O'Brien v. Schayer

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Citation: O'Brien v. Schayer, 124 Mass. 211 (Mass. 1878)
• Decision Date: 11 March 1878
• Parties: William P. O'Brien v. Caroline Schayer

124 Mass. 211

William P. O'Brien v. Caroline Schayer

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

March 11, 1878

Suffolk. Tort for the obstruction of a passageway.

At the trial in the Superior Court, before Putnam, J., it appeared that James A. Pearson, the owner of adjacent lots of land called lots 12 and 13 on a certain plan, on Sixth Street in Boston, conveyed on May 1, 1861, by a warranty deed, recorded on June 28, 1861, to William P. Houston and Samuel H. L Pierce, lot 13, referring to that plan, "subject and entitled to a common use with the estate adjoining southeasterly (being lot twelve) of the passageway from Sixth Street, about three feet and ten inches wide on the southeasterly side of the granted land;" that on August 25, 1868, the plaintiff, by mesne conveyances, all of which contained the same clause, became the owner of lot 13; that on December 19, 1863, Pearson, by a quitclaim deed, conveyed to Alpheus M. Stetson lot 12, which, by mesne conveyances was conveyed on April 15, 1869, to the defendant's husband, Philip Schayer, under whom the defendant claimed but none of the deeds under which the defendant claimed title referred to the passageway, and none appeared on the plan referred to. It also appeared that there had existed a passageway, three feet and ten inches wide, between the houses on lots 12 and 13, from the time the houses on the two lots were erected in the winter of 1860 and 1861; that there had been no changes in the boundaries of the passageway, which had been used by the plaintiff and his grantors until the act complained of; that there was at no time any other passageway on or adjoining the plaintiff's lot; that the division line between the two lots ran through...