Glass v. Gulf Oil Corp.
| Decision Date | 28 October 1970 |
| Citation | 89 Cal.Rptr. 514 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Warren V. GLASS, Jr. and Ida Lou Glass, 1119 Plaintiffs, Cross-Defendants and Respondents, v. GULF OIL CORPORATION, and the Frouge Corporation, Defendants, Cross-Complainants and Appellants. Civ. 25793. |
Bagley, Bianchi & Sheeks, San Rafael, for appellants.
A. Leonard Bjorklund, Jr., Sausalito, for respondents.
1Defendants Gulf Oil Corporation, a property owner, and the Frouge Corporation, the developer of its codefendants' property, have appealed from a judgment which awarded the plaintiffs Glass, neighboring property owners, general and exemplary damages aggregating $11,500 for slander of title, together with attorneys' fees and costs, and which enjoined and restrained the defendants from trespassing on plaintiffs' property and from publishing any information which would indicate that plaintiffs' land was other than private property. The judgment is predicated upon plaintiffs' claim that the defendant falsely represented that plaintiffs' private road and adjacent property would be available as and would provide an access road to a vast housing development planned by the defendants on 2100 acres lying to the west of the plaintiffs' property.
The defendants contend (I) that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the charge of slander of title because it fails to show (a) that the defendants made any false statements concerning the plaintiffs' property, (b) that the defendants disparaged plaintiffs' title, (c) that the plaintiffs' title encompassed the interest which is the subject of the alleged slander and (d) that the plaintiffs sustained any damage. Complimentary to the foregoing, they assert that the evidence shows as a matter of law (II) that the plaintiffs' property is subject to easements of record which may be used by defendants and others, (III) that the easement in question was dedicated to public use by adverse user, and (IV) that the defendants acquired an implied easement over plaintiffs' property by reason of an easement over an adjacent portion of the roadway which had been conveyed to their predecessor in title. All of the foregoing issues were resolved against the defendants by the verdicts, general and special, of the jury, and by the findings of the court. Examination of the record indicates that the findings of the jury and the court are supported by sufficient evidence, and so must be sustained on appeal. (Green Tree Enterprises, Inc. v. Palm Springs Alpine Estates, Inc. (1967) 66 Cal.2d 782, 784-785, 59 Cal.Rptr. 141, 427 P.2d 805.)
Defendants' further contentions that recovery is barred (V) because the plaintiffs were guilty of laches, and (VI) because they failed to come into court with clean hands are also found to be without merit. The attack (VII) on the award of punitive damages because the jury resorted to lot or chance is unsustainable. The court's (VIII) award of attorneys' fees and (IX) its order refusing to strike certain costs claimed by plaintiffs are reviewed, and it is determined that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in including the award and the costs in the judgment.
Plaintiffs, Warren and Ida Lou Glass, husband and wife, purchased certain unimproved property in the County of Marin, in 1947. The land is located in an area known as Wolfback Ridge, in Sausalito. Their home is located on a portion of the acreage overlooking Highway 101 at the top of the Waldo Grade, at the western end of the Spencer Avenue overpass; the remainder of their land is unimproved.
Prior to the time the highway became a divided freeway, Spencer Avenue intersected the highway. On the west side of the highway, upper Spencer Avenue (that portion at issue at the trial) climbed Wolfback Ridge as a narrow, winding road, which passed and passes the Glass residence; that portion of Spencer Avenue in the vicinity of respondents' residence is known as "Wolfback Ridge Road" or simply, "Ridge Road"; it is now reached by an overpass which crosses Highway 101 at the top of the Waldo Grade. Ridge Road serves as access to plaintiffs' property and to other homes in the area; approximately 770 feet of the road was found to be owned by plaintiffs; the remainder of the footage in the area is owned by other property owners.
To the west of plaintiffs' property, defendants Gulf Oil Corporation and Frouge Corporation, planned to develop certain lands into a self-contained city to be known as "Marincello," a city capable of housing and serving a population of from 20,000 to 30,000.
