Hanley v. Stulman

Prescott, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Mark P. Hanley, an owner as tenant in common with others, of a certain fee simple property located on the north side of Lincoln Avenue in the Village of Lutherville, Baltimore County, Maryland, brings this appeal. For a period of well over twenty years, the appellant, his co-tenants, residents of the vicinity, and the public generally had enjoyed the free and uninterrupted use of a road or way extending in ²⁷⁵ a general northerly direction from the easternmost end of a thoroughfare called Lincoln Avenue through the property now owned by the appellee, Edmondale Building Company, (Edmondale) to another thoroughfare named Seminary Avenue. The appellee, Edmondale, during the early months of 1955, began grading operations on the portion of its said property on which said road, or way, was located.

On May 9, 1955, before grading operations had reached said road, Claude S. Hanley, one of the appellant’s co-tenants, notified the appellee, Leonard Stulman, President of the other appellee, by letter that any attempt to close said road would be vigorously opposed by him and other interested parties, and on the same date had a professional photographer take a series of pictures of said road, showing its condition as of that date. Despite the aforesaid notice to the appellee, Leonard Stulman, the appellees continued grading operations and completely blocked and destroyed a portion of the aforesaid road and rendered it impassable. On May 23, 1955, the appellant filed a petition for an injunction to restrain the appellees from obstructing, blocking or destroying said road, and on the same date obtained an order requiring the appellees to show cause why an injunction to restrain them from interfering with said road should not issue. On May 26, 1955, a registered land surveyor employed by the appellant went upon the property for the purpose of obtaining a description by metes and bounds, courses and distances, of said road; but, due to the grading operation of the appellees, he was unable to locate the entire road but was able to locate said road for a distance of approximately 350 feet in a northerly direction through the southernmost portion of the appellee’s property, and for a distance of approximately 45 feet in a southerly direction from said Seminary Avenue through the northernmost portion of said property (appellant’s Exhibit No. 1).

On the same day, an answer was filed by the appellees which, in substance, denied the existence of any road on the said property of the appellee, Edmondale. At the trial, the appellant produced numerous witnesses who testified as to the existence and to the approximate ²⁷⁶ course of said road, and its use by the public generally for periods ranging from 23 to at least 45 years. He also offered the testimony of a professional photographer as to the existence and character of said road, together with the introduction of photographs taken by said photographer showing the existence and character of said road immediately before a portion thereof had been obstructed and destroyed by the appellees. . He further produced a registered land surveyor who had prepared a plat from an actual survey of said road made by him, showing the location of said road for a distance of 350 feet through the southernmost portion of the said property and for a distance of 45 feet in a southerly direction through the northernmost portion of said property, but was unable to locate, describe or plat the portion of said road lying between those points (45 feet south of Seminary Avenue and 350 feet north of the appellee’s southernmost property line) due to the fact that the grading operations of the appellees had completely obliterated all evidence of said road between those points.

No question of jurisdiction was raised in this Court, or in the Court below. Compare Punte v. Taylor, 189 Md. 102 , 53 A. 2d 773 . In his opinion, the Chancellor stated he was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, and he found as a matter of fact, that for considerably more than twenty years there was a road approximately ten feet in width leading from Lincoln Avenue and the Hanley property through the property now owned by Edmondale to Seminary Avenue, and that this road had been used adversely (including all the necessary factors to create a right-of-way by prescription) by the public, including the appellant. We think the evidence amply supports this finding.

However, after making this finding, the Chancellor determined that he could grant no