194 Pa. 643 | Pa. | 1900
Opinion by
The special verdict determined the facts, and if upon those facts an estoppel was raised against the plaintiff which prohibited him from setting up his legal title the judgment should be sustained. It was found by the verdict that Redmond, the plaintiff, did agree, while the building was going up, that the building of Miss McAdams should extend over the alley which divided the plaintiff’s house from the house in question, and into and against the plaintiff’s house; that Redmond knew of and consented to this method of building, demanded no compensation and offered no objection thereto until six years afterwards, and that during all this time, and while the building was going up, the plaintiff lived in his own house next door. We think the testimony was quite sufficient to sustain the verdict. The testimony of Miss McAdams was verj full, precise, clear and positive as to the fact of the agreement. Hallowell’s testimony, while it was not so precise nor so clear as that of Miss McAdams, was quite corroborative in its character of the testimony of Miss McAdams. He said, “after the'building was under way, during the course of the construction of the building, there was a conversation between Redmond and Rose McAdams as to the building her house against his side wall. It was talked of. I do not know what was said. I was under the impression that Mr. Redmond wanted to run it over, but I cannot say positive about that. . . . Certainly Mr. Redmond must have agreed that the house should be put over against his wall, or it would not have been done. lie made no objection to me at all. He was present every day when I was building it. He saw I was building against his property. . . . He was there every day. He lived next door, in the house that it was joined to. 1 never knew during the progress of the work that he objected to this.”
All of this testimony is most highly corroborative of the testimony of Miss McAdams. He knew there was a conversation
A party who stands by and sees a bona fide purchaser making valuable improvements upon the land in the neighborhood of which the former has resided for nearly twenty years, without giving notice of an equitable title in himself, will be estopped from subsequently asserting the same: Woods v. Wilson, 37 Pa. 379.
Silence will postpone a title when one knowing his own right should speak out. One led by such title ignorantly and innocently to rest on his title, believing it secure, and to expend money and make improvement without timely warning, will be protected by estoppel: Chapman v. Chapman, 59 Pa. 214.
One who by postive acts has induced another to purchase lands of which he is himself the true owner, is thereafter es-topped from setting up his title against the purchaser, even though he acted in good faith and in ignorance of his own rights : Putman v. Tyler, 117 Pa. 570; Miller’s Appeal, 84 Pa. 391.
It is unnecessary to extend the citations: the principle involved is so very familiar that no discussion is required. The assignments of error are dismissed.
Judgment affirmed.