Parsons v. Miller
New York Supreme Court
Error from the Suffolk common pleas. Parsons sued Miller in a justice’s court in an action of trespass for taking and carrying away several loads of sea-weed from a place called Fire Place Beach.
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Error from the Suffolk common pleas. Parsons sued Miller in a justice’s court in an action of trespass for taking and carrying away several loads of sea-weed from a place called Fire Place Beach. The defendant pleaded the general issue, and gave notice with his plea that on the trial he would prove that he was an inhabitant of Easthampton, and that under a reservation contained in a deed of the Fire Place Beach, granted by the trustees of Easthampton to Benjamin Leek, bearing date 25th March, 1770, the inhabitants of Easthampton had the right of carting sea-weed from the Fire Place Beach. The…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court,
Savage, C. J.
There was no contradictory evidence nor disputed fact before the justice; nor any question of law but one, to wit, whether evidence of the usage of the people to cart sea-weed from Fire Place Beach wras admissible as evidence of the construction of the reservation in the deed. The justice decided that point correctly. Deeds are to be expounded by their terms where there is no ambiguity» and neither parol evidence nor usage can be admitted to vary or contradict a written instrument. 3 Johns. Cas. 4. 5 Wendell, 547. In Livingston v. Ten Broeck, 16 Johns. R. 23,…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Spencer v. FieldNew York Supreme Court · 1833
- Hosack v. College of Physicians & SurgeonsNew York Supreme Court · 1830
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