109 P. 584 | Or. | 1910
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
Defendant has appealed from a decree declaring plaintiff to be the owner of a certain canal or irrigating ditch built by him across defendant’s lands-, under an irrevocable license, the right to the uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the same for the purpose of conveying water to his lands for irrigation, and perpetually enjoining defend
The facts appear to be that in 1895 plaintiff owned in Powder River Valley, Union County, about 1,400 acres of dry, arid land, including the N. 14 of section 32 (except the S. E. % the N. E. 14), the S. W. 1/4 of section 33 and the E. 14 and N. E. 14 of N. W. 1/4 of section 31, all in township 5 S., range 39 E., of Willamette Meridian. This land was covered with sagebrush and bunch grass, and without the aid of artificial irrigation would produce little or no crops, but with sufficient water would bring forth abundant crops of hay and grain. The water supply available for irrigating these lands was Wolf Creek, some 12 miles distant from the N. 14 of section 32, and Anthony Creek, about 6 or 8 miles further off. To bring this water to the plaintiff’s lands, it was necessary to cross sections 5 and 6 in township 6 south, lying immediately south of the plaintiff’s, lands. At that time these sections were open, uninclosed lands, apparently a part of the public domain. Plaintiff, not knowing to whom they belonged, if any one besides the State or the United States, for the purpose of bringing this water to his lands, commenced and completed in the fall of 1895 the excavation of about 2*4 miles of ditch, which began upon his own land and
“He (plaintiff) told me later on he had a right from Failing, and he may have told me at that time. I don’t know.”
From this evidence it may be plainly inferred that Russell had two conversations with plaintiff about his right to dig the ditch across defendant’s lands, and that probably one of these conversations was subsequent to the time Russell conveyed to Proffitt the substance of his conversation with plaintiff. The defendant makes no denial that he had a conversation with his co-tenant, Russell, concerning plaintiff’s ditches. Immediately after having purchased the land in 1902, Russell and Proffitt caused the same to be fenced, and thereafter used it for pasturing beef cattle, keeping from 200 to 300 head thereon. On June 8, 1904, Russell sold and conveyed to defendant his interest in the land, which thereafter was occupied and used by defendant for the same purpose. Plaintiff, relying upon his supposed right of way from Failing and the assent of Russell, if not also that of defendant, completed in 1902 his upper ditch to his reservoir, and thereafter conveyed water through the same to his reservoir and lands, irrigating and cultivating something over 600 acres, and at the time this suit was brought his land was highly improved and productive.
It is admitted by the defendant that annually for four or five years prior to 1908, he cut plaintiff’s ditch and took water therefrom for his own use without the consent and against the objections of plaintiff. About the month of July, 1908, when plaintiff’s tenant was irrigating his crop
It is further claimed that no license whatever was shown to have been acquired from either Mrs. Failing or her daughter, neither of whom had any knowledge, until this suit was brought, of the receipt of plaintiff’s letter by Mr. Failing, of the answer returned by him, or that plaintiff had, in fact dug any ditches on their land. It was held in the earlier Oregon cases, following the doctrine of the leading case of Rerick v. Kern, 14 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 267 (16 Am. Dec. 497), that a license is irrevocable after the expenditure of money, or the erection of improvements in reliance thereon by the licensee: Curtis v. La Grande Hydraulic Water Co., 20 Or. 34 (23 Pac. 808: 25 Pac. 378: 10 L. R. A. 484) ; McBroom v. Thompson, 25 Or. 559 (37 Pac. 57: 42 Am. St. Rep. 806) ; Garrett v. Bishop, 27 Or. 349 (41 Pac. 10) ; Bowman v. Bowman, 35 Or. 279 (57 Pac. 546). Later cases, however, qualify this rule, by declaring that the license relied -on must be an express agreement, and not a mere passive acquiescence, amounting at most to an implied license, without consideration or benefit inuring to the licensee, and that such passive acquiescence will not raise an estoppel, and that the license may be revoked, if not allowed to stand until the statute of limitations has constituted a bar: Lavery v. Arnold, 36 Or. 84 (57 Pac. 906: 58 Pac. 524) ; Hallock v. Suitor, 37 Or. 9 (60 Pac. 384) ;
In his argument defendant’s counsel has closely followed the reasoning of Mr. Farnham in his valuable work on Waters and Water Rights. We find at page 2335, volume 3, thereof, this statement of the law:
“If the expenditures are made for the benefit of or at the request of the licensor, there is a sufficient consideration to form a contract, so that, if it is partly executed, equity will compel its complete performance. And, if the improvement is for the benefit of the licensor, or if it is undertaken at his solicitation, so that the licensee can be regarded as having made the expenditure at his request, there will be sufficient consideration to uphold the contract.”
