# In re City of New York

> Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · December 11, 1939 · 258 A.D. 191

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5360509

## Case

- **Full name:** In the Matter of the Application of The City of New York, etc., Relative to Acquiring Title to Real Property, etc., Situated on the Southwesterly Side of Jamaica Bay, etc., Borough of Brooklyn. Gerritsen Basin Development Corporation, John Vanderveer, J. Duffield Prince, etc., Henry D. Lott, etc., and Harriet S. Lott, etc., Appellants The City of New York, (Jamaica Bay Proceeding No. 1.) In the Matter of the Application of The City of New York, Acting by and through the Commissioner of Docks, Relative to Acquiring Title to Lands, etc., Situated on the Southwesterly Side of Jamaica Bay, etc. Helena K. Wyeth and Others, Appellants The City of New York, (Jamaica Bay Proceeding No. 1.) In the Matter of the Application of The City of New York, etc., Relative to Acquiring Title to Real Property, etc., Being Part of Oraboss and Bushes Meadows, etc., Borough of Brooklyn. Gerritsen Basin Development Corporation, Appellant The City of New York, (Jamaica Bay Proceeding No. 2.) In the Matter of the Application of The City of New York, Acting by and through the Commissioner of Docks, Relative to Acquiring Title to Lands, etc., Forming Part of Oraboss Meadows and Bushes Meadows, etc. Helena K. Wyeth and Others, Appellants The City of New York, (Jamaica Bay Proceeding No. 2.) In the Matter of Acquiring Title by The City of New York to Certain Lands, etc., on the Southerly Side of Marine 15th Street, etc., for Park Purposes, in the Borough of Brooklyn, as an Addition to Marine Park. Gerritsen Basin Development Corporation, Tidewater Investing Corporation and Tristram W. Metcalfe, Appellants The City of New York, (Addition to Marine Park Proceeding.) In the Matter of Acquiring Title by The City of New York to the Area Bounded by Marine 15th Street, etc., for Park Purposes in Connection with the Development of Marine Park, in the Borough of Brooklyn, etc. Helena K. Wyeth and Others, Appellants The City of New York, (Addition to Marine Park Proceeding.)
- **Court:** Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
- **Decided:** December 11, 1939
- **Citations:** 258 A.D. 191; 18 N.Y.S.2d 743; 1939 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6396
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Taylor
- **Judges:** Carswell, Close, Hagarty, Lazansky, Taylor
- **Cited by:** 2 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5360509

## Opinion text

Taylor, J. (concurring).
In relation to the claims to awards, of the appellant Gerritsen Basin Development Corporation, for real property taken within the confines of the so-called “ broken lands,” which claims are based upon that appellant’s contention that the Dutch grant of 1636 included such “ broken lands,” I am of opinion that the following additional considerations fortify the conclusion of my brother Close that such grant did not include those lands but did include only a “ flat ” on the mainland of Long Island. It did not include the marshy islands and land under water constituting the broken lands lying between the mainland and the ocean on the south. Such a grant must be construed strictly against the grantee. (People v. Foote, 242 App. Div. 162 ; 273 N. Y. 629 ; certiorari denied, 302 U. S. 760 .) Thus construed, the land conveyed is on Long Island only. Further, the Dutch grant is in effect an ambiguous contract as far as the description therein is concerned. Practical construction of that contract by the parties thereto and their successors in title or interest, as shown by their acts or omissions in relation to the real property, aids in the interpretation of the description in the grant. The conduct of the said appellants’ alleged predecessors in title, as disclosed in the record, for an impressively long period of time — nearly 300 years — shows that they recognized that the land conveyed in the grant was mainland only. “ The practical interpretation of an agreement by a party to it is always a consideration of great weight. * * * There is no surer way to find out what parties meant, than to see what they have done.” (Insurance Go. v. Dutcher, 95 U. S. 269, 273 ; vide also Zimmermann v. Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Go., 246 App. Div. 306, 315 ; affd., 272 N. Y. 566 .)

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5360509. Public record. Not legal advice.