United States v. Gallas

• Decision Date: 29 May 1967
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 17050.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. William A. GALLAS.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

269 F. Supp. 141

UNITED STATES of America v. William A. GALLAS.

Civ. A. No. 17050.

United States District Court D. Maryland.

May 29, 1967.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas J. Kenney, U. S. Atty., and Theodore R. McKeldin, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., and James E. Clubb, Lands Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

C. Rider Brandau, Jr., and J. Francis Ford, Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

NORTHROP, District Judge.

The United States has brought a civil action titled a Complaint in Ejectment in which it seeks legal and equitable relief from the alleged encroachment by the defendant on a thirty-five foot wide easement owned by the government. Jurisdiction is invoked under 28 U.S.C. § 1345 (1963). The easement in question was conveyed to the plaintiff in 1942 as part of the route for a twenty-four inch water pipeline installed in Harford County, Maryland, to service the armed forces installation at the Edgewood Arsenal. The plaintiff requests a declaration by the court that the defendant has no interest in the easement; an order that he remove his house from the easement; an injunction against any future interference; and an award of costs. The defendant in his answer admits that his house is over the pipeline but denies that he is encroaching on the easement owned by the plaintiff, contending that the pipeline does not run through the easement at all, but through other property.

The origins of this case are found in the land records of Harford County of some forty-eight years ago. On February 3, 1919, T. Earl Hanson gave a mortgage to Robert Archer on a tract of about 79.82 acres of farm land, which he owned in fee. At some subsequent time Hanson sold a portion, 105 feet wide and 315 feet deep, in the southeast corner of the tract to Elmer P. Meredith, but no deed was ever recorded for this sale. Meredith then sold his land to Harry and Elizabeth Zeigler in another unrecorded transaction.

These events all occurred prior to March 4, 1921, for on that date a deed for the entire 79.82 acre tract was recorded in which T. Earl Hanson and his wife passed title to the property to John Delbo and his mother Margaret. The Zeigler land was inadvertently included in this sale. To clear up the confused state of the titles, a deed dated January 18, 1921, was recorded on March 22, 1922, in Liber D.G.W. No. 178, Folio 61 of the Harford County Land Records in which the Zeiglers were conveyed their previously purchased property by Meredith and his wife, the Delbos, T. Earl Hanson and Robert Archer.

The Delbos later suffered a foreclosure on the farm by Archer, and the latter sold the approximately 78 remaining acres of the tract to Jacob and Fenie Waltman in a deed recorded on April 25, 1923. This deed specifically excepted the Zeigler property in the following language:

"NOW THEREFORE IN CONSIDERATION of the premises and the sum of ten dollars ($10.00) the said Robert Archer, Attorney as aforesaid, does hereby grant, bargain and sell and convey unto the said Jacob P. Waltman and Fenie Waltman, his wife, the real estate reported as sold to the said Jacob P. Waltman, as aforesaid consisting of seventy eight (78) acres, more or less, situated in the First Election District of said County, and being all the real estate conveyed by said mortgage and also by said T. Earl Hanson to John Delbo and Margaret Delbo, by his deed dated 26th of February 1921 and of record among said Land Records in Liber J.A.R. No. 173, folio 2, except so much thereof conveyed by said John and Margaret Delbo to Harry Zeigler and wife by their deed of record among said Land Records in Liber D.G.W. No. 178, folio 61." Emphasis added.

The deed from Archer to the Waltmans was recorded in Liber D.G.W. No. 181, Folio 419 in the Land Records of Harford County.

The land records pertaining to the tract lay undisturbed for some years following this flurry of activity. Not until 1942 was another document recorded, and that is the deed at the eye of the present legal hurricane. A deed of easement was given by the Waltmans to the plaintiff United States dated November 27, 1942, and recorded in Liber G.C.B. No. 275, Folio 395 of the Harford County records. This was one of a number of easements acquired by the government to enable it to lay the Edgewood water pipeline. The deed from the Waltmans granted the plaintiff a permanent water pipe easement on a certain described portion of their land, giving the grantee the right to construct, operate, maintain, repair, patrol, and remove the pipeline. The description of the land covered by the easement is as follows:

