Englander v. Apfelbaum

Citations

• 56 Pa. Super. 145
• 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 60

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Building restriction — Bulk windows — Going into equity with clean hands — Deed.</p> <p>1. Where in a suit in equity it appears that a deed executed in 1841 contained a building restriction which involved a prohibition of bulk windows in front of buildings which might be constructed on the land, and it also appears that more than twenty years prior to the filing of the bill four stores had been built on the land, each with a bulk window to the first floor, and that plaintiff and defendant owned two of these buildings adjoining, the plaintiff has a standing in equity to enjoin the defendant from adding a bulk window to the second and third floors in remodelling his building.</p> <p>2. In such a case the doctrine that he who comes into equity must do so with clean hands, has no application, inasmuch as, the doctrine only applies to the plaintiff’s willful misconduct in regard to the very matter in litigation. The fact that the plaintiff maintained in common with the defendant and the other owners a bulk window on the first floor will not bar him from invoking the jurisdiction of equity to restrain the defendant from a further or different encroachment, such as the addition of bulk windows to the second and third floors.</p>