Leggett v. Kerton
Leggett v. Kerton
Opinion of the Court
In cases like the present, daily becoming more important in this State, it is prudent to restrict the judgment of the court to ' the only question involved.
The defendant acquired his title through several mesne conveyances, all of which in express terms reserved to the plaintiff’s vendor the right of a grist mill. The first conveyance which notices and secures this right is a deed from Wilkinson to Jesse Leggett, sen. in which the right of a grist mill, then in operation, was secured with all its appurtenances. The subsequent conveyances acknowledge the same right, though not exactly in the same terms, but made in reference to the same mill; the dam, sluices, &c. being at the time used for its operation.
Judge Story, in an elaborate judgment in the case of Whitney vs. Olney, 3 Mason, 280, held, that the devise of a mill, with the appurtenances, conveyed not the buildings merely, but the land under and adjoining-, which was necessary for the mill, and actually used with it, and said that he laid no stress on the word appurtenances, but that the land under the mill, and adjacent thereto, passed by the force of the word mill. He continued to say, that a mill does not mean merely the building in which the business is carried on, but includes the site, the dam, and other things annexed to the freehold necessary for its beneficial enjoyment. These are all involved in the title of a mill; and presuppose that water, the great and essential physical agent for the actual operation of a mill, adheres to and is inseparable from such title. It is the primum mobile of the thing to be enjoyed, and cannot be separated
The verdict has been found upon ample evidence of its justice.
Motion refused.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.