Griffel v. Reynolds, 26115.

• Decision Date: 24 October 2001
• Docket Number: No. 26115.,26115.
• Citation: 34 P.3d 1080,136 Idaho 397
• Parties: Lloyd GRIFFEL, Harshbarger Farms, Inc., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. David REYNOLDS and Gogie O. Reynolds, husband and wife, Defendants-Third Party Plaintiffs, and Roy Stegelmeier and Trudy Stegelmeier, husband and wife, Defendants Third-Party Defendants, Appellants.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

34 P.3d 1080

136 Idaho 397

Lloyd GRIFFEL, Harshbarger Farms, Inc., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. David REYNOLDS and Gogie O. Reynolds, husband and wife, Defendants-Third Party Plaintiffs, and Roy Stegelmeier and Trudy Stegelmeier, husband and wife, Defendants Third-Party Defendants, Appellants.

No. 26115.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Idaho Falls, May 2001 Term.

October 24, 2001.

Smith & Hancock, Rexburg, for appellants. Jesse D. Hancock argued.

McGrath Meacham Smith & Seamons, Idaho Falls, for respondents. Bryan D. Smith argued.

WALTERS, Justice.

This case involves a boundary dispute, which arose when defendants David and Gogie Reynolds' (Reynolds) prepurchase survey demonstrated that plaintiffs' farming lines encroached on the parcel that Reynolds had purchased from Roy and Trudy Stegelmeier. The district court determined the location of the boundary by applying the doctrine of boundary by acquiescence. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1976, Stegelmeier entered into an agreement of sale with W.L. and Virginia Hargis to purchase several tracts of land in Fremont County, Idaho, including a parcel described as the N1/2 of the SE1/4, Section 24, Township 8 North, Range 44 E.B.M. The following year, Stegelmeier cleared the land of trees and began farming, which he continued until sometime in 1991 when he placed the land in CRP (Crop Rotation Program). In 1995, Stegelmeier sold approximately forty acres of said parcel to Reynolds.

Prior to completing the purchase, Reynolds had the property surveyed. The description derived from the survey was noted on the deed from Stegelmeier to Reynolds as the NW1/4 of the SW1/4, Section 24, Township 8 North, Range East, Boise Meridian, Fremont County, Idaho. The surveyed parcel was bounded on the west by property owned by Harshbarger Farms, Inc. (Harshbarger), that had been farmed by Clifford and Alyce Harshbarger since 1943, and on the north by property which was owned and being farmed by Lloyd Griffel, who had purchased his land from Robert R. Litton. Reynolds began to set fence posts in 1996 along the boundaries identified in the survey.

Harshbarger disputed the location of the fence as the boundary and tore out the fence posts to access land it had been farming for some time. Harshbarger brought suit against Reynolds, claiming a right to the land up to and including the farming lines which extended beyond Reynolds' proposed fenceline. Griffel, who also disputed his common boundary with Reynolds as shown by the survey, joined as a plaintiff in the suit to adjudicate the northern and westerly boundaries of the Stegelmeier/Reynolds parcel.

The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that the boundaries between their properties and Reynolds' property had been established for more than twenty years by both farming lines and fencing lines, and that these lines claimed by the plaintiffs were visible and obvious, although they had never been surveyed. The plaintiffs asserted title to the disputed premises defined by the farming lines as they existed in 1999 under theories of adverse possession and boundary by agreement and/or acquiescence. The plaintiffs obtained a temporary restraining order enjoining Reynolds from erecting the fence on the disputed boundary that would impede the plaintiffs from conducting their usual fall field farming work.

Reynolds filed a third-party complaint against Stegelmeier, alleging breach of the parties' real estate agreement and warranty deed and misrepresentation. Subsequent to Reynolds' summary judgment motion, which the district court granted,¹ Stegelmeier agreed to defend all of the remaining claims against Reynolds in the action. By the time the matter went to trial, the plaintiffs had abandoned their adverse possession claims and proceeded only on their claims of boundary by agreement or acquiescence.

