Gleason v. Atkins

Citations

• 225 Conn. App. 745

Syllabus

The plaintiffs appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court rendered for the defendant in the plaintiffs' action to quiet title to a certain strip of land to the south of Lake Waramaug in New Preston and to obtain damages for trespass. The property of the plaintiffs and the property of the defendant were both part of a subdivision of a parcel of land created by way of an approved subdivision map filed in 1969 and subsequently revised in 1970. In 1971, the owners of the subdivided land conveyed Lot 3 as shown on the 1970 subdivision map to P by warranty deed. That deed contained a description of Lot 3, which did not include any frontage on Lake Waramaug. The deed also contained language granting the exclusive right to use, ''in common with owner or owners of Lots 1, 2, 4 and 5 as shown on [the 1970 subdivision map], a certain piece or parcel of land situated on the shore of Lake Waramaug and also shown on said map . . . .'' The grantee and the other owners entitled to use the lakefront premises were required to maintain the premises and to pay their pro-rata share of taxes that accrue on the lakefront premises. V owned a lot immediately adjacent to the easterly boundary of the lakefront premises and, as depicted on the 1970 subdivision map, the southerly boundary of V's lot was the edge of the unpaved portion of West Shore Road. West Shore Road contained a paved way of approximately twenty-five feet in width with unpaved unimproved shoulders approximately 12.5 feet in width on each side of the pavement. The chain of title for Lot 3 and the exclusive right to the use of the lakefront premises ultimately led from P's deed to a warranty deed to the plaintiffs using the same descriptions of both parcels as contained in P's deed. The defendant acquired Lot 10 of the subdivision by warranty deed. Lot 10 was a contiguous parcel encompassing land on either side of West Shore Road, including the lakefront premises and the strip of land abutting the southerly bo