American Quick Sign, Inc. v. Reinhardt

• Decision Date: 08 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 5D04-2099.,5D04-2099.
• Citation: 899 So.2d 461
• Parties: AMERICAN QUICK SIGN, INC. and Bob Pegram, Appellants, v. Rick REINHARDT, et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

899 So.2d 461

AMERICAN QUICK SIGN, INC. and Bob Pegram, Appellants, v. Rick REINHARDT, et al., Appellees.

No. 5D04-2099.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

April 8, 2005.

Eric Mashburn, Winter Garden, for Appellants.

No Appearance for Appellees.

SAWAYA, C.J.

This appeal presents to us for review a final judgment entered in a declaratory judgment action which declares that a certain tract of land is impressed with an easement. We must determine whether the easement created allows for signage to be maintained within the confines of the legal description denoting the easement area.

We trace common ownership of both dominant and servient parcels to Philip and Alice Rehn, who acquired title to each Orange County parcel in 1975.¹ At the time of acquisition, the dominant parcel was landlocked and leased by Amoco Oil Company. Access was granted to Amoco via a lease agreement with the Rehns. In order to locate the easement on the south end of the servient parcel, the Rehns and Amoco entered into an "Easement Agreement," which provided that the Rehns were granting "a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress of vehicular and pedestrian traffic to U.S. Highway No. 441 over, upon and across" the described property. This agreement, recorded in the public records where the property was situated, also provided that the easement for ingress and egress would become permanent upon exercise of an option to purchase agreement contained within the lease agreement.

Amoco subsequently assigned its rights under the lease to Hibbard, who then exercised the option to purchase the dominant parcel from the Rehns. The deed from the Rehns to Hibbard contained the following language: "Plus the following non-exclusive easement" and the legal description of the access area.² This legal description is the same description of the access area defined in the Easement Agreement between the Rehns and Amoco. The Rehns retained title to the servient parcel. Hibbard conveyed the dominant parcel to Jack and Kathryn Reinhardt. The Reinhardts subsequently conveyed the dominant parcel to RMJ Partnership, which later conveyed the property to Alexander D. Mackinnon, III. Each deed contained the same language regarding the easement that was provided in the deed from the Rehns to Hibbard.

The incident giving rise to this lawsuit occurred during the Reinhardts' ownership of the dominant parcel. The Reinhardts erected a commercial sign in the easement access area without the permission of the Rehns. Although the Rehns immediately objected to the sign, they did not take legal action to have it removed because they were attempting to sell the servient parcel and wanted to wait and see if the new owner wanted to share the signage with the Reinhardts. The Rehns subsequently sold the servient parcel to American Quick Sign, Inc., and that deed provided that the servient parcel was "Subject to the Following Non-Exclusive Easement" followed by a legal description of the easement which is the same description contained in the other deeds and the Easement Agreement.

Quick Sign and the Reinhardts agreed to share the sign for several years until Quick Sign learned that the Reinhardts intended to sell the dominant parcel. Quick Sign removed the Reinhardts' business logo from the sign and the Reinhardts, as general partners of RMJ Partnership, which ultimately purchased the dominant parcel, and Dr. Jack Reinhardt, Inc., their tenant, filed suit against Quick Sign seeking a declaratory judgment that their easement on Quick Sign's property allowed them to erect and maintain the sign in the easement area.

The case proceeded to trial and, after hearing all of the evidence and testimony, the trial court ruled that two easements had been created. The first easement was created when the Easement Agreement was executed and the second was created when the Rehns conveyed the dominant parcel to Hibbard via the deed that provided "[p]lus the following non-exclusive easement" and included the legal description of the easement. The trial court further held that the later easement included the right to erect and maintain the sign in the easement area. The trial court granted Mackinnon's motion to intervene and entered a final judgment, binding also on Mackinnon, which provided that the owners of the dominant parcel would be responsible for maintaining the easement. Quick Sign appeals and argues that the language in the deed merely references the easement created by the Easement Agreement and does not create a second easement. In the alternative, Quick Sign asserts that the provisions in the deed are incomplete because the purpose of the purported second easement is not stated and, therefore, the purported second easement is invalid.

