New York Cent. R. Co. v. Ayer
Decision Date | 29 June 1925 |
Citation | 253 Mass. 122,148 N.E. 567 |
Parties | NEW YORK CENT. R. CO. et al. v. AYER et al. |
Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to Supreme Judicial Court, Suffolk County; John C. Crosby, Judge.
Suit by the New York Central Railroad and another against James C. Ayer and others to enjoin encroachments on a passageway in which plaintiff had easement. To reverse final decree entered on petition for attachment for contempt, complainants bring writ of error. Writ dismissed.
C. O. Pengra, of Boston, for plaintiffs in error.
M. M. Johnson, of Boston, for defendants in error.
This is a writ of error. It is brought to reverse a final decree entered upon a petition for attachment for contempt in a suit in equity which has been before this court in other aspects and is reported in 239 Mass. 70, 131 N. E. 325, and in 242 Mass. 69, 136 N. E. 364. The case was brought in order to enforce the rights of the plaintiffs to have a strip of land ten feet wide on the defendants' land, being one-half of a 20-foot passageway over which the plaintiffs have rights, kept open and unobstructed. The plaintiffs prevailed on the merits of the main action. The final decree after the last rescript ordered the defendants ‘to cause the removal * * * of * * * the hatchway about 4 feet square in the concrete sidewalk * * * [and] filling or covering all excavations in such a way as to render the passageway substantially as firm, sound, and convenient for passage on foot and by teams and trucks as it was on April 18, 1899.’
The single justice on the petition for attachment for contempt found and ruled with respect to this matter:
This interpretation of the decree was erroneous. The words of the decree are unequivocal and positive to the effect that the hatchway must be removed. The manifest purpose of the decree in the light of the two opinions of the full court was to assure to the plaintiffs freedom of passage over that part of the way occupied by the hatchway, but not to require the defendants to fill with earth the space underneath the hatchway, provided without doing that the passageway could be made safe for the passage of heavy trucks. The right of way of the plaintiffs over the surface of the passageway was to be uninterrupted by the opening of the hatch and its use for the purposes for which a hatchway is commonly used.
As to another ground of complaint urged by the plaintiffs, the single justice found that:
Here also there was error in the interpretation of the final decree. In the decision in 239 Mass. 77, 131 N. E. 327, in explaining and delimiting the scope of the words creating the grant and reservation, it was held that they ‘import an intent of the parties that the entire passageway and not a convenient part of it...
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...cause, and the petitions were filed in it, they were distinct from it.’ These principles were reiterated in New York Central Railroad v. Ayer, 253 Mass. 122, 128, 129, 148 N. E. 567, which was a proceeding for the violation of a final decree in equity. See, also, Cherry v. Cherry, 253 Mass.......
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