Star Island Associates v. City of St. Petersburg Beach, s. 82-1696

Citation433 So.2d 998
Decision Date27 May 1983
Docket NumberNos. 82-1696,82-1904,s. 82-1696
PartiesSTAR ISLAND ASSOCIATES, a general partnership, and Citicorp Real Estate, Inc., a Delaware corporation, Appellants, v. CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG BEACH, Florida, for itself and as successor in interest to the Long Key Sewer District, Appellee.
CourtCourt of Appeal of Florida (US)

Guy M. Burns of Jacobs, Robbins, Gaynor, Hampp, Burns, Cole & Shasteen, P.A., St. Petersburg, for appellants.

Gerald R. Colen of Devito, Forlizzo & Reese, St. Petersburg, for appellee.

LEHAN, Judge.

Star Island Associates, a general partnership, and Citicorp Real Estate, Inc. appeal from a summary final judgment granted to the plaintiff, City of St. Petersburg Beach (hereinafter the "City"), on the issue of whether the City has an easement over property owned by Star Island. Citicorp holds a mortgage on a portion of the affected property. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

The City filed suit seeking declaratory relief principally in the form of a 60-foot wide easement through approximately the middle of property owned by Star Island on which Star Island was constructing a condominium development. The City's amended complaint requested relief under one or more of the following five theories: (1) express easement by grant; (2) express easement by deed; (3) express or implied dedication; (4) implied grant by way of necessity; and (5) estoppel to deny dedication. In the summary judgment for the City, the trial court found that over a particular portion of the property (1) a public road existed, (2) a private road existed by virtue of an express grant to the City by Star Island's predecessors-in-title, and (3) a way of necessity existed.

FACTS

The property in dispute is situated in Pinellas County on a finger of land jutting in a northerly direction off the causeway that runs from Pasadena Avenue to St. Petersburg Beach. At the northerly tip of the finger the City owns land on which it operates a sewage treatment plant. Star Island owns ll the land between the City's property and the causeway.

Prior to the 1950's, this finger of land did not exist. The entire area was submerged except for a mangrove clump and a few sandbars. The City of St. Petersburg Beach did not exist either. Various small municipalities were located on Long Key In the early 1950's, most of the property that Star Island now owns consisted of two parcels owned by Gerald and Gladys Matthews and by Dr. McEwan. The Matthews tract lay east of the McEwan tract, and both parcels adjoined the LKSD property on their northern boundaries. In 1956 the LKSD made an agreement with the Matthews, who were planning to fill their submerged property. This agreement, known as "the Matthews agreement," was recorded in the public records of Pinellas County. Among other things, the Matthews agreement made provision for connecting the Matthews and LKSD parcels of land, which were to occupy neighboring islands, to each other by a causeway. Paragraph 5 of the agreement also provided, "so that the District [LKSD] may have land access to the sewer plant, Matthews agrees that upon construction of the Matthews fill, Matthews shall allow the District to have ingress and egress over the streets of the Matthews fill without cost to the District." At the time of this agreement, neither the LKSD parcel nor the Matthews parcel had any land access to the mainland or to Long Key.

where the City now exists. To provide sewer services for these municipalities, the Long Key Sewer District ("LKSD") was formed. The LKSD acquired title in 1955 and 1956 to certain of the submerged land and began filling it to build a sewage treatment plant there.

In 1958 ownership of the Matthews property and also the adjacent McEwan property was transferred to Leslynn, Inc., which conducted fill operations. Unrecorded agreements were entered into in 1958 and 1964 between Leslynn and LKSD pertaining to roadways and access across the Leslynn fill. The 1958 agreement provided that, after completion of bridges from the fills to Long Key or to the mainland, Leslynn would provide "service access" across the Leslynn fill to the sewer plant site. The agreement also provided that, after the Leslynn fill was platted, Leslynn would dedicate a road right-of-way and construct a road thereon. The Leslynn fill, however, was never platted.