The decree is, therefore affirmed. Affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
delivered the following dissenting opinion.
I am unable to agree with the conclusion reached in the foregoing opinion, and am not in accord with all of the views expressed. I therefore feel impelled to give in part at least my reasons therefor.
The complaint pleads a license only, and no other claim by either of the parties has been made in their briefs or at the oral argument. I recognize the possibility of the eminent counsel for the respective parties being mistaken in this respect, but I am of the opinion that their position is not open to serious doubt. The only averment in the complaint bearing on this feature is “that the plaintiff obtained from the defendant T. N. Proffitt and his predecessors in interest * * the right, consent, and permission and license to build and construct the said main ditch, and to use the said canyon or gulch as a part of his said irrigating ditch, and to build, construct, and maintain the said lateral ditch leading from said canyon. * *” Not only from the fact that it has been so treated and recognized throughout the trial by the plaintiff and his counsel that only a license was intended to be pleaded, but from the language used it is clear that the words, “right, consent and permission and license,” are intended •as merely synonymous terms, each defining the other. I find nothing in the definition of the word “right” even if it were standing alone, to justify the broad meaning applied thereto in deciding this case. The standard dictionaries treat the word “right,” when used in this manner, as synonymous with “authority,” “privilege,”
But, assuming it was the purpose of the language quoted from the complaint to assert that a grant of perpetual easement was intended to be given, the letter offered in evidence is insufficient for that purpose, and even if it were admissible, subject to supplemental parol proof in a suit for specific performance, the pleadings are insufficient therefor. It is not claimed in the opinion that a grant was actually made, but that the letters exchanged amounted to a written agreement to make such grant. Nor is it assumed that this is a suit for specific performance of a contract, and until the grant is made, either in writing or as a result of a decree for
Plaintiff’s case must stand or fall upon a license, upon which he has acted under such circumstances as will estop defendant from questioning his rights. This estoppel plaintiff had an opportunity to plead in his reply, but did not do so, contenting himself with a mere denial of the affirmative allegations of the answer. Under no rule, as I view it, can plaintiff avail himself of any transaction or doing between him and defendant, without pleading such facts as may constitute an estoppel, and the rule in this state that an estoppel of such character to be available must be pleaded is too well settled to need discussion or citation of authorities. Since, therefore, the issues presented are not broad enough to enable plaintiff to rely upon the right to a permanent easement over the premises, a consideration of the facts discussed in the opinion is unnecessary. I know of no reason why we should suspend in this particular case, even though it were a discretionary matter (and it certainly is not), the well-settled rules of pleading, for defendant was undoubtedly justified in relying on these rules, and was,
Again, the written permission here urged came, at the time it was given, from only a part of the owners of the property. The fact that Failing may have had charge of all the lands or may thereafter have become possessed of the title thereto is of no avail, unless on the theory of estoppel, which, as stated, is not within the issues. The so-called contract or writings are not nearly so complete as was the agreement, and the twenty-five years’ subsequent acquiesence of the parties thereto presented by the record for the consideration of this court, and held insufficient, in Beers v. Sharpe, 44 Or. 386 (75 Pac. 717). In that case an examination of the records and briefs will disclose that estoppel was both pleaded and established. The result on the main point therein (whether a subsequent, separate, and distinct appropriation of surplus water, by means of a dam and canal leading therefrom, in which all were tenants in common, could be made) is in conflict with the views and the law announced in McPhee v. Kelsey, 44 Or. 193 (74 Pac. 401: 75 Pac. 713), as well as inconsistent with subsequent adjudications thereon, among which is Ison v. Sturgill, 57 Or. 109 (109 Pac. 579), but I find the law announced therein on the above point unshaken by any later decision, save by the majority opinion herein.