In March 1965, defendants filed their master plan for the Marincello project with the Marin County Planning Commission. The contents of the plan were disclosed to the public at the first planning commission meeting relating to that matter on June 7, 1965. A model of the Marincello project had been on display, however, at least since November 1964, at the defendants' business offices in Sausalito. The model which was quite large, and appeared to be accurate, could be seen by members of the public.
The model and master plan for Marincello appeared to depict plaintiffs' road and adjacent property as providing and being available to the public as a major access route, apparently (being on the same scale as the other major access routes) some 80 feet in width. Additionally, similar representations were made by defendants' representatives at meetings of the planning commission on June 7 and June 21, 1965; by photographs and depictions which had been distributed and published; and by radio broadcasts. Plaintiff Warren Glass claimed that he attempted to have defendants correct their representations, but that the effort was futile.
On June 17, 1965, plaintiffs filed a complaint, requesting damages for slander of title and also requesting injunctive relief prohibiting further false representations. They alleged that defendants had falsely represented that plaintiffs' private road and adjacent property would provide and be available as a major access road to the housing development planned by defendants. Defendants, in their answer and cross-complaint, asserted easement rights in the road, both public and private, and also sought to quiet title to their alleged interest in the road.
A court hearing, regarding the issuance of a preliminary injunction was held August 20, 1965, through August 26, 1965. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court granted plaintiffs a preliminary injunction enjoining defendants from representing plaintiffs' road as being of a width in excess of its actual width on the ground.
A jury trial of this action commenced April 18, 1967, and lasted 12 days. A court trial of the issues raised by defendants' cross-complaint followed the jury trial.
The jury found for the plaintiffs in the sum of $11,500. In special interrogatories the jury found that plaintiffs' portion of the road in question had not been dedicated for public use; that defendants had made and published false and unprivileged statements and representations regarding plaintiffs' property; that the statements and representations resulted in pecuniary loss to plaintiffs; and that plaintiffs were also entitled to exemplary (also referred to as "punitive") damages.
On the cross-complaint and the additional issue of attorneys' fees, the court found in favor of plaintiffs; finally, the court entered a permanent injunction against defendants, enjoining them from making any further false representations respecting plaintiffs' road and also from trespassing on that road.
Other facts and procedural rulings are set forth below where pertinent.
Both sides acknowledge that the requisites for a cause of action for slander of title are correctly set forth in section 624 of the Restatement of Torts as follows: "One who, without a privilege to do so, publishes matter which is untrue and disparaging to another's property in land, chattels or intangible things under such circumstances as would lead a reasonable man to foresee that the conduct of a third person as purchaser or lessee thereof might be determined thereby is liable for pecuniary loss resulting to the other from the impairment of vendibility thus caused." 1a (See Gudger v. Manton (1943) 21 Cal.2d 537, 541, 134 P.2d 217 [disapproved on another issue, Albertson v. Raboff (1956) 46 Cal.2d 375, 381, 295 P.2d 405]; Cavin Memorial Corp. v. Requa (1970) 5 Cal.App.3d 345, 361, 85 Cal.Rptr. 107; Spencer v. Harmon Enterprises, Inc. (1965) 234 Cal.App.2d 614, 622, 44 Cal.Rptr. 683; Phillips v. Glazer (1949) 94 Cal.App.2d 673, 677, 211 P.2d 37; Davis v. Wood (1943) 61 Cal.App.2d 788, 797, 143 P.2d 740; and 2 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law, Torts, § 130, p. 1302.)
The court instructed the jury that the first question for them to determine was whether the plaintiffs had dedicated their portion of the Wolfback Ridge Road for public use. After an exposition of the law relating to that subject (see discussion III, infra), the court introduced the question of slander of title by reference to two theories, first, that the defendants claimed a right to use a roadway which was not dedicated to the public, or second, that the defendants claimed a right to a use which was not consistent with the use arising from the public's adverse user. These theories were embodied in separate forms of verdicts submitted to the jury and were supplemented by specific interrogatories.
The jury in its answer to one of the interrogatories and by its selection of the form of verdict expressly indicated that the plaintiffs' portion of Wolfback Ridge Road had not been dedicated for public use. The court had already charged the jury as follows: ...
To continue reading
Request your trial