442 Pa. 369 | Pa. | 1971
Opinion by
We are presented by this appeal with a not unfamiliar type of quarrel between neighbors as to their respective rights to the use of a driveway which runs between their homes and straddles the boundary line between their two adjacent properties. Plaintiffs-appellants, claiming either ownership of the entire driveway or a prescriptive,easement over such portion of it as might be on land of defendants-appellees, brought a bill in equity to quiet title and to enjoin defendants from interfering with plaintiffs’ ownership, use and occupancy, and from using the driveway themselves. By their answer appellees asserted that each party had acquired a prescriptive right over such portion of the driveway as was on the land of the other, and that appellees therefore had a right to use the driveway jointly with appellants.
The chancellor found, sustaining appellees’ position, that each party had prescriptive rights, and also that each had interfered with the rights of the other.
We are mindful of the weight to be given to the findings of a chancellor, affirmed by a court en banc; if supported by adequate evidence they will not be disturbed. Fec v. Mickail, supra; Wampler v. Shenk, 404 Pa. 395, 398, 172 A. 2d 313 (1961); Sterrett v. Sterrett, 401 Pa. 583, 166 A. 2d 1 (1960). In the case at bar, however, the chancellor made no specific findings of fact; he made merely conclusory findings, almost in the same language as his conclusions of law, that each party had “a prescriptive right to the use and enjoyment of the driveway”, subject to the rights of the other party. There were no findings of the important underlying facts necessary to support these ultimate facts. We must therefore make an independent scrutiny of the record to determine whether such underlying facts were present.
The appellees, who acquired their property in 1966, only three months before suit was brought, supplied testimony of their use of the driveway subsequent to
In light of the conclusion we. have reached it is not necessary to examine the appellants’ other contention on appeal, viz., that the testimony on behalf of appellees’ showed only sporadic and occasional adverse user, not the continuous user required to gain prescriptive rights.
. The decree is vacated and. the case remanded for the entry of an appropriate decree granting injunctive relief to appellants as prayed for in their complaint. Costs on appellees.
The court .made no specific finding as to. title or the location of the boundary line dividing the two properties, but the opinion of the trial judge indicates that the major portion of the driveway was owned by the appellants, and that 1% feet of it was on the property of the appellees.