Arnold Industries, Inc. v. Love, 20010266.
| Citation | 2002 UT 133,63 P.3d 721 |
| Decision Date | 31 December 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 20010266.,20010266. |
| Parties | ARNOLD INDUSTRIES, INC., a Utah corporation, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. William S. LOVE, Irene C. Love, individuals; Conmart, Inc., a Utah corporation; Salt Lake County, a political subdivision of the State of Utah; and Katie L. Dixon, individually and in her capacity as former Salt Lake County Recorder, Defendants and Appellees. William S. Love and Irene C. Love, Counterclaimants and Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. Arnold Industries, Inc., a Utah corporation; William J. Lowenberg; Western Management, a partnership; Smith, Halander, Smith and Associates, a partnership; Minson-Halander, Inc., a Utah corporation; H. Fred Smith; Roland W. Smith; Dale N. Minson; and Robert S. Halander, Counterclaimants and Third-Party Defendants. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Utah |
Sherman C. Young, Bill O. Heder, Provo, for Arnold Industries.
Ronald G. Russell, Salt Lake City, for William S. Love and Irene C. Love.
David E. Yocom, Kevan F. Smith, Salt Lake City, for Salt Lake County and Katie Dixon.
Blake T. Heiner, Salt Lake City, for William J. Lowenberg.
L. Benson Mabey, Salt Lake City, for Robert S. Halander, Dale N. Minson, Conmart, Western Management, Smith, Halander, Smith, and Associates, Minson-Halander, H. Fred Smith, Roland W. Smith.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, pro se.
Marilyn M. Henriksen, pro se.
U.S.A. General Services Administration, pro se.
¶ 1 Arnold Industries, Inc. ("Arnold") and William S. Love and Irene C. Love ("Love") filed cross-motions for summary judgment disputing an access easement across Arnold's property for the benefit of Love's adjoining property. The trial court granted Love's motion for summary judgment, following which Arnold filed an amended complaint adding claims against Salt Lake County and the County Recorder. The trial court granted the County's motion to dismiss. Arnold appeals.
¶ 2 Before 1975, the properties now owned by Arnold (the "Arnold Property") and Love (the "Love Property") were commonly owned by Western Management and its partners.1 The properties were separated in 1975, and until early 1982 both properties were owned by various combinations of four individuals, H. Fred Smith, Ronald W. Smith, Dale N. Minson, and Robert S. Halander, who sometimes appeared as owners in their individual capacities, sometimes as various corporations, and sometimes as Western Management, "A Partnership" or "a Utah general partnership." After the separation of the properties, the only access to a loading dock and offices on the west side of the Love Property was through the Arnold Property parking lot.
¶ 3 This access was still in regular and visible use when Arnold purchased its property in July 1993. However, a title search made prior to purchase failed to reveal the easement, which deficiency Arnold attributes to the County Recorder's failure to properly abstract a 1991 corrective warranty deed. In 1996, Arnold filed this action challenging the easement. Love counterclaimed and moved for partial summary judgment recognizing that the easement over the Arnold Property was validly created and established by conveyances of record in the Salt Lake County Recorder's Office. Arnold responded with a cross-motion for partial summary judgment, seeking a determination that its property was not burdened by an easement. The trial court recognized the easement, granted Love's motion for partial summary judgment, and denied Arnold's cross-motion. Arnold subsequently filed an amended complaint alleging negligence against Salt Lake County, and County Recorder Katie Dixon, for failing to abstract a 1991 corrective warranty deed to the tract index in Arnold's chain of title. The trial court dismissed that complaint. The parties subsequently stipulated to the dismissal of all claims not adjudicated by the two orders, and the court entered a final judgment. Arnold appeals from that final judgment and, in the alternative, appeals from the dismissal of its complaint against the County. This court has jurisdiction under Utah Code Ann. § 78-2-2(3)(j) (2002).
¶ 4 On January 27, 1982, H. Fred Smith, Rowland W. Smith, Minson, and Halander executed a warranty deed on behalf of Western Management, a Partnership, conveying the Love Property to William J. Lowenberg, "subject to and together with a right of way" over the Arnold Property. The deed was recorded on February 3, 1982, and was abstracted to the Arnold Property in the tract index. At the time of the conveyance, however, title to the Arnold Property was not vested in Western Management. On October 29, 1982, in an attempt to cure that oversight, the four partners who then held title quitclaimed their interest in the Arnold Property to Western Management. This deed was recorded on October 29, 1982, and was abstracted to the Arnold Property.
