Hagerty v. McGovern
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Bill in equity, filed November 25, 1901, and amended March 10, 1902, by the owner of a house and lot numbered 42 on Francis Street in Boston to restrain the owner of the adjacent lot, No. 40 Francis Street, from building a house on it with a wooden wall within three feet of the boundary line between the lots of the plaintiff and the defendant.
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Bill in equity, filed November 25, 1901, and amended March 10, 1902, by the owner of a house and lot numbered 42 on Francis Street in Boston to restrain the owner of the adjacent lot, No. 40 Francis Street, from building a house on it with a wooden wall within three feet of the boundary line between the lots of the plaintiff and the defendant. The ordinance referred to is as follows, Revised Ordinances of Boston, c. 45, §34: “Every such wooden building hereafter erected or altered to be used as a dwelling house, shall not be more than forty-five feet in height above the highest street level…
1Opinion of the CourtBarker, J.
The wooden side wall of the defendant’s house had no greater tendency to cause a lack of air or light at the plaintiff’s premises, or to confine upon them or to in any way cause there noxious odors and disturbing noises than a wall of brick or stone which the defendant lawfully might have put where he did put the wooden wall. The wooden wall would be less of a protection in case of fire, and even might be a source of danger in that respect. But the use of land for building is one of the in*480cidents of ownership. The erection upon it of structures which in themselves are not noxious or unusually…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Jenks v. WilliamsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
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