M & B REALTY, INC. v. Duval

• Decision Date: 12 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-375-Appeal.,99-375-Appeal.
• Citation: 767 A.2d 60
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Parties: M & B REALTY, INC., et al. v. Pierre DUVAL et al.

767 A.2d 60

M & B REALTY, INC., et al. v. Pierre DUVAL et al.

No. 99-375-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 12, 2001.

Present: WEISBERGER, C.J., LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Lauren E. Jones, Providence, David F. Fox, for Plaintiff.

Thomas R. Brady, for Defendant.

OPINION

GOLDBERG, Justice.

This case came before the Court on cross-appeals from a grant of summary judgment entered in favor of the plaintiffs, M & B Realty, Inc. (M & B), Bluebill, Inc. (Bluebill), and William and Dorothy Backman (plaintiffs or Backmans). The defendants, Pierre, Anne, Jean, Karen, Gerard, and Barbara Duval (defendants or Duvals), have challenged the finding by the trial justice that rejected the defendants' claim of ownership by adverse possession and concluded that a disputed right-of-way was intended for the benefit of all abutting landowners to provide access to both Park Street and Blue Bell Cove in Portsmouth. On cross-appeal, the plaintiffs argued that, although the trial justice properly granted their motion for summary judgment, she erred in denying their claim for punitive and compensatory damages. We reverse.

Facts and Travel

In an unfortunate absence of neighborliness, a dispute developed between adjoining landowners over property rights to Blue Bill Way (Way) — a right-of-way leading from Park Street, a state highway in the Island Park section of Portsmouth, to Blue Bell Cove (Cove), a sheltered nook of salt water adjacent to the Sakonnet River. The parties' interests in this action stems from their ownership of various lots that abut the Way, the Cove, or both.¹ The lots in issue were originally platted in 1903 through a "plan of land" developed by Cornelius S. Greene (Greene Plan). In July 1903, the plan of land was surveyed by E.I. Marvell (Marvell Survey). The Way, laid out and designated on the original plat as a "12 Foot Way," was depicted as an area between solid lines running from Park Street to the Cove.² The plat was duly recorded in the land evidence records of the Town of Portsmouth. In the years following, the lots depicted on the Marvell Survey were deeded out by the Greene heirs. Notwithstanding these conveyances, title to the Way has never been conveyed individually nor in connection with any of these deeds. However, the parties' original deeds to the lots at issue all mention the Way, the Marvell survey, or both.

Both plaintiffs and defendants maintained that they have vacationed in the Cove area beginning in the 1950's; however, each party's actual ownership of the lots in question did not begin until much later. The deeds demonstrate that ownership of the Backman lots began on May 23, 1985,³ and that the Duval's ownership began on January 14, 1981.⁴

The genesis of this dispute was a fence, erected in 1995, that completely blocked that portion of the Way that provides access to the shore of the Cove.⁵ This action was allegedly taken by the Duvals in response to the Backmans' recent rental of their home, located on lot 63B, to four Roger Williams University students. On December 30, 1996, the Backmans countered by filing this action for declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and compensatory and punitive damages.

On August 7, 1998, after extensive pretrial activity, plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. This motion was granted in part and denied in part by the trial justice who found that the Way provided "the sole access to both Park Avenue [sic] and the Cove for all adjoining lots * * * [and, the] right of way was carved out so that the adjoining landowners would have access to both the street and Blue Bell Cove." Based upon these findings, the trial justice determined that the Way was not private property and therefore "is not an area which can be claimed by adverse possession." The trial justice also granted plaintiffs' request for injunctive relief, ordering defendants to "cease and desist from preventing, inhibiting, or in any way interfering with Plaintiff's use, enjoyment, and benefit of Blue Bill Way, [and] to remove any and all obstructions." Finally, the trial justice denied plaintiffs' request for damages, finding that "defendants actions were not malicious."

On May 11, 1999, defendants filed a motion for reconsideration with respect to the issue of the status of the Way. This motion was denied; the trial justice declared that the Way was intended to benefit the owners of lots in the subdivision to provide access to the Cove. The trial justice reiterated her holding that ownership could not be established through adverse possession. The trial justice also noted that she did not find the Way to be a public right-of-way as defendants suggested and have argued to this Court. Rather, she found that the Greene Plan was designed so that the Way would benefit the owners of lots on the plat to provide access to both the public street and the Cove. Thus, the trial justice found that defendants failed to meet the threshold requirements necessary to establish ownership by adverse possession.

