Fairrington v. Dyke Water Co.

SHENK, J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiffs from a judgment for the defendant in a suit for a mandatory injunction and to quiet title to real property. The appeal is on the judgment roll.

In December 1952 the defendant purchased a parcel of real property from Henry and Irma Fairrington. The escrow agreement provided in part: “The Sellers also give to the Buyers permission to erect a sign on Garden Grove Boulevard between the driveway and the sidewalk next to the Post Office Building.” The property described in the escrow agreement was owned and retained by the grantors until their deaths in September 1953. Thereafter, the defendant posted a sign on the property above described bearing the words “Dyke Water Company.” The sign was mounted on a 6% inch pipe embedded in a concrete foundation. The plaintiffs, heirs of Henry and Irma Fairrington, succeeded to the property upon which the sign was posted. Upon defendant’s refusal to remove the sign, the plaintiffs brought this suit for a mandatory injunction to require the defendant to remove it and to quiet title to the property.

The trial court found and concluded that the defendant purchased the property from the plaintiffs’ predecessors in

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interest in reliance upon the permission to erect a sign on the adjoining property; that the defendant expended money in its installation also in reliance upon the permission contained in the escrow agreement, but with full knowledge that the permission was a revocable license; that the sign “is a substantial benefit to the defendant in the carrying on of its business”; that the sign “constitutes no substantial detriment to Plaintiffs at the present time and does not interfere with any present or contemplated use of their property by them”; that the so-called license contained in the escrow agreement was revoked by the deaths of the grantors, and that “relief to plaintiffs should be withheld at this time by the Court sitting in equity.” The court retained jurisdiction to entertain future application by plaintiffs for injunctive relief. Judgment was entered accordingly.

The findings of fact upon which the conclusions of law and the judgment withholding relief apparently rest are those stating that the maintenance of the sign is a substantial benefit to the defendant’s business and that its continued presence neither constitutes a substantial detriment to the plaintiffs at present nor interferes with any present or contemplated use of the property by them.