Dow v. Hilliard
Dow v. Hilliard
Opinion of the Court
This case was submitted to the jury on the statement and admission of the facts by the parties respectively. The deed under which the devisees of Christopher Fitzsimons claim the contested right of wharfage and dockage, was stated to be an indenture between the said Fitzsimons of the one part, and the City Council of Charleston of the other part; the case was argued as if the deed was an indenture; and it was assumed in the instructions of the Circuit Judge to the jury, that the deed had been executed and delivered by both parties, which was necessary to an indenture. It was accordingly held that when Fitzsimons granted to the City Council a piece of land on the south side of Market-street, and reserved the right of lading and un-lading goods, wares and merchandize on another piece of his land, bounding on Market-street, which he did not giant to the City Council, though the said right of lading and unlad-ing were not parcel of the land granted, yet the reservation by the indenture had, in law, the force and effect of a covenant by the City Council, that Fizsimons' should have and
The distinction b' tween a reservation by indenture, and by deed poll, was not noticed by the attorneys for the appellants, in the argument in this Court; and the fac.t, that the deed was executed only by Fitzsimons, was only brought to the view of the Court by the attorney.for the appellee, towards the close of his argument. '
Lord Coke says, reserve cometh of the Latin reservo, that is, to provide for store,- as when a man departeth with his laud, he reserveth or provideth a rent for his own livelyhood ; and sometime it hath the force of saving and excepting. So sometime, it served) to reserve a new thing, viz: a rent; and to except part of the thing in esse that is granted., And in another place he says, note a diversity between an exception (which is ever part of the thing granted, and of a thing in esse,) and a reservation, which is always of a thing not in esse, but newly created or reserved out of the laud or tenement demised.
It ha.s been affirmed, for the appellee, that theCifyCounc.il having accepted the deed of Fhzsimons, and taken the land granted, they must take it charged with the reservation contained in the deed. If the right, to lade and unlade goods with the right of wharfage and dockage, claimed as a neces-saty incident, was newly creat d or reserved out of the land granted, then the. City Council, when 'they took the land granted, must have taken it subject to the reservation. For one may grant a thing and retain a part of it, .or a part of those things which pertain to it; and the part which he retains is his, as it always was. If one by indenture or by deed poll grant land, reserving a rent, which is a profit issuing out of the land, or a right of common or of way, which are to be exercised on the land, and the grantee enter, he takes the land subject to the reservation. But it is otherwise if the reservation be not part of the thing granted in esse or crea-tec* out °f 'it. In Butler’s note the distinction is made, that if land is leased to two, and only one puts his seal, but the
If Fitzsimons could not claim wharfage and dockage by the reservation in his deed, may he claim it by prescription? It is said in the argument, that he and those claiming under him have enjoyed the easement from the date of the deed to the present time. No evidence was produced at the trial, in support of such prescriptive right. But the claim of the right by prescription, is supported by a plat of Fitzsimous’s land, made in 1807, and produced in evidence by the appellants, in which he reserves the right of wharfage and dock-age on every part of the piece or parcel marked B.
If Fitzsimons and those claiming uudei him cannot maintain the right of dockage and wharfage, by force of the reservation in his deed or by prescription, can the same be maintained as a right common to all persons to use Market-street continued, where flowed by the tide, as part of the public highway — the river? This depends on the effect of the grant to the City Council, by the charter, of the fee simple of the low water lots fronting Market and other streets, and the Act of 1807, which declared Market-street continued to the channel of the river, to be a public street. Has the City Council, as grantee iu fee simple of the low water lot, fronting Market-street, the same proprietary rights with other grantees of low water lots, so that, by erecting piers and reclaiming the land irom the current of the river, they may acquire an exclusive right to the use of the dock thus formed ? And if they had such right before the Act of 1807, declaring that Market-street continued shall be a public street to the channel ot the river, what is the effect of that Act on their proprietary rights as grantees? Is there any distinction between l he City Council and a private person in the right to exercise all acts oí ownership over land vested in them respectively, over which, by law, a street or highway may be established before and until the street be made, or the high-
The motion is granted.
Motion granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.