Hall v. Trustees of Sharp Street Station of Methodist Episcopal Church

Parke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The chancellor sustained the demurrer to a bill of complaint filed by James F. Hall against the Trustees of Sharp Street Station of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore City, a body corporate. Tbe facts admitted by the demurrer are that tbe plaintiff for a long time leased of the defendant a one-story frame building located upon a part of the ground which the defendant used for a cemetery. On these premises the plaintiff carried on his business of making and selling tombstones and other things customarily used in graveyards.

The building was destroyed by fire, on February 11th, 1921, and the plaintiff tried to buy of the defendant a part of the parcel in order to build and continue his business, but the defendant refused to- sell, and offered to lease to the plaintiff for a period of ten years a part of the cemetery, about twenty feet by forty feet, upon which the plaintiff was to erect a building of fireproof material for his business, to pay the sum of one dollar, and to keep the memorials and other stones on the lots in the cemetery in an erect and proper position at no expense to the defendant, and to furnish, at plaintiff’s cost, the foundations for gravestones and memorials whenever it became necessary to set up, re ⁶⁵⁶ pair, or renew the same, and to supply a horse for such work as the cemetery needed. The defendant submitted this proposal to the plaintiff on or about March 6th, 1921, and on the same day the plaintiff accepted it, but no paper writing of any description passed between them or was executed, but it is alleged that the substance of the agreement was recorded in the minute book of the defendant on or about March 7th, 1921. In pursuance of this agreement, the plaintiff built, on or about March 28th, 1921, on the aforesaid parcel of land, a fireproof hollow tile building, whose dimensions are seventeen feet by thirty-two feet, at a cost to the plaintiff of about $1,900. This was done with the knowledge of the defendant, as was, also, his subsequent continuous occupancy of the premises for the purposes of his business until the filing of the pending bill of complaint, a period of over six years, during which he has done, at no expense to the defendant, all the things which he undertook, and which furnished, in part, the consideration for the renting.

However, on May 2nd, 1927, at its corporate meeting, the defendant presented to the plaintiff for execution an agreement in writing whereby the defendant was to lease the premises then occupied by the plaintiff as his marble yard for the space of two years from March 1st, 1927, at a monthly rental of thirty-five dollars accounting from that date and the performance of many of the things agreed in the alleged original renting. It is unnecessary to set out the details of the proposed lease, which the plaintiff declined to sign, as it was materially different from that of March, 1921, under which the plaintiff asserted a right of possession. In rejecting the lease proposed, the plaintiff called the defendant’s attention to the fact that the substance of the agreement under which he was holding had been recorded among its minutes; and that he had fully performed all his obligations thereunder. He requested the record be readj but the defendant refused.

The bill of complaint then sets forth that, notwithstanding the facts alleged and that the term of ten years had not ⁶⁵⁷ expired, the defendant began an action about May 16th, 1927, in the People’s Court of Baltimore City, to eject the plaintiff from the premises and to recover rent alleged to be due in the sum of one hundred and five dollars; and recovered on May J 8th, 1927, a judgment for the amount named, with interest and costs, and for the restitution of possession of the premises. On June 6th, 1927, the defendant began a similar proceeding in the same court, and on June 8th the defendant obtained a judgment for the sum of thirty-five dollars, the monthly rent claimed to be due, with interest and costs, and for the restitution of possession of the premises. In both of these cases the tenant appealed and gave appeal bonds, and the cases were still pending for trial in the Baltimore City Court when the bill of complaint was filed in the suit at bar. The complaint is further made that the plaintiff is without remedy at law, and that the loss of the unexpired term of the alleged lease for ten years would, in view of his business being established on its present location and his expenditure of over nineteen hundred dollars in making the improvements, be a great loss and injury to the plaintiff.

The bill prays that the oral contract be