City of Los Angeles v. Jameson

SHINN, P. J.

The present action is by the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for a mandatory injunction compelling two adjoining landowners to remove chain link fences which they had erected around the rear and side boundaries of their respective lots in •North Hollywood: The court made findings'and entered judgment ordering the fences removed. Defendants appeal.

[353]

By grant deed dated January 6, 1913, appellants’ predecessor in title granted to the city a permanent easement and . right of way across what is now the easterly half of Lot 26, Tract 2755 (now owned by appellant Jameson) and what is now the westerly half of Lot 25 (now owned by appellant B. Pecel

&

Sons, Inc.) for the purpose of constructing, maintaining and operating an electric power line or lines. The easement is in a strip of land, 150 feet wide, which runs diagonally across the rear of each lot in a southeasterly direction. Included in the grant were “all necessary and convenient means of ingress and egress to and from said right of way for the purpose of maintaining, repairing, or renewing such line or lines;

reserving however,

unto said grantor all such pastoral, agricultural, and mineral rights on, in, or to said strip of land as shall not interfere with, or prevent, the full and perfect use and enjoyment by said The City of Los Angeles of the rights and easements hereinabove described.”

Appellant Jameson operates a machine shop and an automobile parts manufacturing business on his half of Lot 26; appellant B. Pecel and Sons, Inc., is engaged in the sewer contracting business on its half of Lot 25. In 1948, appellants erected chain link fences around the rear and side boundaries of their respective parcels; the fences enclosed a substantial portion of the right of way. The department of water and power constructed towers and poles for power lines upon the right of way between 1950 and 1954. None of these is within the enclosed area, but five of the department’s power circuits, consisting of 15 wires, pass over the fences.

In 1955, plaintiffs brought separate suits against Jameson and Pecel to quiet title to the easement, for declaratory relief, and for injunctions compelling defendants to remove automobiles, trucks, machinery, and oil drums, etc., which they were then storing upon the right of way; the complaint did not seek removal of the fences. Plaintiffs obtained a default judgment against Jameson and judgment by stipulation in the action against Pecel. The judgment decreed, in part, that the city is the owner of a “permanent and unobstructed easement and right of way” in, over and across the strip of land described in the 1913 deed, and that the objects stored on the right of way were substantial and unreasonable obstructions to the operation and maintenance of plaintiffs’ electric power facilities. Appellants were enjoined from maintaining such ‘ ‘ or any other ’ ’ obstructions within the boundaries of the right