131 A.D. 755 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1909
On May 1, 1858, one John J. Crane, who then was the owner of the premises known as Ho. 21 West Hineteenth street and Ho. 18 West Twentieth street, which taken together formed one parcel of land running from street to street, twenty-five feet in width on each street and one hundred and eighty-four feet in depth, conveyed the Twentieth street lot and a building thereon erected, being twenty-five feet wide and ninety-two fee| in depth to the middle of the block, to one Isaac Sherman by deed containing the following restriction : “ Which said last-mentioned lot (referring to the Hineteenth street lot), now owned by the said John J. Crane, shall be restricted when sold or built upon by him as follows, namely, that any building erected on said last-mentioned lot shall not exceed the depth of sixty-five feet, commencing from the line of Hineteenth street, leaving the balance of said lot twenty-seven feet in depth as an open yard in the rear of said lot.” Through various mesne conveyances the title to Ho. 18 West Twentieth street became vested in the plaintiffs and the title to Ho. 21 West Hineteenth street in the defendant. The plaintiffs having also acquired the title to the premises known as Hos. 20 and 22 West Twentieth street and to Ho. 23 West Hineteenth street, which is directly in the rear of Ho. 20 West Twentieth street, erected an eleven-story fireproof store and loft building which covered seventy-five feet on Twentieth street to a depth of about eighty feet, excepting that the ground floor was extended to a further depth of eight feet with a skylight, and also excepting that the middle twenty-five feet of the building extended through to Hineteenth street. The upper stories in the rear of the part of plaintiffs’ building directly overlooking defendant’s premises has three windows on each of the stories above the gi'ound floor, leaving a space of twelve feet on plaintiffs’ premises, which, with the additional twenty-seven feet in the rear of defendant’s premises, would furnish a total air and light space of thirty-nine feet. The defendant has threatened to erect upon his Hineteenth street lot an eleven-story building to the depth of eighty-five feet, so that instead