Frost v. Gilbert (In re in Real Prop. in Gem Cnty.)
| Decision Date | 02 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 48156 |
| Citation | 169 Idaho 250,494 P.3d 798 |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
| Parties | Howard D. FROST, an individual, and Sharon Bruno, an individual, Plaintiffs-Counterdefendants-Appellants-Cross Respondents, v. Dana Paul GILBERT and Elisa Gilbert, Husband and Wife, Defendants-Counterclaimants-Respondents, and Alfred Alford, an individual, Defendant-Counterclaimant-Respondent-Cross Appellant, and John and Jane Does 1 through 10, persons claiming an interest in real property in Gem County, described herein, Defendants. |
Pickens Law, P.A., Boise, for appellants, Howard Frost and Sharon Bruno. Terri Pickens Manweiler argued.
Dindinger & Kohler, PLLC, Boise, for respondents, Paul & Elisa Gilbert. Edward W. Dindinger argued.
Angstman Johnson, Boise, for respondent Alfred Alford. Matthew T. Christensen argued.
This is an appeal from a bench trial on claims brought by Sharon Bruno (Bruno) and her father, Howard Frost (Frost). Frost died during the pendency of this litigation. As a result, unless context is important, the Appellants Frost and Bruno will simply be referred to as Bruno. Bruno and Frost filed this action seeking to quiet title to an express easement, pursuing quiet title for an easement by prescription, and requesting an injunction against two other nearby property owners. The gravamen of the suit was to establish an easement for irrigation hand lines and piping as well as to ensure access to irrigation equipment. The hand lines had been in place since the early 1980s. They originated at a pump near the Payette River and crossed an adjacent property now owned by Dana Gilbert and Elisa Gilbert (the Gilberts) before reaching Bruno's property. Bruno also contended that the way she and her father accessed the pump since its installation in 1981 was over a driveway on what is now the Gilberts’ property, as well as a switchback on adjacent property now owned by Alfred Alford (Alford).
The Gilberts counterclaimed alleging trespass and slander of title. They also sought a declaratory judgment to extinguish the express easement which had been in effect since 2011. Alford also counterclaimed alleging trespass and seeking a declaratory judgment that Bruno had no interest in his property for purposes of accessing the pump. Bruno unsuccessfully moved for summary judgment and for a preliminary injunction. The claims were bifurcated, with the easement-related claims to be tried first before a judge, and the trespass claims to follow before a jury. At the close of the first trial, the district court found that the express easement clearly allowed Bruno ingress and egress along the legal description of the easement; however, the district court rejected the requested prescriptive easement across the Gilberts’ driveway and the switchback on Alford's property. The district court found that any use of these roads had been permissive and therefore did not satisfy the requirements for a prescriptive easement. Accordingly, the district court dismissed Bruno's prescriptive easement-related claims. After unsuccessfully moving for reconsideration, Bruno moved the district court to enter a 54(b) certificate to enable an immediate appeal, which was granted. Bruno timely appealed. For the reasons set out below, we affirm the district court's decision.
This case is centered on an express easement granted to Frost in 2011 for irrigation hand lines running from a pump in the Payette River in Gem County, Idaho, across the Gilberts’ property and then terminating at Frost's property. However, this 2011 grant of easement occurred only after mediation of another property dispute which arose in 2010. The 2010 suit was initiated by Frost against () the Gilberts’ predecessor in interest, Jack Harney (Harney), in an attempt to resolve a boundary line dispute. This property dispute was resolved when Harney quitclaimed the disputed portion of property to Frost, and the parties entered into a grant of easement confirming Frost's irrigation easement.
This current case, however, involves both the express easement and Bruno's asserted right to use a particular road over the Gilberts’ and Alford's properties for ingress to and egress from the pump at the river. The factual background to this case will be divided into four sections: (1) the history of the affected properties in this case, (2) boundary disputes and the express grant of easement to Frost in 2011, (3) the agreement between several parties and the Shelley Acres Homeowner's Association (the Shelley Acres HOA), and (4) the events in 2017 and 2018 giving rise to this litigation.