"Beginning from the center line thereof at a point in the dividing line between the lands of the Grantor herein and the lands of Mary A. Norris and on the South line of a private lane said point being S 76° 37' W 797.4 feet from a post set in the Southeast corner of the property of the Grantor and proceeding thence N 6° 30' 10" W 257 feet; thence N 17° 38' 80" E 1302.5 feet; thence N 5° 38' 40" E 192.5 feet to a point in the dividing line between the lands of the Grantor herein and the lands of Sydney D. Peyerley, said point being S 77° 5' W 46.7 feet from a stake planted in the Northeast line of the Grantor's property, said easement being of a uniform width of 35 feet and containing approximately 1.4 Acres, more or less. BEING part of the land described in a deed dated April 21, 1923 from Robert Archer, Attorney, to Jacob P. Waltman and wife, and recorded among the Land Records of Harford County, Maryland, in Liber D.G.W., No. 181, Folio 419."

To bring the chain of title down to date requires mention of only two other transactions. By a deed dated September 30, 1950, and properly recorded the Waltmans conveyed about 14 acres in the south central area of their farm to Thomas E. Hanson and his wife. A confirmatory deed between these parties dated March 15, 1967, was later recorded covering the same property. Both of these deeds make reference to the 1942 easement acquired by the United States.

Finally, by a deed dated November 4, 1960, and properly recorded, the Hansons conveyed to William A. Gallas, the defendant, a one-acre portion of their property. The description in the deed of the land purchased by Gallas is as follows:

"Beginning for the same, at a point in the middle of Hanson Road, being in the North 6° 45' West line of the whole tract, of which the land now being described is a part, which by Deed dated March 15th, 1957, and recorded among the Land Records of Harford County in Liber G.R.G. No. 478, Folio 158, was conveyed by Jacob P. Waltman and wife to Thomas E. Hanson and wife, and running thence, binding on the outline of said conveyance, North 6° 45' West 25.00 feet to an iron pipe on the North side of said Road, thence still North 6° 45' West 185.00 feet to an iron pipe, thence leaving the outline, and running for new dividing lines, through and across the land of the Grantors, South 81° 15' West 210.00 feet to an iron pipe, thence South 6° 45' East 185.00 feet to an iron pipe on the North side of the aforesaid Road, thence still South 6° 45' East 25.00 feet to the middle of said Road, thence binding on the middle of said Road, as the same is now paved and improved, North 81° 15' East 210.00 feet to the beginning, containing One (1) acre, more or less, as surveyed by Glen C. Deaton, Registered Surveyor, October 5th, 1960;

"Being a part of the land conveyed by and described in a Confirmatory Deed from Jacob P. Waltman and Fenie Waltman, his wife, to the said Thomas E. Hanson and Helen E. Hanson, his wife, dated March 15th, 1957, and recorded among the Land Records of Harford County in Liber G.R.G. No. 478, Folio 158."

No mention of any easement was made in this document, although the acre Gallas bought, situated along the southern boundary and in the easterly half of the original Waltman tract, includes a part of the Waltman farm through which the easement passed.

Having purchased his one-acre plot, Gallas proceeded to build a house. On September 13, 1962, Gallas discovered that his almost completed home was square astride the Edgewood water pipeline. He stopped the construction activity at that time, and about three months later the Army Corps of Engineers required him either to move his house or to relocate the pipeline around it at his own expense. The defendant has pursued neither of these alternatives; the house still stands where it was built. The plaintiff has therefore brought this ejectment proceeding.

There is no doubt that the house cannot safely remain over the pipeline, and the parties have stipulated that if the easement is where the pipeline is in fact located, the plaintiff is entitled to the removal of the house as an encumbrance. The stipulation is supported by the testimony of James F. Lawrence, the Chief Facilities Engineer in this area for the Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Lawrence testified that due to the shortages caused by World War II, the original pipe had been installed with material not ordinarily used. The substituted material makes the pipe more sensitive to disturbances above it and more likely to rupture.

This court is thus faced with a relatively simple question: Is the house situated on the easement acquired by the plaintiff in 1942 from Jacob and Fenie Waltman? If the answer is yes, then the house is an encumbrance and must be moved. If the answer is no— i. e., if the easement is located somewhere other than where the pipe is laid— then the defendant can leave his house where it now stands.¹

The resolution of this question initially turns on the meaning of the words of description in the grant of easement from the Waltmans. The essential phrase in dispute is the first distance call, which reads

"Beginning from the center line thereof at a point in the dividing line between the lands of the Grantor herein and the lands of Mary A. Norris and on the South line of a private lane said point being S 76° 37' W 797.4

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