Maddox v. White

Ecclestos, J., delivered the opinion of this court. The bill in this case was filed on the equity side of Baltimore county court, by the appellee against the appellants. It states that the complainant, as the owner of a building in the city of Baltimore, which for some time had been, and still was, used as a post office, on the first day of June 1848, demised several apartments of the building to James M. Buchanan, then postmaster of the United States for the city of Baltimore. The demise being for the term of four years from the 1st of July ensuing.

That it was stipulated that the premises should be used as the Baltimore post office ; and that at the expiration of the term, the premises should be restored to the possession of the complainant, in the order and condition they were when demised, reasonable wear and tear excepted. That in virtue of this contract Buchanan, as postmaster, entered upon or retained possession of the premises, and continued to use the same for the purposes of a post office, from the 1st of July 1848, until some time during the year after; ⁷⁷ ■when he resigned or was removed from the office of postmaster, and the defendant, Maddox, was appointed his successor. Whereupon Maddox, as postmaster, and in virtue thereof, assignee of Buchanan, entered upon the premises, and was accepted as tenant of the same, by the complainant, and occupied the demised property as a post office until about the month of August 1851, at which time Maddox removed the post office, and placed the premises, or the principal part thereof, in the possession of the defendant Aur, with directions or authority to the said Aur, to convert and use the same for the purposes of a beer establishment, or depot for the sale of beer and other fermented liquors. And the bill avers, that at the time of filing the same, Aur, claiming as assignee of Maddox, was actually engaged in tearing down partitions and committing other material waste and injury to the properly, and making alterations in the arrangement thereof, with a view of fitting it up for the purposes of preparing and selling beer and other fermented liquors ; and that he avowed his purpose of establishing and opening a depot or place for sale of such liquors, as soon as he could make the necessary alterations- And the complainant insists, that by the terms of the agreement, the demised premises were to be used as a post office exclusively, and the appropriation thereof to a different purpose, would be a fraud on the agreement; that the alterations proposed to be made would materially injure the property, and lessen its value, and directly violate the stipulation requiring the premises to be restored in like order and condition as at the time of the demise j that the conversion thereof to the purposes intended by Aur, would be exceedingly offensive and a nuisance to the complainant and his family, who reside in an adjacent building, and to his tenants occupying parts of the same building ; and he apprehended he would lose those tenants and be compelled to leave the premises occupied by them vacant, or appropriate them to other purposes.

The bill prays for an injunction to restrain the defendants from using the demised property for any other purposes than those of a post office — and especially from altering or changing the order or condition thereof, by tearing down partitions or ⁷⁸ other fixtures, or making repairs or erections thereon, to fit the same for the purposes of a depot, for the manufacture, preparation or sale of beer, or other fermented