Case ID: njl_102/html/0026-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Gummere, Chief Justice.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PETER SCOLA, PROSECUTOR, v. WILLIAM H. SENIOR, INSPECTOR OF BUILDINGS OF THE TOWN OF MONTCLAIR, AND THE BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT OF MONTCLAIR, RESPONDENTS.
    Submitted March 21, 1925
    Decided November 10, 1925.
    An order by the board of adjustment of a municipality authorizing the owner of a lot, located at the corner of two streets, to erect thereon a building of a specified character, but requiring that the two outside walls thereof shall be, respectively, fifteen and seven feet from the exterior lines of said streets, is invalid so far as the attempted limitation of the user of his premises by the lot owner is concerned.
    On certiorari.
    
    Before Gummere, Chief Justice, sitting alone, pursuant to the statute.
    For the prosecutor, Reed & Reynolds.
    
    For the defendants, George S. Harris.
    
   The opinion, of the court was delivered by

Gummere, Chief Justice.

That the sole ground upon which the refusal of the inspector of buildings to grant the prosecutor’s application was rested afforded no legal basis for his action has been determined by numerous decisions, both of this court and the Court of Errors and Appeals.

As to the action of the board of adjustment in attempting to curtail the full enjoi-ment and user of the prosecutor’s property by prohibiting him from erecting his building within fifteen feet of the exterior line of Walnut street, or within seven feet of the exterior line of Pine street, it is enough to say that an arbitrary limitation of this kind upon the prosecutor’s user of his premises was without legal justification, and therefore invalid. Passaic v. Paterson Bill Posting Co., 72 N. J. L. 285; Romar Realty Co. v. Haddonfield, 96 Id., 117.

For the reason expressed the order of the board of adjustment, so far as it undertakes to limit the location of his proposed building by the prosecutor, in the manner indicated therein, will be vacated and annulled.