I deem it unnecessary at this time further to present
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
“The cases are practically agreed that on strict common-law principles a bare license is revocable at the will of the licensor, even though executed; but it is held by a very respectable line of authorities, as in the reported case, that on principles of equity the revocation of a license after the licensor has stood by and permitted the licensee to incur considerable expense on the faith of the license would amount to a constructive fraud, working an estoppel in the licensee’s favor.”
This court long ago adopted the rule that a parol license cannot be revoked after it has been executed by the licensee, who, in reliance.thereon, has expended money in permanent valuable improvements. In Curtis v. La Grande Water Co., 20 Or. 34, 44 (23 Pac. 808, 810), Justice Lord, who wrote the principal opinion, says:
“An executed license is treated like a parol agreement in equity; it will not allow the statute to be used as a*213 cover for fraud; it will not permit advantage to be taken of the form of the consent, although not within the statute of frauds, after large expenditures of money or labor have been invested in permanent improvements upon the land, in good faith, upon the reliance reposed in such consent. To allow one to revoke his consent, when it was given or had the effect to influence the conduct of another and cause him to make large investments, would operate as a fraud, and warrant the interference of equity to prevent it, under the doctrine of equitable estoppel. The ground of the jurisdiction is to prevent injustice or fraud.”
He there held that the executed license estopped the licensor and his grantee with notice, but that, in the change of the location of the dam and pipe line, the plaintiff’s silence or acquiescence did not estop her, or constitute an irrevocable license, and he affirmed the decree of the lower court. But, on rehearing, it was held by Mr. Justice Strahan that, because of plaintiff’s silence and acquiescence while the expenditures were being made it amounted to an implied license and was irrevocable, and the decree was modified accordingly. But this part of that decision was expressly overruled in Ewing v. Rhea, 37 Or. 583, 587 (62 Pac. 790: 52 L. R. A. 140: 82 Am. St. Rep. 783), where it was held by Mr. Justice Moore that a mere naked license by acquiescence is not rendered irrevocable by the expenditure of money on the strength of such acquiescence or implied license. The same justice, in Miser v. O’Shea, 37 Or. 231, 237 (62 Pac. 491, 493: 82 Am. St. Rep. 751), states the rule thus:
“This court has adopted the rule that if a party, relying upon the faith of an express parol agreement, make permanent valuable improvements upon an estate, which may inure to the advantage of the owner thereof, the license upon the faith of which the improvements are made cannot be revoked to the prejudice of the party executing it.”
“Cases may arise and have arisen where a license to occupy land has been intended and understood as a mere personal favor to the licensee to give him a place to live, or to occupy for some other beneficial purpose not transmissible, but revocable at will. Then expenditures would naturally be made accordingly. In other cases the granting of the license has been in terms an assurance of permanent possession. It is evident that the same rule cannot apply to both classes of cases. The revocation of the license even after expenditures made in consequence of it, in the one case is a right, in the other a fraud. No*216 general rule can be made as to the revocability of such licenses after such expenditures. Each case stands upon its own circumstances. When we have traveled through the mass of decisions, cloudy and conflicting at times, and have arrived at the principle that equity will relieve where there is fraud, actual or constructive, we have arrived at a principle in regard to which there is no conflict. And courts of equity * * are very generally agreed that the revocation of a parol license to permanently occupy and improve realty after any considerable expense has been incurred on the faith of such license, under circumstances such that the parties cannot be placed in statu quo, is either actual or constructive fraud.”
