Griswold v. Bacheller

• Decision Date: 27 June 1896
• Citation: 75 F. 470
• Parties: GRISWOLD v. BACHELLER.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

75 F. 470

GRISWOLD v. BACHELLER.

United States Circuit Court, D. Rhode Island.

June 27, 1896

Edward D. Bassett, for complainant.

William P. Sheffield, Jr., for respondent.

CARPENTER District Judge.

This is a bill in equity, brought by John N. A. Griswold, alleged to be a citizen of New York, against Joshua B. Bacheller alleged to be a citizen of Rhode Island. The bill alleges that the complainant 'is now, and since December 7 1878, has been, seised and possessed in fee simple of certain lands, wharves, and premises, known as the 'Commercial Wharf Estate,' in said city of Newport, and bounded easterly by Thames street, southerly by lands and premises of the heirs or devisees of John B. Langley, deceased (said lands and premises being commonly known as the 'Langley Wharf Estate'), and westerly by the waters of the harbor of said city of Newport'; and 'that on or about the 18th day of November, 1885, the respondent, said Joshua B Bacheller, whose occupation since that time has been, and is now, that of a blacksmith, engaged in the business of shoeing horses, and making repairs to wagons, carts, and other vehicles, became a tenant of a certain blacksmith's shop situate near the northerly boundary line of said Langley wharf estate, the northerly side of which said blacksmith's shop has been, and is, distant from the afore-described boundary fence about three feet, and thereupon requested your orator to license him to cut down the portion of the fence which then divided the said Commercial wharf estate from the said Langley wharf estate opposite to said blacksmith's shop, and to connect the premises so occupied by him on said Langley wharf estate by a platform with the plank sidewalk before described, and to use the roadways and sidewalks of said Commercial wharf estate in connection with his said business of a blacksmith; and your orator, being desirous of accommodating the said Joshua B Bacheller, licensed him by parol to exercise the said privileges, and thereupon received from the said Joshua B Bacheller the bond of the said Joshua B. Bacheller (with one Overton G. Langley as surety) in the penal sum of one hundred dollars, conditioned for the payment to your orator (as compensation for the said licenses) of the sum of fifteen dollars annually, and for the discontinuance by said obligor of the exercise of the privileges so accorded to him by your orator, and for the restoration by the said obligor of the aforesaid partition fence and other property of your orator to the condition in which said fence and property were before the sealing and delivery of the said bond, after the expiration of sixty days' notice to the said Joshua B. Bacheller of the revocation of said licenses.' The bill further alleges that the complainant, 'in the exercise of the right reserved by him at the time of the giving of the said parol licenses, on the 3d day of June, 1895, gave written notice to the said respondent, said Joshua B. Bacheller, of the revocation of all the said privileges, after the expiration of sixty days from and after the giving of the said notice of revocation'; and 'that, pursuant to said notice of revocation, the said respondent, on or about the 18th day of November, 1895, proceeded to, and did, remove the aforesaid platform by means of which his said...