EQUITY-LACHES AND ESTOPPEL AS BARRING EQUITABLE RELIEF IN PROTECTION OF AN EASEMENT

Grantors had conveyed to plaintiff a certain lot in a subdivision with a provision "leaving a street sixty feet wide between Block Five . . . and the . . . tract herein conveyed." A plat of the addition, showing the street, had also been filed. Subsequently, the grantors conveyed to the defendant the land theretofore comprising the street. Construction on that land was begun and seventy-two days later when the building was 40 per cent completed and represented an expenditure of $2,000, plaintiff filed a suit to restrain interference with his easement, serving notice thereof on the defendant the same day. The trial court denied plaintiff an injunction on the ground that he was estopped by his delay in seeking equitable relief.

On appeal, held, affirmed. Though the easement may be recognized, equitable relief by injunction was properly denied. Hamilton v. Smith, (Ark. 1948) 208 S.W. (2d) 425.