Much of this language is quoted evidently with approval as a conclusion to the note in 7 Am. & Eng. Ann. Cas. 717. See, also, Mason v. Hill, 27 E. C. L. 15; Liggins v. Inge, 20 E. C. L. 304, and Loiue v. Adams, 2 Ch. (Eng.) 598, in which a doubt is expressed as to whether Wood v. Leadbitter, 13 Meeson & Welsby’s Rep. 538, which seems to hold to the contrary and is frequently quoted as expressing the rule in England, is good law.
“We have no doubt that, under the liberal rule established by these cases, the promise of Failing would be enforced by almost any court of equity against Failing, and also against any successor to Failing who took with either actual or constructive notice of the burden existing on the estate in favor of Shaw.”
And as to notice Pomeroy says:
“If a purchaser, or incumbrancer, dealing concerning property of which the record title appears to be complete and perfect, has information of extraneous facts or matters in pais sufficient to put him on inquiry * * respecting some outstanding interest, claim, or right, which is not the subject of record, and he omits to make inquiry, he will be charged with constructive notice of all the facts which he might have learned by means of a due and reasonable inquiry.” 2 Pomeroy, Eq. § 613. See, also, Petrain v. Kiernan, 23 Or. 455, 457 (32 Pac. 158.)
This principle is applied in case of a water ditch in McDougal v. Lane, 39 Or. 212, 214 (64 Pac. 864.) In German Savings & Loan Society v. Gordon, 54 Or. 147, 156 (102 Pac. 736, 739), Mr. Chief Justice Moore, in discussing the same principle, says:
“We are unable to discover any valid reason for a distinction in the rules of law applicable to servitudes*218 depending upon whether they are continuous or discontinuous, except in the matter of the greater conspicuity which the former usually affords. An artificial ditch in which water regularly flows must necessarily be a constant reminder of all beholders of the changed condition of the surface of the earth, whereby the dominant tenement is drained or irrigated. * * A discontinuous quasi easement, when evidenced in a similar substantial manner, ought to pass by implied grant as an appurtenant to the dominant tenement, when the latter is severed by a conveyance thereof.”
And in 23 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2 ed.) 499, it is said:
“It is generally held that the possession of itself operates as constructive notice, and consequently that it is immaterial that the purchaser was actually ignorant that the land was adversely held, especially where he could have easily acquired knowledge of the fact, but neglected to visit the premises.”
“As I understood he would vacate the lower ditch, and I had talked with Mr. Chenault about getting water and*219 putting water down there, and of course we spoke of those ditches, that we could use them for laterals ourselves.”
Counsel also contend that Failing’s license to Shaw to construct the ditch cannot affect or bind the land then owned by his wife and daughter, and relies upon Houston
In the present case Failing was acting as owner, and personally authorized Shaw, who supposed him to be the owner, to construct the ditch on the Failing land, not an easement in gross, but an irrigation ditch appurtenant to his land. This was partly executed by Shaw in good faith at great expense, and thereafter, while recognizing Shaw’s right, Failing acquiring the title, and equity will interpose an estoppel as though he held the title at the time the license was granted, in which case the after-acquired title will inure to the benefit of the licensee: 11 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2 ed.) 403. In the Zahm case the street was to be erected, at the owner’s expense, on land thereafter to be acquired by it, which was not done, and estoppel cannot be invoked. In 26 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2 ed.) 114, it is said it will not defeat an action for specific performance by a vendor that he did not have title to the property in question at the time the contract was made, provided he will be able to convey at the time of the rendition of the decree. To the same effect is Waterman, Spec. Perf. §409. And the converse of that statement is elementary. If the vendor is able to perform at the time of the suit, he will be required to do so at the suit of the
“But the ordinary doctrine of estoppel by deed applies in case of a grant of an easement, so that, if a person without title profess to convey an estate, or to grant an easement, his conveyance operates by way of estoppel, if at a subsequent period he acquires the fee, and the subsequently acquired estate is bound thereby, or, as it is termed, the newly acquired estate feeds the estoppel.”
The petition is denied.
Affirmed: Rehearing Denied.
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court.
Rehearing
Decided October 4, 1910.
On Petition for Rehearing.
[110 Pac. 1092.]
delivered the opinion of the court.