Hopkins v. Neal

²⁵² Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The controversy in this case relates to the ownership of a parcel of land, containing about an acre, lying along the Choptank River, in the suburbs of Cambridge, and designated by the letter A on the accompanying diagram. The question is whether the land in dispute belongs to the appellee, Joseph H. Neal, as being included, with the lot'marked on the plat by his name, in the conveyance under which he claims^ or whether the appellant, Carlton M. Slagle, is entitled to it by virtue of its adverse and prescriptive use in connection with his adjoining ground to the west. All of the lots indicated on the diagram were originally embraced in a farm owned by Samuel L. Byrn and known by the name of Oakley.

On July 30th, 1874, Mr. Byrn conveyed to Sophia A. Moody the parcel of land designated on the plat as the “Moody Lot,” and the same day he deeded the ground indicated as the “Slagle Lot” to Alfred R. Buckner, the predecessor in title of its present owner. In'1895, after certain intermediate conveyances not exhibited in the case, William D. Hopkins, who had acquired the portion of Oakley farm not previously disposed of, conveyed to the appellee, Mr. Neal, the lot bearing his name on the plat and claimed by him to include also the ground in dispute. By this deed the northern line of the lot intended to be granted was described as running from its northwest comer, as shown on the plat, by and with the line of Joseph H. Johnson (who then owned the Slagle lot and other land on its western side), “in a northeasterly direction to the Choptank River.” The written contract of sale which provided for the last mentioned conveyance described the lot as being bounded by the lands of Joseph H. Johnson on the north and west and by the Choptank River on the north and east. This description is claimed by the appellee to be broad enough to embrace the area now contested, but the deed executed in pursuance of the contract could not well be regarded as having such a comprehensive effect. ²⁵³ While the deed of Samuel L. Byrn, the original grantor,, described the Lot now owned by Mr. Slagle according to the outlines shown on the plat, and which did not include the ground in controversy, there is evidence, which we will later discuss, to the effect that the parties to the grant treated it as extending to the river, and that the successive grantees of the lot used the water front area for purposes to which it. ²⁵⁴ was adapted.

In 1887 the lot was conveyed to Joseph H. Johnson by a description which called for the river as the eastern boundary, and it was similarly described in Mr. J ohnson’s deed of December 12, 1900, to Mary J. Small, and in her deed to Mr. Slagle, which was executed sometime in the summer of 1913, the precise date not appearing in the record. On November 3, 1913, the appellee, Mr. Neal, had a survey made of the Slagle lot from the description contained in the original deed from Samuel L. Byrn, and then, as he testifies, learned the location of its eastern outlines for the first time. Upon the basis of this information he disputed Mr. Slagle’s claim of ownership of the strip of land bordering on the river and, after the failure of some negotiations for a settlement, proceeded to file the pending hill of complaint. The primary theory of the bill is that William D. Hopkins was the owner of the disputed ground at the time of the execution of his contract of sale in 1895, that it was the intent of the agreement, as shown by its terms, to sell and convey to the appellee all the land of the vendor hounded on the northeast and northwest by the Choptank River and the lot then owned by Joseph H. Johnson, that the strip along the river was within the limits thus defined, and that the description incorporated in the deed, which established the northern line of the lot conveyed as being an extension of the southern Johnson line to the river, involved a manifest and mutual mistake on account of which the plaintiff was entitled to have the deed reformed.

Prior to the filing of the bill Mr. Slagle had obtained from Mr. Hopkins a conveyance of any interest the latter might he supposed to have in the land, and it was proposed by the bill that this deed he vacated. When Mr. Neal acquired his title from Mr. Hopkins in 1895, there had been for eight years on the public land records a deed purporting to include and convey the ground in question as part of the adjoining lot on the north. It was testified by Mr. Hopkins that while the purpose of his deed was to convey all the land he actually owned in the angle ²⁵⁵ formed by tbe Johnson lot and the Choptank River, his understanding was that he had no title to any of the ground beyond the southern line of that lot as projected to the river, .and he stated that this division between his own and the adjoining lot was marked by a wire fence. According to his view there was no error in his deed to Mr. Heal and it correctly described the entire lot which the grantor owned and •could convey. , Samuel L. Bym, the common grantor from whom the titles to all the lots referred to were derived, died in 1878, hut his son, William W. Bym was a witness in the case and testified that after the sale and conveyance in 1877 of the lot now owned by Mr. Slagle, his father constructed a fence along a part of the course of the southern line of the lot as extended to the river, the remainder of the distance being occupied by a pond and by a fence previously erected.

Tbe witness stated tbat bis father retained in bis possession no part of the land lying north of the line just described, and that Mr. Buckner, who was a waterman, built a bouse on tbe lot about forty feet from the river shore. This house was shown by other proof to have stood only a few inches west of the strip of land now in litigation. Mrs. Small, who •owned the Slagle lot from 1900 to 1913 testified that the southern line of the lot ran straight to the river and was marked by a wire supported by posts about a foot above the ground which she maintained for the purpose of a boundary. During her ownership, Mrs. Small said, she was in exclusive possession of the ground here sued for, using it for bleaching and painting boats, and for bathing on the beach which formed part of the area, most of it being a marsh, and that she kept in repair a wooden dike which Mr. Johnson, the preceding -owner, had constructed along part of the river front to protect the shore from washing.

Mr. Slagle stated in his testimony, that before purchasing the lot from Mrs. Small he asked Mr. Heal as to the location of