Buckley v. Gray

• Decision Date: 03 January 1934
• Citation: 285 Mass. 110,188 N.E. 610
• Parties: BUCKLEY v. GRAY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

285 Mass. 110

188 N.E. 610

BUCKLEY

v.GRAY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Franklin.

Jan. 3, 1934.

Appeal from Land Court, Franklin County; C. C. Smith, Judge.

Petition in the Land Court by John E. Buckley against Frances A. Gray. From an adverse decision of the Land Court and a denial of a motion for a rehearing, Frances A. Gray appeals.

Decision of the Land Court affirmed.

W. A. Davenport, of Greenfield, for petitioner.

H. Sherman, of Charlemont, and G. M. Gray, of Greenfield, for respondent.

CROSBY, Justice.

This is an appeal by the respondent from a decision of the Land Court upon a petition to register the title to a parcel of land, in Greenfield, on the west side of Congress Street one lot north of Russell Street. The respondent owns a triangular parcel of land adjoining on the southwest the land sought to be registered. The location of the boundary line between these two tracts is the matter in dispute. Two plans are annexed to the record. The first was drafted by the Land Court and shows various features of the decision and the evidence on the case. The second is a copy of a plan recorded January 3, 1917, inscribed ‘Plan of Lots of Minnie R. Livermore.’ This plan drawn approximately to a scale of sixteen feet to the inch shows a tract of land at the corner of Congress and Russell streets divided into four lots. Two lots front on Congress Street which runs north and south, and two lots front on Russell Street which runs east and west. The Russell Street lots are in the rear and to the west of the Congress Street lots. The lot at the corner of Congress and Russell streets is marked ‘Lot No. 1,’ the inside lot on Congress Street is marked ‘Lot No. 2,’ the lot on Russell Street which is nearer to the corner of Congress Street is marked ‘Lot No. 3,’ and the other lot is marked ‘Lot No. 4.’ Lot 1, rectangular in shape and shown as having a frontage of fifty feet on Congress Street, abuts in the rear on lot 3. Lot 3, also rectangular in shape, shown as having a frontage of fifty-five feet on Russell Street, and a depth of one hundred feet, abuts in the rear on lot 2. Lot 2, shown as having a frontage of seventy-two feet on Congress Street, abuts in the rear on both lots 3 and 4. This results from the fact that lot 3 is not so deep as lot 4, the depth of the latter being equal to the width of lots 1 and 2 combined. A driveway is shown on the plan running from Congress Street to lot 4. It does not run straight in from Congress Street to lot 4, but runs first westerly along the northerly line of lot 1, then diagonally in a northwesterly direction across lot 2 until its westerly line reaches the northeasterly corner of lot 3. It then runs westerly along the northerly line of lot 3 to lot 4. As a consequence of this diagonal course the driveway separates lot 2 into two parts, a small triangular parcel on the one side, and the remaining land on the other.

It appears from the record that in 1916 Minnie R. Livermore acquired a good title to the land shown on the plan which will hereafter be referred to as the recorded plan, by a deed from one Kiely. She sold this property in four separate parcels. In 1917, referring to the recorded plan, she deeded lot 3 to Ray H. Livermore, ‘Also a right of way over the driveway extending from Congress Street to lot number 4 on said plan, as shown on said plan above referred to.’ In 1919 she deeded lot 4 to Frank B. Stone. In 1920 she deeded lot 1 to Rowland M. Howell, but with a width of fifty-seven feet instead of fifty feet as appears on the recorded plan. By this deed she conveyed ‘also a right of way ten feet in width on land of the grantor on the northerly side of said premises; said right of way to be used in common by the grantee and the grantor, and others owning land on the westerly side of the land above conveyed and land of the grantor.’ In 1923 she conveyed her remaining land to Helen D. Sleigh ‘subject to a right-of-way which is hereby reserved 10 feet in width along the southerly boundary line adjacent to said tract conveyed to Rowland M. Howell and to the tract conveyed to Ray H. Livermore above mentioned.’ It appeared from the oral evidence that a travelled way, on the ground hereafter referred to as the ‘travelled way,’ runs in from Congress Street west and then north to a building which was formerly the barn of Minnie R. Livermore, and that a branch of this way runs on the south side of the ‘garden lot.’ The garden lot is that portion of lot 2, which, on the recorded plan, runs in behind lot 3 and abuts on lot 4.

It was found by the trial judge that when Mrs. Livermore conveyed to Mrs. Sleigh her remaining land she was travelling over this way between Congress Street and her barn. These three ways, namely, the driveway of the recorded plan for the benefit of lot 3, the way deeded to Howell, and the travelled way, overlapped in places but at scarcely any point actually coincided. The three ways are shown on the Land Court plan, which in its general outlines is substantially similar to the recorded plan. On the Land Court plan the Howell way, ten feet wide, runs east and west along the northerly side of the Howell land from Congress Street to lot 3, which is marked ‘Gray.’ The respondent Gray rightly claims title to this lot under the deed from Minnie R. Livermore to Ray H. Livermore. On this plan the driveway follows the same course as on the recorded plan, heretofore described. It is shown,...