Delorm v. Town of Hancock
| Docket Number | 23-AP-073 |
| Decision Date | 15 September 2023 |
| Parties | Daniel Delorm* v. Town of Hancock & Norman Smith |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
In the case title, an asterisk (*) indicates an appellant and a double asterisk (**) indicates a cross-appellant. Decisions of a three-justice panel are not to be considered as precedent before any tribunal.
APPEALED FROM: Superior Court, Addison Unit, Civil Division CASE NO. 21-CV-02113 Trial Judge: David R. Fenster
ENTRY ORDER
In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:
Plaintiff Daniel Delorm appeals the trial court's decision granting summary judgment to defendants, the Town of Hancock and its surveyor Norm Smith, in this dispute concerning the location of shared boundary lines. We affirm.
Plaintiff owns a parcel of land in the village of Hancock, Vermont. Plaintiff and the Town share common boundaries along the entirety of plaintiff's southern and eastern boundary and a portion of his northern boundary. In July 2021, plaintiff filed a pro se complaint against defendants alleging that the Town had encroached on his property since 1988. He asserted that defendants had moved survey pins and fraudulently altered survey plats and deeds. He claimed that four deeds which he attached to his complaint, contained the correct description of his property. He sought an order declaring that he owned the land in question or requiring the Town to compensate him for the taking.
Defendants moved for summary judgment in their favor, arguing that plaintiff had not supported his claims with any admissible evidence and asking the trial court to declare the location of the parties' common boundary. They presented various affidavits and evidence in support of their motion, including the report of a surveyor, Timothy Short, who opined that the 1998 and 2006 surveys conducted by defendant Smith substantially agreed with plaintiffs' deeds as well as the physical monuments on the ground. Plaintiff filed a memorandum opposing summary judgment but did not provide any survey or other evidence to support his claims.
The trial court concluded that defendants had presented undisputed evidence that the deeded description of the boundaries matched the surveys prepared by defendant Smith and the physical evidence on the ground. It accordingly granted summary judgment to defendants on plaintiff's claims of fraud, forgery, encroachment, and trespass, and declared that the boundaries were as described in the recorded surveys. This appeal followed.
2
On appeal, plaintiff repeats his assertions that defendants moved or replaced his survey pins with their own and argues that the boundaries surveyed by defendant Smith were not consistent with the boundaries as described in the four root deeds that describe his parcel.
We review the trial court's decision granting summary judgment without deference, using the same standard as the lower court. Bartlett v. Roberts, 2020 VT 24, ¶ 9, 212 Vt. 50. Summary judgment is appropriate if the moving party demonstrates "that there are no genuine issues of material fact and the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Tillson v. Lane, 2015 VT 121 ¶ 7, 200 Vt. 534; see V.R.C.P. 56(a). "We give the opposing party the benefit of all reasonable doubts and inferences in determining whether a genuine issue of material fact exists." Kremer v. Laws. Title Ins. Corp. 2004 VT 91, ¶ 7, 177 Vt. 553 (mem.).
Here plaintiff...
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