In order to decide whether Quick Sign is correct, we must understand what an easement is and how it may be created. Although an easement is not an estate in land and its creation does not convey title, it is an interest that gives to one other than the owner a right to use the land for some specific purpose. Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Franchise Fin. Corp. of Am., 711 So.2d 1189 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); Easton v. Appler, 548 So.2d 691 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989); Dean v. MOD Props., Ltd., 528 So.2d 432 (Fla. 5th DCA),review denied, 534 So.2d 400 (Fla.1988); Kempfer v. St. Johns River Water Mgmt. Dist., 475 So.2d 920 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985),review denied, 488 So.2d 68 (Fla.1986); Hayes v. Reynolds, 132 So.2d 781 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961). As an interest in land, an easement may be created by express grant contained in a deed or other written document. Canell v. Arcola Hous. Corp., 65 So.2d 849 (Fla.1953); Winthrop v. Wadsworth, 42 So.2d 541 (Fla.1949); Crigger v. Florida Power Corp., 436 So.2d 937, 941 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983) ("Easements may be created by express grant; by implication; or by prescription."); Jonita, Inc. v. Lewis, 368 So.2d 114 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); Dinkins v. Julian, 122 So.2d 620 (Fla. 2d DCA 1960); Manning v. Hall, 110 So.2d 424 (Fla. 2d DCA 1959).

There are no magical words that one must divine in order to create an express easement. All that is necessary are words showing the intention of the parties to create an easement on a sufficiently identifiable estate. Citgo Petroleum Corp. v. Florida E. Coast Ry. Co., 706 So.2d 383 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998) (citing Hynes v. City of Lakeland, 451 So.2d 505, 511 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)). Documents that convey easements should be construed in the same manner as contracts, and so we turn to the inveterate rules of contract construction for guidance. One Harbor Fin. Ltd. Co. v. Hynes Props., LLC, 884 So.2d 1039 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004). Of these, we begin with the general principle that in reviewing the documents creating an easement, if the language is clear, concise, and unambiguous, we must give effect to the terms as stated without resort to other rules of construction to ascertain their meaning. Claughton Hotels, Inc. v. City of Miami, 140 So.2d 608 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962); see also Laboratory Corp. of Am. v. McKown, 829 So.2d 311, 313 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). This rule is premised on the notion that it is not the function of the court to make, remake, or alter a document or an agreement for the parties; they must do it themselves. Claughton Hotels, Inc. If the provisions are ambiguous, extrinsic evidence may be examined to determine the intent of the parties at the time the document establishing the easement was created. See Kotick v. Durrant, 143 Fla. 386, 196 So. 802 (1940); Laboratory Corp. of Am.; Meadows Country Club, Inc. v. Unnever, 702 So.2d 586, 588 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997). Ambiguity may be found when the provisions in the document admit to more than one interpretation. See Friedman v. Virginia Metal Prods. Corp., 56 So.2d 515, 517 (Fla.1952); Barnett v. Destiny Owners Ass'n, Inc., 856 So.2d 1090, 1092 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) ("Language in a document is ambiguous when it is uncertain in meaning and may be fairly understood in more ways than one and is susceptible of interpretation in opposite ways."); Meadows Country Club, Inc., 702 So.2d at 588 ("The view of this court is that the easement language presents an ambiguity; each opposing theory has a degree of merit and the easement admits of two interpretations.").

With these principles in mind and directed, as we should be, by the precedent previously discussed, we have examined the provision "plus the following non-exclusive easement" contained in the deed from the Rehns to Hibbard and we are unable to discern whether it is intended to create a new easement or whether it references the pre-existing easement established in the Easement Agreement between the Rehns and Amoco.³ Each seems to us a reasonable and plausible interpretation of the deed provisions. For this reason alone, the provisions are ambiguous and extrinsic evidence is necessary to determine their meaning.

Another deficiency readily apparent from examination of the deed is the lack of any provision regarding the purpose for which the purported second easement is created. The Reinhardts would have us apply the general principle that the holder of an easement may do whatever is reasonably necessary for the full enjoyment of the easement. See Florida Power Corp. v. Silver Lake Homeowners Ass'n, 727 So.2d 1149, 1150 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999) ("[T]he law governing easements generally provides that an easement holder has the right to do what is reasonably necessary for the full enjoyment of the easement, but that the right must not be increased to any greater extent than reasonably necessary and contemplated at the time the easement was created."). Hence, the Reinhardts argue that because the easement is silent as to the purpose for which it was created, it may be used for any lawful and reasonable purpose, which includes erection and maintenance of the sign. Quick Sign's reply to this particular argument is that silence on this point renders the purported second easement invalid.

We do not believe that the...