Cilberti v. Angilletta

• Court: New York Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: ROBERT W. BASCOM
• Citation: Cilberti v. Angilletta, 304 N.Y.S.2d 673, 61 Misc.2d 13 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1969)
• Decision Date: 29 October 1969
• Parties: Nicholas J. CILBERTI and Antionette P. Cilberti, Plaintiffs, v. Francis D. ANGILLETTA et al., Defendants.

Page 673

304 N.Y.S.2d 673

61 Misc.2d 13

Nicholas J. CILBERTI and Antionette P. Cilberti, Plaintiffs, v. Francis D. ANGILLETTA et al., Defendants.

Supreme Court, Special Term, Schenectady County.

Oct. 29, 1969.

John L. Desmond, Scotia, for plaintiffs.

Harold E. Blodgett, Schenectady, for answering defendants.

ROBERT W. BASCOM, Justice.

By this action, pursuant to RPAPL, Article 15, plaintiffs seek to bar the defendants from claiming an interest in plaintiffs' lands in the town of Glenville, Schenectady County, and to cancel and discharge of record certain restrictive covenants thereon. The lands are known as lots 11 and 12 in Block E of Mayfair, a subdivision of lands formerly of H. G. Veeder Realty Co., Inc., as shown on a map thereof duly filed in 1931. This subdivision embraces a plot fronting 850 feet on the westerly side of Saratoga Road, or Route 50 as it is known, by about 1000 feet deep, divided into 74 lots and four streets, three of which streets intercept Saratoga Road and are known respectively from south to north as Surrey Road, York Road, and Sheffield Road. On September 2, 1941 the Veeder Realty Co., Inc. conveyed said lots 11 and 12 to a grantee whose deed thereof contained certain covenants restricting structures thereon to certain set-back lines, to the erection or maintenance of any building unless it be adapted for and used only as a dwelling house or necessary outbuilding for the service thereof, to one such dwelling per lot, to certain minimum floor areas for buildings and to the use of certain designated building materials, to the time within which construction of any building must be completed after commencement, prohibiting the accumulation of junk or refuse, or use of the premises for trade, manufacture, public garages, sale of intoxicants, or the keeping of horses, mules, cattle, goats, sheep or swine, and also prohibiting occupancy by a colored person or alien. Like restrictive covenants were included in the deeds to the other lots, and the same were to run with the land and be binding on all claiming under the original purchasers for the benefit of the owners of any part of the tract. Forty-seven lot owners have been made parties defendant, of whom 20 have defaulted in appearing, and 27 have answered.

By mesne conveyances plaintiffs acquired title to said lots 11 and 12, Block E, on August 28, 1954, subject to and with notice, or chargeable with notice, of the covenants. These lots are the two most northeasterly in the subdivision, lot 11 being at the interception of Sheffield Road with Saratoga Road, and lot 12 adjoins it on the north. The lots are vacant, unimproved, wooded, and adjoin another unrestricted lot just out of the subdivision, north of lot 12, also owned by plaintiffs, on which is their residence and business establishment. Substantially all the other lots in the subdivision have been improved by the erection of modest single family residences, or form a part of the yards thereof.

The basis of plaintiffs' complaint is that by reason of increased traffic on Saratoga Road and the invasion of commercial enterprises into the immediate vicinity, the covenants have spent their force and are now not only onerous to them, but of no benefit to defendants, and, moreover, render plaintiffs' land valueless for residential purposes, unsaleable, and unuseable; further, that existing breaches of the covenants by certain defendants within the restricted area which, because of laches, they claim cannot now be enjoined, render enforcement of the covenants discriminatory against and inequitable to plaintiffs.

Changes indeed there have been since the restrictions were originally imposed. Since 1963 a town ordinance has zoned all lots in the subdivision for single family residential use, the minimum lot size requirement for such use being 15,000 square feet. In 1967 the State of New York appropriated a strip of land from the front portion of the lots for the purpose of widening Saratoga Road from a two lane to a four lane highway, thus reducing plaintiffs' lots to a combined area of 13,250 square feet, inadequate for a single family residence under the ordinance.

When Mrs. Mary Thomas, one of the defendants in default, who owns the four restricted lots abutting Saratoga Road between Sheffield and York Roads, commenced occupancy in 1940, she was 'Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife'. There was but one house on Sheffield Road. Behind her home was a forest. Southerly were open fields. Her view to the front across Saratoga Road was of haulms and asparagus in an open field. No business existed in the area such as now causes her to harvest a bushel of litter a day from her land. The fields of asparagus have now given way to fields of asphalt serving the Mayfair Shopping Center, which embraces a myriad diversity of enterprises from art galleries and barber ships to restaurants and silversmiths.

When plaintiffs first occupied their home in December 1954, some businesses had been established on the easterly side of Saratoga Road, but a portion of that area was still devoted to a forest of pines. These have now given way to a forest of signs, evidencing the presence of Willowbrook Shopping Center, a conglomerate of trade and business from banks and cleaners to discount shops and supermarkets.

On the westerly side of Saratoga Road, outside the restricted area, a somewhat similar metamorphosis has occurred. Immediately north of the lots in question plaintiffs have themselves contributed to the influx of commerce by operating a metal finishing and electro plating business at the rear of their residence, Next to them a national grocery chain now operates a market where formerly were trees and shrubs. The lights from its parking area, the unloading of its supply trucks in early morning hours, the talk of the truck drivers, the noise of its fan and ventilators combine in a cynical cycle of sound to disturb the nocturnal repose of the neighborhood. Its patrons, in their haste to procure its comestibles, beat paths across plaintiffs' residential lot so that of them it can mo longer be said they 'dwelt among the untrodden ways.'

Also on this westerly side of Saratoga Road three major gasoline companies operate service stations on the land immediately southerly of the restricted area, and an ice cream store immediately beyond them offers the refreshment of its wares to the public.

Saratoga Road is, and for many years prior to the creation of the restrictive covenants in question has been, a main artery of traffic from Schenectady and Scotia on the south to Ballston Spa and Saratoga Springs on the north. Like all other such highways in this country it now accommodates a much larger volume of vehicular traffic than formerly. The noise, fumes, interference with television receiptioh from this traffic, and difficulty of access to the highway by reason of its congestion, diminishes the desirability of plaintiffs' lots and those of the other owners fronting this highway, for residential purposes.

Within the restricted area itself some claimed violations of the covenants have occurred. All but one were on the lots abutting Saratoga Road. The most southerly of these lots forms a portion of one of the above mentioned gasoline service stations. None of the station's buildings or equipment extend onto this restricted lot, but some years ago a trucking and gravel contractor parked his vehicles and equipment thereon without charge by the station operator, and some used vehicles were sold therefrom. This practice has been discontinued, however, for more than five years. Next northerly, at the corner of Saratoga Road, a dentist, who does not reside there, practices his profession. On the other Saratoga Road and Surrey Road corner the trucking and gravel contractor had his business headquarters, consisting of a desk and telephone, in his home. This, too, has been discontinued for over five years. Then comes another nonresident who practices the art of physic on his lot. Next to him, at the corner of York Road, another dentist resides and has his dental offices. The defendant Thomas, owner of the lots between York and Sheffield Roads,...