Mercantile Library Co. v. Fidelity Trust Co.

Citations

• 235 Pa. 5
• 83 A. 592
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 491

Syllabus

<p>Deed — Construction—Intention—Surrounding circumstances— Passageway — Pavement.</p> <p>1. The words of a grant are to receive a reasonable construction and one that will accord with the intention of the parties; but, in order to ascertain their intention courts will look into the circumstances under which the grant was made.</p> <p>2. Where a market company owning a passageway along its property sixteen feet wide with a pavement five feet wide elevated above the cartway, enters into an agreement with an adjoining owner by which the latter opens a strip of his land ten feet wide “for the purpose of widening the said passageway (that is the sixteen-foot passageway) at that part to the width of twenty-six feet for the common use and privilege as a street or passageway” for both parties, their successors and assigns, and thereafter for forty years twenty-one feet of the passageway remained as a cartway for the use of wagons, a successor in title to the ten-foot strip will not be permitted to construct a pavement with a curb elevated several inches above the cartway and covering the entire ten feet upon which the easement was originally imposed; and this is the case although during later years a pavement had been constructed upon the ten-foot strip, but on a level with the cartway.</p> <p>3. In such a case the owner of the ten-foot strip will not be required to remove grating, doors, etc. if they do not obstruct the right of passage.</p> <p>4. In Pennsylvania the owner of land who grants a right of way over it conveys nothing but the right of passage and reserves all incidents of ownership not granted.</p>