A map of the three properties as of a May 2009 Record of Survey is included below, indicating the boundaries of the properties as of that date. See infra Figure 1. As shown, three parcels of land sit side-by-side on the Payette River in Gem County, Idaho, just south of Sweet, Idaho. To the north is State Highway 52, and to the south is the river. Bruno co-owns the easternmost property with the estate of her father, Frost. The Gilberts own the middle property marked "HARNEY PROPERTY" on the map, having purchased it from the Harney Family Trust, and Alford owns the property to the west of the Gilberts’ property. However, this 2009 Record of Survey does not reflect two subsequent transactions: (1) the relocation of an existing utility easement originally granted by Alford's predecessor-in-interest to the Shelley Acres HOA which is located north of Highway 52, and (2) the Gilberts’ 2016 acquisition of an additional strip of property owned by Alford's predecessor-in-interest.
Before 1975, all the properties involved in this dispute were owned by either George and Lucille McDonough (the McDonoughs) or the Canyon Canal Company (which was succeeded in interest by the Emmett Irrigation District at some undefined point).
On April 4, 1975, the McDonoughs conveyed 13.4459 acres of land to Fred Charters and his wife, Mary Jean (collectively, the Charters). In two conveyances in 1977, the McDonoughs conveyed three pieces of land to the east of the Charters’ property to Robert and Cathy Sisk (the Sisks). A small portion of the property conveyed to the Sisks had already been conveyed to the Charters in 1975, but the Charters did not record this deed until after the Sisks had recorded their 1977 deed, creating an overlap in property conveyances that would eventually be the basis for the 2010 litigation.
In January 1980, the McDonoughs and Sisks conveyed 1.25 acres to the United States Department of the Interior. This land is now owned and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
On November 23, 1981, the Sisks conveyed 5.82 acres to Frost. This conveyance included the "overlap property" on the east side of the Charters’ property. At the time Frost took possession of the 5.82 acres, the Charters owned the property immediately to the west.
To supplement their respective incomes, Frost and Charters grew "grass hay" on their properties, which required irrigation. Before selling the property to the Frosts, the Sisks had applied for water rights with the Idaho Department of Water Resources, which were provisionally granted. Frost testified that he purchased all the materials necessary to irrigate the property and installed the irrigation pump himself, placing it on property owned by the Bureau of Reclamation. Frost testified that the pump's location was selected at Charters’ request, because Charters did not want power lines running across the back of his property to power a pump on Frost's property. Instead, Charters requested that Frost install the pump next to several other pumps on the Bureau of Reclamation-owned land to the south of Charters’ property. Frost's irrigation hand lines began directly north of the pump and crossed onto Charters’ property before turning east and finally reaching Frost's property.
Frost testified that at the time he installed the pump, the only way to access the riverfront was through an unimproved road running from Montour Road to Charters’ property. Frost further testified that sometime between installation of the pump in 1981 and the mid-1980s, Idaho Power approached Charters, asking him to cut a switchback down the back of his property to the pumps. According to Frost, Idaho Power would use the unimproved road from Montour Road to access the pumps, but that the Idaho Power workers had been shot at on one occasion. Frost stated that he and Charters built the switchback together. According to Frost, upon completion, he used the switchback exclusively to reach the pump, either through Charters’ driveway or through a gate between their properties.
By 1999, Charters had died, and the representative of his estate—his daughter Donna Thornton (Thornton)—split the property into two parcels. Thornton conveyed the eastern parcel to Jack Harney (Harney) on November 5, 1999.
On December 21, 1999, Thornton (acting with power of attorney for her mother, and as representative of her father's estate) entered into an irrigation easement agreement with the Shelley Acres HOA,1 replacing a prior easement agreement from the 1960s, "for the limited and express purpose of such vehicle and pedestrian access as is necessary to replace, repair and maintain irrigation lines, irrigation pump, electrical service to such pump and related apparatus necessary to irrigate [the Shelley Acres HOA's] property."
Shortly thereafter, Thornton conveyed the western parcel to Michael Baker (Baker). Bruno testified that to her recollection, Baker never developed the western parcel or farmed it while he owned it. After this conveyance, the three properties—Baker's to the west, Harney's in the middle, and Frost's to the east—were substantially in the same form as they are today with the exception of the overlap property and subsequent addition to the middle property.
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