¶ 5 In May of 1984, Western Management conveyed its interest in the Arnold Property to Smith, Halander, Smith and Associates. The deed made no specific reference to the right-of-way, but warranted against "all claiming by through or under" with the specific entity left blank. A warranty deed executed by Smith, Halander, Smith and Associates in June of 1984 conveyed the Arnold Property to Kay L. Walker and Lawrence A. McElliot "[s]ubject to current general taxes, easements and restrictions." Other transactions, not relevant here, followed until 1990 when title to the property was once again in the four partners.
¶ 6 Three of the partners, H. Fred Smith, Rowland W. Smith, and Halander conveyed their interest in the Arnold Property to Conmart, Inc., Arnold's predecessor in interest, via a quitclaim deed dated November 28, 1990, and recorded on March 8, 1991. Minson apparently retained his interest in the property. In July 1993, Conmart, Inc. and Minson executed a warranty deed conveying their respective interests in the Arnold Property to Arnold Industries, Inc., a Utah corporation. The warranty deed conveying the property to Arnold recites that the conveyance is "Subject to: ... Covenants, Conditions, Restrictions, Rights-of-Way, Easements, Leases and Reservations now of Record."
¶ 7 William J. Lowenberg took title to the Love Property, including the easement over the Arnold Property, through the January 1982 warranty deed as described above.
¶ 8 Early in 1991 or at some time previously, errors were discovered in the legal description of the easement in the January 1982 warranty deed. A dispute also arose regarding compliance of the Lowenberg's property with local restrictive covenants. Consequently, on January 22, 1991, the four partners, acting in the name of Western Management, "formerly a general partnership," and in the name of Smith, Halander, Smith and Associates, with both organizations "collectively... acting as grantors of their respective interests," executed a corrective warranty deed curing the defects in the January 1982 legal description of the easement and also defining the right-of-way and limiting it to convenient ingress and egress. This deed was recorded January 23, 1991, and was abstracted in the tract index to the Love Property, but not to the Arnold Property.
¶ 9 On January 24, 1991, the district court entered a quiet title decree adjudicating that the Love Property, then owned by Lowenberg, and its buildings were in compliance with all setback requirements in the restrictive covenants governing the property. Exhibit A of the decree repeated the legal description of the easement from the corrective warranty deed. The quiet title decree was recorded on February 21, 1991, and abstracted to the quarter section wherein lie both the Arnold and the Love properties and to the tract index of the Love Property with a reference to the Arnold Property by tax identification number.
¶ 10 Lowenberg conveyed his property together with the easement to William and Irene Love by warranty deed in January 1995.
¶ 11 We affirm summary judgment only when "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Utah R. Civ. P. 56(c); see also Tustian v. Schriever, 2001 UT 84, ¶ 13, 34 P.3d 755
. We grant the trial court's legal conclusions no deference, reviewing them for correctness. Ault v. Holden, 2002 UT 33, ¶ 15, 44 P.3d 781. Furthermore, "`[i]n reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we view the facts and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.'" DCM Inv. Corp. v. Pinecrest Inv. Co., 2001 UT 91, ¶ 6, 34 P.3d 785 (quoting Dixon v. Pro Image, Inc., 1999 UT 89, ¶ 12, 987 P.2d 48).
¶ 12 When Arnold purchased its property in 1993, it took title subject to "Covenants, Conditions, Restrictions, Rights-of-Way, Easements, Leases and Reservations now of Record." Therefore, whether Arnold's land is now subject to the right-of-way in favor of Love's property depends upon whether such an easement was validly created.
¶ 13 Arnold attacks the validity of both the January 1982 warranty deed which purported to create the easement and the January 1991 corrective warranty deed which purported to limit the easement and corrected the legal description. We will address each deed in turn.
¶ 14 Arnold contends that the January 27, 1982, warranty deed was void for want of a grantor because when the deed was executed by the Western Management general partners on behalf of Western Management, Western Management held no ownership interest in the Arnold Property and could not grant an easement over...
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