The district court, in its memorandum decision, found that the adjoining owners did not know the exact location of the common boundary lines prior to the survey but that all parties had acquiesced in the farming lines as boundaries for many years. Relying on the testimony of the plaintiffs' expert, the district court found that the farming lines had not substantially changed for at least twenty years, thus providing a sufficient basis to establish an agreed boundary with certainty. The district court, however, allowed compensation for a deviation of seven feet in the farming lines, pursuant to the expert's testimony. The district court entered judgment establishing the boundary lines applicable only to the property actually farmed and not modifying "any boundary otherwise described by deed that is currently located within existing patches of trees referred to above." The district court fixed the boundaries as follows:

(1) between the Griffel/Reynolds parcel at a point seven feet north of and parallel to the farming line existing during the 1999 farming year, and extending from the eastern boundary of the Reynolds parcel to the farming line against the trees on the west, and

(2) between the Harshbarger/Reynolds parcel at a point seven feet west of and parallel to the farming line as it existed during the 1999 farming year; that boundary extends north and south to the farming lines against the patches of trees located on the north and south end thereof as reflected in Plaintiffs' Exhibits 1,2, and 3.

Stegelmeier, the third-party defendant, filed a timely appeal from the judgment and from the district court's order denying his motion to alter or amend the judgment. On appeal, he argues that the district court's findings are not supported by substantial evidence, that the boundaries fixed by the district court are arbitrary, ambiguous, and not substantiated by the evidence, and that the plaintiffs' failed to sustain their burden of proof of acquiescence in the farming lines as the boundaries because the location of the farming lines from 1978 to 1999 was not shown with certainty.

DISCUSSION

In Idaho, the phrase "boundary by acquiescence" is often used interchangeably with "boundary by agreement," although the latter more accurately describes the doctrine. Cameron v. Neal, 130 Idaho 898, 950 P.2d 1237 (1997), (citing Wells v. Williamson, 118 Idaho 37, 40, 794 P.2d 626, 629 (1990)

). To prove boundary by agreement, there must be an uncertain or disputed boundary and a subsequent agreement fixing the boundary. The agreement need not be express, but may be implied by the surrounding circumstances and conduct of the parties. Id. at 41, 794 P.2d at 630; Edgeller v. Johnston, 74 Idaho 359, 262 P.2d 1006 (1953).

There is no dispute that the true boundaries between the plaintiffs' and the defendant's property were unknown. The parties' deeds, which were admitted as exhibits, describe the boundaries in terms of the section lines of Section 24 of the government survey, but none of the adjoining owners knew the true position of the lines on the ground. Stegelmeier testified that he had never had any discussions as to the location of the boundaries with the adjoining landowners, and until he could afford a survey, he farmed his property up to the existing farming lines. Further testimony of the parties established that there was no express agreement regarding the plaintiffs' common boundaries with Stegelmeier. Only when Reynolds set the fence posts along the boundaries that he had surveyed in 1995 did the parties learn the location of the true boundaries and the plaintiffs' encroachment onto the Reynolds/Stegelmeier property.

On the element of agreement, Cliff Harshbarger testified that from as far back as 1943, he had farmed up to a fence line, which he contended marked the boundary that he continued to obey. Lloyd Griffel also testified to the existence of a fence line, which he asserted divided his property from Stegelmeier's property, and up to which he had farmed even after the fence got caught in the disk and was removed. However, the plaintiffs offered no evidence as to when the fences were erected, by whom, and for what purpose. They also presented no evidence that Stegelmeier's predecessor had agreed to treat either fence line as the boundary. Furthermore, because the fences were no longer in existence when Stegelmeier purchased his land, the plaintiffs cannot rely on the old fence lines to prove an agreement but must meet their burden of proof with other evidence.

Where no express agreement is...