Bresler v. Pitts

• Citation: 58 Mich. 347,25 N.W. 311
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Decision Date: 04 November 1885
• Parties: BRESLER and others v. PITTS and others.

25 N.W. 311

58 Mich. 347

BRESLER and others v. PITTS and others.

Supreme Court of Michigan

November 4, 1885

Appeal from Wayne.

Henry M. Duffield, for defendants.

CAMPBELL J

Complainants claiming to be owners of so much of the St. Amour farm above Detroit as is not owned by defendants as heirs of Samuel Pitts, deceased, filed their bill--First, to settle their boundaries of their estate; second, to forfeit a contract for the conveyance of a part of the farm lying in a swamp; and third, to extinguish a right of way. The bill was dismissed for want of equity. In May, 1855, Eugene St. Amour, being the owner of a farm in Grasse Pointe, Wayne county, fronting on Detroit river, sold and conveyed to Samuel Pitts the front so as to include all between a line 40 feet above the border of the river at high-water mark, and the channel of the river. This was conveyed unconditionally, as was also a "right of way four rods wide through the center of said claim to Jefferson avenue, or the road which makes a continuation of said avenue through said claim." The same deed contains the following provision: "The said parties of the first part do further covenant and agree with said Pitts, his heirs and assigns, to convey and assure to him, his heirs and assigns, all the portion of said claim which is now swamp, and which lies below and south-west of a line drawn through the center of said claim from the Detroit river to said Jefferson Avenue road which conveyance is to be made as soon as said Pitts, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, shall have so drained said swamp on both sides of said line as to make it capable of producing grass."

Complainants set forth their own right in fee to all except the first parcel, beginning 40 feet from the river bank, and extending to the channel, as derived "by the foreclosure of mortgages executed by said St. Amour and wife, and through several conveyances from and under him." There is no information as to the dates of any of these titles. The bill then claims that the location of the 40-feet line is uncertain and difficult of determination, and that the parties dispute their boundaries. Also that neither Pitts nor his heirs ever reclaimed the swamp, and it, and the strip for a highway, have always remained in possession of St. Amour and his grantees adversely; that drains have been made by the drain commissioner and assessed on the land between Jefferson avenue...