Fletcher v. Stapleton

KNIGHT, J.

This is an appeal by plaintiffs from a judgment entered in an action involving an easement for driveway purposes across the end of defendants’ lot. The controversy arose out of the following facts which are not disputed: Defendants were the owners of two adjoining, residential lots in Los Angeles, to wit: Lots 179 and 171 in tract 5832. As shown by the maps which are made part of the record herein, the block in which said lots were laid out was bounded on the east by St. George Street, which extended in a northerly direction along the easterly ends of lots 176, 177 and 178, and for a few feet along the easterly end of lot 179, turning thence easterly and extending along the easterly boundary of lot 14, which was triangular in shape and lay between St. George Street and the easterly end of lots 179 and 171, thereby cutting off lots 179 and 171

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from access to St. George Street, except for' a few feet of lot 179 bordering thereon. In April, 1925, defendants sold and conveyed by grant deed to plaintiffs lot 171, which ran back to and abutted on another street, named Monon Street, but in order to give plaintiffs access also to St. George Street defendants conveyed to them by the same instrument “a right of way and easement over the East ten (10) feet of Lot One Hundred Seventy-nine (179) of said Tract, for driveway purposes”. At that time neither St. George Street nor the lots had been graded or improved, the grade of the street adjacent to lot 179 being substantially on a level therewith. Soon after plaintiffs acquired lot 171, and in August, 192'5, they graded it so as to lower the level thereof four feet below the level of lot 179, and thereafter they constructed a dwelling thereon. While such construction work was going on plaintiffs obtained access to St. George Street over lot 14, with the permission of the owner thereof; and at no time did they attempt to use the easement across defendants’ lot. Later the city caused the grade of St. George Street to be lowered some seventeen feet below the level of lot 179, over which the right of way was granted; and the street was paved. After the street work was finished defendants graded lot 179 down to an elevation of about nine feet above the street level, and soon afterward constructed a two-story dwelling thereon. As a result of the foregoing physical changes the northerly end of the ten-foot strip of land over which the right of way was granted was left four feet above the level of plaintiffs’ lot and the southerly end was left nine feet above the level of St. George Street. For those reasons plaintiffs were unable to use the same for any purpose; whereupon they asked defendants if they would buy a portion of lot 14 so as to provide plaintiffs with access to St. George Street, which defendants declined to do. Plaintiffs then stated that they would insist on using the right of way called for by the deed, and defendants replied: “ . . . there it is, go ahead and use it”; but on account of the conditions mentioned plaintiffs could not do so. Shortly afterward the owner of lot 14 informed plaintiffs and defendants that unless they purchased the portions of lot 14 they were then using for rights of way the lot would be utilized for building purposes; whereupon, and in January, 1928, plaintiffs purchased a twelve-foot strip