In the 1958 agreement, LKSD agreed to convey to Leslynn a portion of the causeway, to run in a generally north-south direction, that would connect the Leslynn fill to the LKSD fill. In the 1964 agreement, however, the parties agreed that the eastern part of the causeway would be conveyed by LKSD to Robert E. Lee Company ("Lee") which had done work for Leslynn, instead of to Leslynn as previously agreed. LKSD deeded the western half of the causeway to Leslynn and the eastern half to Lee. These deeds each reserved to LKSD a 25-foot easement which combined to form a 50-foot easement down the approximate center of the causeway.

The City of St. Petersburg Beach became the owner of the LKSD property in 1966 and took over the operation of the sewer plant. Also in that year the first permanent land access to the two islands became available because of the construction of a new causeway connecting the City of South Pasadena to the City of St. Petersburg Beach. The new causeway crossed the south end of the Leslynn parcel, and vehicles traveled from that causeway to the sewer plant via a dirt path on the eastern edge of the Leslynn fill and then across the causeway between the two islands which had made the islands, in effect, one island.

In early 1968 an easement over the Leslynn property was given to the City of St. Petersburg (not Appellee City of St. Petersburg Beach) for the purpose of installing and maintaining water lines and other utilities. The easement was given because in 1967 all of the island, except the sewer plant site, had been annexed to the City of South Pasadena, which acquired its utility services from the City of St. Petersburg. The easement transgresses the Leslynn fill in a north-south direction and connects with the above-mentioned 50-foot easement reserved by LKSD on the causeway portion of the property connecting the formerly separate islands.

Later in 1968 the Leslynn property was distributed to Leslynn shareholders by deeds from the First National Bank of St. Petersburg, as Trustee. The deed for the In 1969, pursuant to the easement given in the 1968 utility easement agreement, the City of St. Petersburg installed a water line along that easement. After that water line installation was completed, vehicles began using the pathway created by the installation because it provided a more direct route between the sewer plant site and the access point from the new causeway on the south end of the island. Vehicles also continued to use the path on the eastern edge of the island.

parcel on the west side of the causeway connecting the formerly separate islands was made subject to, and specifically refers to, the existing 25-foot easement previously reserved to LKSD. The southern portion of the island (the former McEwan and Matthews tracts) was deeded by First National Bank to two grantees. Each of the two deeds recited that the conveyance was "subject to a road easement" of 30 feet. The deeds do not refer to any prior instrument purporting to create such an easement, nor do the deeds identify the location of the easement.

In 1973 the City and another owner of land on the island agreed to pave the 50-foot easement on the northern portion of the island (the causeway connecting the former two islands). The city also graded the utility easement on the southern part of the island and covered that pathway with a shell base. The City began using that road to move heavy equipment over the island to be stored on the sewer plant site.

In 1979, when Star Island acquired virtually all the property on the island except the sewer plant site, two routes of access to the sewer plant were evident--one running along the eastern edge of the island and the other running down the approximate center of the island over the utility easement.

Star Island began development of a luxury condominium project on the island. The City then filed this action seeking declaratory relief to establish an easement across Star Island's property to the sewer plant site. Star Island does not dispute the existence of a 50-foot easement over the northern "causeway" portion of the island, as created in the deeds from LKSD to Lee and Leslynn. The only dispute is about the City's right of access across the southern portion of the island (the former McEwan and Matthews tracts).

In its final summary judgment the trial court awarded the City access across Star Island's property based upon findings of the existence of a private road, a public road, and a way of necessity. The court found that all three ran over the land described in the 1968 utility easement given to the City of St. Petersburg. Each of the three theories are hereinafter discussed separately. In addition, we discuss what we view as controlling aspects of the Matthews agreement. Although we cannot affirm on any of the three theories used below, we find that the Matthews agreement did give rights of access over the Star Island property to LKSD and its successor, the City of St. Petersburg Beach.

WAY OF NECESSITY

To prove an easement of necessity, the claimant must show that (1) the two parcels of land (here the sewer plant property and the Star Island property) derive from a common grantor; (2) the only practical and reasonable means of ingress from a public road to the claimant's (the City's) land is across the property of which it was once a part; (3) the action of the common grantor in dividing his property created the circumstances referred to in (2); and (4) the requested means of access to a public road existed at the time of conveyance...

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