269 Mass. 497 | Mass. | 1929
This is a petition filed in the Land Court to register title to land in Little Cromesett Neck, in the town of Wareham. The respondent owns land south of and adjoining that of the petitioners, and the sole matter now in dispute is with reference to the location of the southerly boundary of the petitioners’ land. Decisions of questions of fact by the Land Court are final and only questions of law apparent in the record can be reviewed by this court. G. L. c. 185, § 15. Bessey v. Ollman, 242 Mass. 89, 91. Moss v. Old Colony Trust Co. 246 Mass. 139. Allen v. Wood, 256 Mass. 343,348-349. Crawford v. Roloson, 262 Mass. 527. The parties agreed that their lands were to be classed in law as “wild land” until within the last three or four years, and it is not contended that either party could have gained a title to the disputed area by adverse possession. See Parker v. Parker, 1 Allen, 245; McDonough v. Everett, 237 Mass. 378, 384.
Conveyances in the petitioners’ chain of title describe the most southerly course on the easterly boundary concerning which the controversy in part arises as “S. 40° E. 14 Rods to Swift’s corner by the meadow,” or by other designation with the same meaning. The southerly line is described as having a specified course and distance and bounding on the Swift land or line. It is agreed that Swift was the predecessor in title of the respondent and that the Swift line is the northerly line of her property. The judge of the Land Court decided that the Swift line was at a point which would extend the easterly boundary course referred to about two hundred feet and increase the area called for in the deed to the petitioners by about five acres.
The only exceptions are to statements or rulings made by the judge in the course of his decision. The exception to his ruling, that if there is any variance the monument prevails
In the early part of the eighteenth century the whole area comprising the Neck was divided by partition proceedings into four lots numbered respectively from north to south, one, two, three and four. The petitioners’ land is the southerly part of lot one, the land of the respondent the northerly part of lot two, and the dividing line between those lots in this partition is the dividing line now in dispute.
This division line was adopted by the court. Its accuracy was confirmed by the fact that it went through a post hole where a stone post had been located many years and which the witness had seen as early as 1883, concluding that it marked the division line between lots one and two, and by the further evidence that.at the southeasterly corner of the locus in the line adopted was found a wooden plug driven into the ground, and, extending west therefrom, twelve to fifteen stones located as they would be to rest the ends of a rail fence upon. There were also found along the south line
The evidence in the case at bar was partly oral and partly documentary. The record narrates some of the evidence but does not purport to contain all that was material. The finding for the petitioners and against the claim of the respondent was expressly made upon all the evidence. In this situation we cannot say that the decision was not justified. See Mitchell v. Cobb, 220 Mass. 60; Webber v. Cox, supra.
Exceptions overruled.