Loughlin v. Wright Mach. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 November 1930 |
| Citation | 273 Mass. 310,173 N.E. 534 |
| Parties | LOUGHLIN v. WRIGHT MACH. CO. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Superior Court, Worcester County; Winfred H. Whiting, Judge.
Bill by James H. Loughlin against the Wright Machine Company. Decree for plaintiff, and the defendant appeals.
Modified and affirmed.
A. S. Houghton, of Worcester, for appellant.
Emil Zaeder, of Worcester, for appellee.
This is a bill in equity to compel the removal by the defendant of a certain fence and foundation thereto, and certain sewers, upon land of the plaintiff, and to restrain the defendant from trespassing upon the plaintiff's land. Upon the filing of the answer the case was referred to a master who duly filed his report. No objections or exceptions were taken to the report and it was confirmed by an interlocutory decree from which neither party appealed. The case comes to this court on the appeal of the defendant from a final decree for the plaintiff.
The report discloses that in 1866 a tract of land in the rear of Grand Street, in the city of Worcester, six inches in width, along the most northeasterly lines of lots numbered thirty-nine, forty, forty-seven and fifty-two and the most northeasterly lines of Carson court and Grand street court as shown on a plan of ‘House Lots' belonging to Eli Goulding, was ‘reserved’ out of the Goulding land, as the lots above enumerated were sold in 1866, 1867, and 1869. Lots forty-six, forty-seven and fifty-two as shown on the plan were bounded respectively on the northwest and southeast by Carson court. In 1869, these lots were conveyed to Michael Loughlin, the father of the plaintiff, by a description which referred simply to the lot numbers on the plan and the area of the lot, with the following reservation: ‘The grantor reserves to herself a strip of land six inches wide on the north side of said lot for the purpose of controlling said Court.’ The plaintiff was born on the property owned by his father and lived there until 1911. Michael Loughlin died in 1910. The plaintiff was administrator of his estate, had general charge of the real estate on Carson court and, as heir at law, had an individual sixth interest in it. So far as the record shows he has no legal interest in Grand street court. In 1927, the Goulding heirs conveyed this six-inch strip of land to the plaintiff, who, because he thought he could build on Carson court between the lots on either side formerly owned by his father if he could get a release from the other owners on this court, purchased this six-inch strip for the purpose of controlling Carson court and preventing the use of it by the defendant.
Prior to 1911 the city of Worcester installed a public sewer in Grand street court, and prior to 1915 installed a public sewer in Carson court. Several houses have stood on both sides of Grand street court and of Carson court and these courts have been piped with city water for the past forty years.
Since 1889 all conveyances to the defendant and its predecessors in title are bounded on land of Troy (lots thirty-eight, thirty-nine), Grand street court, land of Gardner, Carson court and land of Loughlin, with no mention of the six-inch strip reserved by Goulding. Since 1911 the defendant has maintained on its premises a factory building about seven feet from its westerly boundary line, and another building facing on the land of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, and it employs about one hundred and ten men. In 1915 its predecessor in title constructed an iron fence and a concrete base along the westerly line of its property. On conflicting evidence the master found ‘that neither the fence nor the foundation * * * encroach upon the land owner by the plaintiff as alleged in the plaintiff's bill’ and further found that ‘both the fence and foundation for its entire length are wholly upon the premises owned by the defendant.’ This finding must stand as there is nothing in the reported evidence to contradict it. The master finds that where this fence abuts Grand street court and Carson court the defendant has installed gates in the fence, and that these gates have been used more or less by employees of the defendant and by people coming to the factory on business; that in doing this such persons necessarily cross over the six-inch strip owned by the plaintiff; that ‘for the last three years, however, the Carson Court gate has been used very little while the Grand Street Court gate is used a great deal, and that occasionally vehicles have passed through the Grand Street Court gate coming to the factory of the defendant’; that the defendant's lot runs to Armory street, which lies northerly of the locus shown on the plan, and that by way of that street the defendant's workmen, customers and visitors have an easy and...
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Peters v. Archambault
...small portion of the plaintiff's land and did not interfere with the plaintiff's enjoyment of its remaining land). Loughlin v. Wright Mach. Co., 273 Mass. 310, 173 N.E. 534 (injunction refused where encroachment was upon a six-inch strip of the plaintiff's land and the removal would involve......
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Geragosian v. Union Realty Co.
... ... require an injunction; that in Loughlin v. Wright Machine ... Company, 273 Mass. 310, 173 N.E. 534, the court refused ... an injunction ... ...
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Town of Saugus v. B. Perini & Sons, Inc.
...193 Mass. 116, 78 N.E. 853;Smith v. New England Aircraft Co., Inc., 270 Mass. 511, 170 N.E. 385, 69 A.L.R. 300;Loughlin v. Wright Machine Co., 273 Mass. 310, 173 N.E. 534;Malinoski v. D. S. McGrath, Inc., 283 Mass. 1, 186 N.E. 225;Gray v. Howell, 292 Mass. 400, 198 N.E. 516. Decree ...
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US v. Grabler, Civ. A. No. 94-12159-GAO.
...his neighbor's line, if the substantial rights of the plaintiff can be fully protected without doing so"); Loughlin v. Wright Mach. Co., 273 Mass. 310, 173 N.E. 534, 535 (1930); Lynch, 34 N.E. at 364. But cases in which an injunction is not appropriate are "exceptional." Strauss, 631 N.E.2d......