Gregg Neck v. Kent County
Decision Date | 03 April 2001 |
Docket Number | No. 562,562 |
Citation | 137 Md. App. 732,769 A.2d 982 |
Parties | GREGG NECK YACHT CLUB, INC., v. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF KENT COUNTY, Maryland. |
Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Harris P. Murphy (Allewalt & Murphy, P.A., on the brief), Chestertown, for appellant.
Ernest S. Cookerly (Cookerly & Barroll, LLC, on the brief), Chestertown, for appellees.
Argued before DAVIS, HOLLANDER, and CHARLES E. MOYLAN, Jr. (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ. HOLLANDER, Judge.
This case involves a dispute concerning ownership of real property, structural improvements, and riparian rights. We must decide, inter alia, whether a deed executed in 1950 conveyed an easement to Kent County or, instead, a fee simple interest that included riparian rights and now encompasses a pier constructed some forty years ago by Gregg Neck Yacht Club, Inc. ("GNYC"), appellant. The pier, situated on the Sassafras River, is at the heart of this dispute.
This litigation was spawned by Kent County's decision on October 12, 1999, to claim ownership of the pier. That action led GNYC to file suit in the Circuit Court for Kent County on October 25, 1999, against the County Commissioners of Kent County (the "County") and the Kent County Department of Public Works (the "Department"), appellees. In its declaratory judgment action, amended on December 1, 1999, GNYC asked the court to determine "the intent of the 1950 grant to the County and the property rights arising therefrom."1 GNYC also asked the court to declare that appellees were estopped from asserting any rights to the pier or riparian rights. Alternatively, GNYC sought a declaration of ownership by adverse possession.
On April 12, 2000, the circuit court convened an evidentiary hearing, at which numerous witnesses testified and many exhibits were introduced. The hearing proceeded in phases, with the court resolving various issues, seriatim. Ultimately, the court found that the 1950 Deed conveyed a fee simple interest in the disputed land to the County, which necessarily included riparian rights. The court also determined that the County was not estopped from asserting its interests. As a result, the court concluded that the pier built by GNYC belongs to the County. This appeal followed, in which appellant presents two questions for our review:
I. Did the trial court err when it determined that the 1950 deed conveyed to the County a fee simple estate rather than an easement?
II. Did the trial court err in failing to determine that appellees either acquiesced to the ownership of appellant, or should be equitably estopped from asserting an interest in the subject pier as against appellant?
For the reasons that follow, we shall reverse.
On July 6, 1950, J. Early Wood and his wife, Mary, executed a conveyance to the County of a 40 foot wide "right of way or strip of land," recorded in the land records, "to be used in the extension, construction, improvement and maintenance of [a] County road." The 1950 Deed did not mention riparian rights, nor did it use the words "in fee simple." The Deed stated, in part:
* * * AND we further grant to the said County Commissioners of Kent County, or their agents, the right to construct, use and maintain such pipes, culverts and drainage structures as they may desire to construct for the purpose of draining said road, together with the right to create and maintain our land adjacent thereto such slopes as are necessary to support and maintain the aforesaid right of way, and/or adjacent land, at the grades of said road as now proposed.
According to appellant, "[t]he course and distance measurements set forth in the grant are unreliable." Appellant explains: The public has consistently used the landing, which the County maintains. In contrast, GNYC built, used, and maintained the pier.
In 1959, nine years after the conveyance by Wood, GNYC was incorporated by residents of the Gregg Neck Park development. That same year, GNYC applied to the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to construct the pier in issue, located at what is now the end of Mill Road. By permit dated March 29, 1959, the Army Corps of Engineers authorized construction of a pier to extend fifty feet channelward of the mean high water line in the Sassafras River (Mill Creek), at a point on the south shore at Gregg Neck Park. The survey plats of the Gregg Neck Park subdivision show Sassafras Avenue, sometimes referred to as Mill Road, extending to the water's edge. Mill Road and Oxford Road are the only two roads in Gregg Neck Park that run to the water.
The pier was constructed in late 1959 or early 1960. Michael Scott, a registered property line surveyor, performed a survey at the request of the County, and testified that Additionally, Scott prepared a plat that shows a pier extending about 70 feet into the creek, in the shape of an "L"; the "L" measures 69.93 feet. According to appellees, "There was no authority granted for the construction of the `L' and the dock exceeded the authority granted by the Army Corps of Engineers."
Nevertheless, Elizabeth Smith, who was treasurer of GNYC from 1971 to 1988, and a resident of Gregg Neck Park for 31 years, testified that the County knew of the construction of the pier by GNYC. She said: "I don't know if they were asked about it or not, but they certainly knew it was going up because I would call at different times—I asked about it." During her testimony, the parties stipulated that GNYC has consistently paid corporate taxes. It also incurred expenses regularly to maintain the pier, dating to 1971, in the total sum of $10,039.74.
Daniel Fleming, President of GNYC, testified about a letter dated June 29, 1961, from Wood, the grantor, to Clyde Wilgus, the first president of GNYC and founder of the Gregg Neck Park Civic Association, Inc. ("Association"). He stated, in relevant part:
Will you please advise me promptly what the intentions of the Gregg Neck Yacht Club, Inc. are with regard to taking over the roads.
One year later, on July 10, 1962, Wood and his wife conveyed to the Association, in fee simple, some 17.5 acres, which expressly included riparian rights but excluded the conveyance to the County pursuant to the 1950 Deed. The 1962 Deed stated, in part:
(Emphasis added).
At the hearing, the parties introduced minutes of various meetings held over the years by the County Commissioners, at which the pier was discussed. According to the Minutes of March 2, 1971, the County discussed ownership of both the landing and the pier on that date. As a result, the County wrote to Wilgus, as President of GNYC, and requested a copy of GNYC's application to the Army Corps of Engineers and the permit issued to GNYC. The Minutes of the County Commissioners of March 23, 1971, reveal that the Association asked the County to close "about 200' to the end of the road." The County took the matter "under advisement," however, "until the matter could be cleared up concerning permit and ownership of the pier at the end of the [C]ounty road."
The Minutes of the County Commissioners dated September 11, 1973, reflect that the issue of...
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