The defendants' motion to stay the injunction was denied. Judgment entered for both plaintiffs and defendants on June 3, 1999; defendants filed a timely appeal. The plaintiffs filed a cross-appeal on June 23, 1999, and subsequently amended the cross-appeal on August 2, 1999. On appeal, defendants argued, as they did to the trial justice, that dating to 1903, they and their predecessors have acquired the disputed portion of the Way through adverse possession, resulting in that portion of the Way becoming a private way, essentially for the benefit of the owners of lots 60 and 61 to the exclusion of all others. A review of defendants' submissions, filed in opposition to summary judgment, discloses a series of affidavits submitted by defendants and members of their families attesting to the fact that the disputed strip of land, situated between lots 60 and 61, has been in the exclusive possession of defendants for a period well in excess of the statutory requirement for ownership by adverse possession. Further, defendants asserted that the Way is a "paper street" that has never been opened or used as a thoroughfare. The defendants maintained, under the principles enunciated by this Court in Gammons v. Caswell, 447 A.2d 361 (R.I.1982), that a right-of-way flowing from the recording of a plat plan is extinguishable by proper proof of adverse possession. Id. at 366.⁶ In the case now before us, the trial justice acknowledged the averments in defendants' affidavits that attested to their exclusive use of the Way. However, she also noted that in numerous applications to the Coastal Resources Management Council (CMRC), seeking permission to make various improvements to their respective properties, defendants consistently and specifically delineated the boundaries of each lot and clearly labeled the Way as a separate parcel, factors that are inconsistent with the defendants' claim of ownership and dominion over this property. In her decision granting summary judgment, the trial justice failed to address this apparent conflict in the evidence.

The plaintiffs' sole issue on cross-appeal relates to the refusal of the trial justice to award both compensatory and punitive damages.

Summary Judgment

It is well settled that this Court reviews the granting of a summary judgment motion on a de novo basis. Marr Scaffolding Co. v. Fairground Forms, Inc., 682 A.2d 455, 457 (R.I.1996). In conducting such a review, we are bound by the same rules and standards as those employed by the trial justice. Rotelli v. Catanzaro, 686 A.2d 91, 93 (R.I.1996). "[A] party who opposes a motion for summary judgment carries the burden of proving by competent evidence the existence of a disputed material issue of fact and cannot rest on allegations or denials in the pleadings or on conclusions or legal opinions." Accent Store Design, Inc. v. Marathon House, Inc., 674 A.2d 1223, 1225 (R.I.1996). "To oppose a motion for summary judgment successfully, a party need only provide the trial justice with evidence that, when viewed in light most favorable to that party, establishes the existence of a genuine issue of a material fact." Ferro v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 588 A.2d 1047, 1049 (R.I.1991) (citing Super R. Civ. P. 56; Peoples Trust Co. v. Searles, 486 A.2d 619, 620 (R.I.1985)).

In concluding that defendants failed to establish ownership by adverse possession the trial justice relied upon this Court's decisions in Kotuby v. Robbins, 721 A.2d 881 (R.I.1998) and Robidoux v. Pelletier, 120 R.I. 425, 391 A.2d 1150 (1978). Specifically, the trial justice determined that, similar to the case at bar, the right-of-way in Kotuby, although held in fee by the defendants, was depicted on a recorded subdivision plat and served as a driveway for three lots in that subdivision. Further, there was uncontroverted evidence that the grantor intended to dedicate the right-of-way for ingress and egress to the street. In reliance on our holding in Kotuby, that "a recorded plat is all that is needed to disclose a landowner's dedicatory intent," 721 A.2d at 884 (citing Robidoux, 120 R.I. at 434, 391 A.2d at 1156), and that this principle also applies to the grant of private easements in subdivisions, Kotuby, 712 A.2d at 884, the trial justice concluded that the Way in question was intended by the grantor to afford the residents access to both the street and Blue Bell Cove. Therefore, the trial justice concluded, "it is not an area which can be claimed by adverse possession." Although this analysis correctly states our holdings in Kotuby and Robidoux, it overlooks the fact that in Kotuby, the right-of-way in question was a driveway directly in front of plaintiffs' homes and toward which plaintiffs Whitty deliberately faced their dwellings. This driveway was utilized without hindrance until defendants erected a fence and filed a notice of interruption of adverse possession. Significantly, we upheld the...