30 Vt. 118 | Vt. | 1857
The opinion of the court was delivered by
No question is made as to the plaintiff’s possession of the locus in quo at the time of the alleged trespass, and prior possession is enough against the defendant, if he stands as a stranger to all title.
The defendant’s title depends upon the construction of the deed of Isaac Briggs to him, which purports to convey all the grantor’s right to forty-seven acres of lot number twenty-seven, third division. in the town of Sheldon, bounded south on the highway, east on the lot line, etc., “ meaning,” says the grantor, “ to convey a piece of land I hold by a deed from Nathan Bailey, dated March 2'oih, 1825.” It is well settled law, that if the deed bounds the grantee on a highway, and there is nothing in the deed which can control-the general boundary, it carries the grantee to the center of the highway, such being its legal construction. If, however, the'boundary had been the north line of the highway, the construction would have been otherwise. This is all conceded by the defendant’s counsel, but it is claimed that what would otherwise be the construction of the deed from Briggs to the defendant, is controlled by the expression “ meaning to convey a piece of land I hold by a deed from Nathan Bailey” etc., and this is the important question in the case. The deed from Briggs to the defendant, by its legal intendment, if not controlled by the after words, carried him only to the center of the highway, and such legal intendment could not be controlled by parol.
It is a question of some importance, whether the boundary in .this deed, which the law fixes as being the center line of the highway, can be extended from the center to the south line of the highway, by means of the after description in the deed. It seems to be well settled that if land has been conveyed by a reference to known monuments and boundaries, the land so described is not to be restricted or enlarged by a subsequent reference tb the title , deeds of the grantor, under which he holds his title. In Melvin v. Proprietors of the locks and canals on Merrimack river, 5 Metcalf
The case now before us, as was said by Justice Wild in the case in 10 Metcalf, is clearly one of a double description, and we think the boundary given on the south being on the highway, is in effect a conveyance by metes and bounds, and that this description must prevail over the after description given by way of reference to Nathan Bailey’s deed to Briggs, if the two descriptions are found to be incompatible. As, then, we' confine the defendant’s south boundary, under the deed from Briggs to him, to the center line of the highway, he stands as. a stranger to the locus in quo, and a
The result is an affirmance of the judgment of the county court.