Solomons Island Yacht Club, Inc. v. Elliott

Powers, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellant here, Solomons Island Yacht Club, Incorporated, sued Paul X. Elliott and Mary L. Elliott, appellees here, in the Circuit Court for Calvert County, for trespass to real estate. The suit put in issue the title of the parties to a disputed strip of land along the common boundary of adjoining parcels in Solomons Island owned by the respective parties. The declaration contained a technical claim for damages, but no damages were sought.

The suit was a typical use of the common law action of trespass q.c.f. to try the issue of a disputed title to real estate. 1 Poe, Pleading and Practice (Tiffany ed. 1925) § 244, Rosencrantz v. Shields, Inc., 28 Md. App. 379 , 346 A. 2d 237 (1975). After the parties thought they had reached a settlement, a judgment was entered by agreement. The settlement was aborted, however, and upon motion and hearing, the judgment was stricken and the case was restored to the trial calendar. Trial was held before a jury and Judge Perry G. Bowen, Jr., in the Circuit Court for Calvert County.

At the close of all of the evidence the trial judge denied a motion by the Elliotts for a directed verdict in their favor, and reserved ruling on a motion by the Yacht Club for a directed verdict in its favor. Instructions were given by the court and arguments were made by counsel. The jury returned a verdict for the defendants. After the court denied a motion by the Yacht Club for judgment n.o.v. a final judgment was entered on the verdict.

The appeal is from that judgment. The sole issue raised here by the Yaeht Club is whether the court erred in denying its motion for a directed verdict. We hold that it was error to deny the motion. We shall reverse the judgment appealed from, and enter a final judgment in favor of the appellant.

A review of the evidence shows that the Yacht Club and the Elliotts each own a parcel of land fronting on Route #2 in Solomons Island. The Elliott parcel lies immediately south of the Yacht Club parcel along the road frontage. The Yacht Club parcel extends several hundred feet to the rear, which ⁵¹⁰ borders on Mill Creek. The Elliott parcel extends back from the public road a distance, according to one measurement, of 76 feet, and, according to another measurement, of 78.51 feet.

The width of the Elliott parcel is approximately 60 feet, or slightly more, depending on the resolution of the dispute. Evidence of the titles and of the location of both parcels came in through a Title Abstractor and through two Registered Land Surveyors, all of whom were conceded to be experts. There wag no material dispute as to any of their evidence. One of the exhibits is a plat prepared by a registered land surveyor which purports to show Lots 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, as laid out in a plat prepared about 1870 by one Thomas R. Grover.

The Grover plat is not now available in the Land Records and no known copy exists. 1 All of those lots fronton a public road, now Maryland Route 2, and extend back to Mill Creek, a distance on the order of 250 to 300 feet. We are concerned in this case only with Lots 19 and 20. The frontage on the public road of the Yacht Club property is made up of most, but not all, of the original frontage of Lot 19. The frontage of the Elliott parcel, immediately south, is made up of all of the original frontage of Lot 20, plus part of the original frontage of Lot 19.

How much of the Lot 19 frontage is the subject of the dispute in this case. ^{511 512} The last common titleholder was Fuller E. Stevens and wife, who by deed dated 25 August 1881 conveyed to Emma Sedwick Lots 20 and 21, .as shown on the Grover plat and as described by courses and distances in the deed, but excepting from that conveyance “that portion of Lot No. 20 which was conveyed by the aforesaid Fuller E. Stevens to Ada A. Crockett by deed dated the 27th day of October 1879”. The ■deed from Mr. and Mrs. Stevens recited that he obtained Lots 20 and 21 by deed from Philip W. Snowden, trustee, in 1875. By another deed of the same date, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and others conveyed to Emma Sedwick their right, title, interest, and estate in Lot No. 19, as shown on the Grover plat, also described in the deed by courses and distances. The evidence also disclosed that many land records of Calvert County had been destroyed by a fire in the Courthouse in 1882, and the two deeds we have just referred to were re-recorded thereafter.

The conveyance of a part of Lot 20 to Ada A. Crockett was not re-recorded, but a description is available from a later conveyance. The evidence contains a deed made on 10 January 1888 by Ada A, Crockett and William H. Crockett to William E. Littrell, conveying “the same land which the said Ada A. Crockett obtained from Fuller E. Stevens by deed dated on the 27th day of October 1879”, and describing the property as: “Beginning for the same at a stone planted on the North west corner of Lot No 20 and running as follows, North 68° East 4 perches to a stone, thence South 24° East 3V4 perches to a Stone, thence South 68° West 4 perches to a stone, thence North 24° West 3V4 perches to the beginning (being a part of Lot No 20) in fee simple.” 2 ⁵¹³ The Yacht Club Title Pursuant to a decree in equity, Joseph S. Wilson, as trustee, conveyed to William Kopp, by deed dated 12 February 1889, the real estate owned by Emma Sedwick at the time of her death, described in the deed as Lots 21, 19, and part of 20, as shown on a plat made by Thomas R. Grover in 1870. We follow the conveyance by Joseph S. Wilson to William Kopp down through the records as the source of the Yacht Club title to the property in dispute. After the death of William Kopp in May, 1908, intestate, his heirs, by deed dated 14 June 1916, conveyed to William H. Kopp Lots 19, 20, 21 and 22, as shown on the Grover plat, excepting from Lot 20 that portion of Lot 20 conveyed by Stevens to Crockett in 1879.

This deed refers to the first three lots as having been conveyed to William Kopp by the 1889 deed. By two straw deeds dated 30 March 1937 William H. Kopp, joined by his wife, conveyed all of the property previously conveyed to William H. Kopp, along with other property, to William H. Condiff, who, joined by his wife, reconveyed to William H. Kopp and Maude Kopp as tenants by the entireties. By deed dated 28 October 1944, William H. Kopp and Maude Kopp conveyed to Solomons Island Yacht Club, Incorporated, a part of the land conveyed to them by the Condiff deed, by a description which, in part, follows the east boundary and the north boundary of what was then described as William E. Selby’s lot. There has been no conveyance out by the Yacht Club since its acquisition of the property by this deed.

The Elliott Title We now follow the Crockett to Littrell conveyance, which first appeared as an exception of part of Lot 20 in the deed from Stevens to Sedwick, down to the present as the source of the Elliott title. Title to that part of Lot 20 conveyed to Ada A. Crockett by Fuller E. Stevens, by deed of 27 October 1879, and which was conveyed by Ada A. Crockett and husband to William E. ⁵¹⁴ Littrell by deed dated 10 January 1888, was, by deed dated 31 March 1900,- conveyed by William E. Littrell and Annie V. Littrell, his wife, to Joseph C. Webster. The deed contained the following description and reference: “Beginning for the same at a stone planted on the Northwest Corner of Lot No 20 and from thence running North 68° East 4 perches to a stone; thence South 24° East 33A perches to a stone; thence South 68° West 4 perches to a stone; thence North 24° West 33A perches to the place of beginning (being a part of Lot No. 20). The same being the lot or parcel of land which William E. Littrell obtained from William Crockett and wife by deed dated the tenth day of January in the year 1888 * * * » Subsequent conveyances of the same property were made by Joseph C. Webster to Benjamin W. Denton by deed dated 3 August 1904; by Benjamin W. Denton and wife to William E. Selby by deed dated 15 June 1926; by William E. Selby and wife to William Preston Lore and