209 Mass. 123 | Mass. | 1911
The plaintiff and the defendants are owners of adjoining lots on Creighton Street in Cambridge, each of which, in common with other lots on Creighton Street, is subject to the following building restrictions, namely: “ No building shall ever be erected within fifteen feet of said line of Creighton Street, and no mechanical shop, livery stable, or store shall ever be erected or used on said parcel which shall be detrimental to the use of this locality for dwelling houses.”
This is a bill to restrain and enjoin the defendants from erecting a building on their lot in violation of these restrictions. There was a decree
The defendants own an elevator and store on Regent Street which is next southerly from and parallel to Creighton Street, where they deal in hay, grain, straw, flour and other products. The lot on Creighton Street adjoins in the rear their premises on Regent Street and the building on Creighton Street is intended to be used in connection with the store on Regent Street for storing hay, grain, flour and other things that the defendants deal in. The great bulk of deliveries, — ninety per cent, one witness testified, — will be made from the store on Regent Street. But there was testimony tending to show that some
The restrictions, while forbidding the use or erection of a building for a “ mechanical shop, livery stable, or store,” contain no express provision limiting the use of the lot to the erection of a building for a dwelling house. On the contrary the implication from the provision that no building “ shall ever be erected or used on said premises which may be detrimental to the use of the surrounding locality for dwelling houses ” is that a building of a different character may be erected so long as it or the use to which it is put will not be detrimental to the use of the surrounding locality for dwelling houses. It was no doubt expected that the effect of the restrictions would be to impose upon the locality to which they applied a residential character. But in the absence of anything in them limiting the buildings to be erected to dwelling houses we do not see how the restrictions can be so construed.
The question whether the erection of such a building as the defendants have erected and whether its use for the storage of hay, grain, flour and other merchandise which they deal in
After a hearing, by Richardson, J.