Eastman

This is an action to quiet plaintiff’s title to an casement in a roadway over defendant’s land and to restrain the defendant from interfering with plaintiff’s use thereof. Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff and defendant appeals.

The findings of fact indicate the issues presented for determination. The substance thereof is as follows: Plaintiff is the owner of the west half of lot G in block 12 of the Monrovia tract in the city of Monrovia. The easterly half of the lot, i. e., the easterly three hundred feet, is bounded on its easterly side by Magnolia Street. No other portion of the lot touches any public street or highway. Some time prior to November 8, 1917, one Samuel F. Moffit, who then was the owner of all of the lot, conveyed the easterly three hundred feet to one Harriette S. Belden, who, on the date last mentioned, conveyed that part of the lot to defendant. Prior to the convey ance to Belden a roadway ten feet in width along the southerly end of the easterly three hundred feet had been used by Moffit as a means of ingress and egress to and from the westerly half of the lot, the roadway connecting Moffit’s half of the lot with Magnolia Street. At the time when…

I dissent. I cannot adopt the construction placed upon the instrument which is set forth in the early part of the majority opinion. To me it appears to create a mere license. As a background upon which to consider specific parts of the paper, it is to be observed that in phraseology and structure it is of the most informal character. It has none of the technical marks of a formal grant, but appears as a mere letter from one person to another. It evidently was not drawn by one accustomed to the terminology of conveyancing, and the language employed in it is therefore not necessarily to be given a technical meaning.

Viewing from this standpoint the letter which one of the parties handed to the other, the construction which by the majority opinion is placed upon the word “grant” is to my mind unwarranted. In my opinion, fitting the word to the context of the instrument and viewing it as part of a paper loosely drawn by a layman, it imports no more than the word “allow,” the phrase in which it is employed then in effect reading “hereby allow the privilege.”

In my opinion the phrase “his heirs or assigns” need not be given the force ascribed to it in the majority opinion. It is quite…