would have come under the ruling in this case, had he attempted to occupy the land dedicated by the plot to public use, but it is to be remembered that Black purchased all of the lots upon the plot laid out by Cook and that he changed the plot with the approval of the borough authorities, before the sale was made to Grandey, and that he held under a deed which called for Prospect alley twelve feet wide, and not for Prospect street thirty feet wide.
In the case of Osterheldt v. Philadelphia, 195 Pa. 355, there was a claim for damages for the opening of a street over land previously dedicated by the vendor of the claimant and it has no application here. So in Quicksall et al. v. Philadelphia, 177 Pa. 301, the question was as to the right of the plaintiff to recover damages for the opening by the defendant city of certain streets. The plaintiffs claimed ownership of the land to the middle of these streets. Stone had been quarried from them by the plaintiffs and their grantors, so that the streets, as filled in by the city, were not as high as the original surface of the
The discussion of the conclusions of law of the court below, based upon the Act of April 3,1851, P. L. 320, requires no comment on our part. It covers the case fully and, in our opinion, rules it, but we have' referred to the acts of 1891 and 1895 for the purpose of showing that they make no change in the power of boroughs to survey, lay out, enact and ordain roads, streets and alleys, and that the act of 1895 relates as well to the opening as to the vacating of streets and that, therefore, the original plot or plan, as laid out by Cook and approved by the borough authorities, had no more legal effect in regard to the opening of the street, so far as the rights of persons who were not included within the plan or plot were concerned, than would the approval of the Black plan have vacated the street, if it had been adopted and actually opened by the borough.
From every point of view, we quite agree with the conclusion of the learned court below “That the structure proposed to be erected by the defendant is within the limits of his own land, and that no part of it will be upon Prospect alley,” and that it could not be anticipated “that the defendant will so erect or keep his stable when erected as to make it a nuisance, either public or private.” The dissolution of the preliminary injunction was, therefore, well founded and as a consequence the dismissal of the plaintiff’s bill followed.
Decree affirmed and appeal dismissed at the costs of the appellant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.