Lamson v. Cote

• Decision Date: 18 July 2001
• Citation: 2001 ME 109,775 A.2d 1134
• Parties: Barbara LAMSON v. Mark J. COTE et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

775 A.2d 1134

2001 ME 109

Barbara LAMSON v. Mark J. COTE et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: May 16, 2001.

Decided: July 18, 2001.

William H. Dale, Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry, Portland, ME, for plaintiff.

Robert S. Hark, Troubh, Heisler & Piampiano, P.A., Portland, ME, James F. Martemucci, Douglas Denham Buccina & Ernst, Portland, ME, for defendants.

Panel: WATHEN, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA, SAUFLEY, ALEXANDER, and CALKINS, JJ.

SAUFLEY, J.

[¶ 1] Mark and Marie Cote appeal from the judgment entered in the Superior Court (Oxford County, Fritzsche, J.) declaring that Barbara Lamson owns to the center line of the "road" adjacent to her property and that the Cotes have no right to use the road. We vacate the judgment in part and affirm in part.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] The matter before us relates to a dispute over access to Howard Pond in Hanover. Barbara Lamson owns waterfront property that abuts a strip of land leading from a perimeter road to the pond. She sought a declaratory judgment that she had become the owner of part of that strip by operation of the "paper street" statute. See 33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A (1999); see also 23 M.R.S.A. § 3032 (Supp.2000). The defendants, Mark and Marie Cote, own a nonwaterfront lot on the upland side of the perimeter road. The Cotes have used the strip of land beside Lamson's property to obtain access to the pond. The land in dispute is identified as a road on a subdivision plan filed in the Oxford County Registry of Deeds in 1901. The road has never been accepted by the town and has not been improved. It comprises a damp and sloping path approximately thirty-five feet wide and 115 feet long, running from the perimeter road to the water.

[¶ 3] At the turn of the twentieth century, George Virgin owned most of the land on the south side of Howard Pond. In 1899, Virgin conveyed what is now the Lamson lot to W.C. Thomas and Clarence Harlow.¹ Two years later, Virgin recorded the subdivision plan for the land surrounding the Lamson lot.² Upon creation of the subdivision, the Lamson lot, which had been surrounded on its three nonwater sides by Virgin's property, was surrounded by three roads: a perimeter road that ran from east to west parallel to the pond, and two roads located on either side of the Lamson lot, both of which ran from the perimeter road to Howard Pond. The road that is the subject of this dispute is one of the roads leading to the pond. That road abuts Lamson's property on one side and abuts a lot identified on the plan as lot 32 on the other side. There is a dock extending into the pond from the beach at the end of the road.

[¶ 4] In 1919, Virgin conveyed lot 32 and a contiguous upland parcel to W.C. Thomas. In that deed, Virgin explicitly reserved "from this conveyance the Roads as laid out across said lots and shown on said plan." The deed also provided that Thomas would "have all the wood and timber standing in said roads." The current owner of lot 32 is not a party to this action. There is no evidence that Virgin ever conveyed title to the disputed way to Lamson's predecessors, or to the owners of lot 32.

[¶ 5] In 1920, Virgin conveyed what is now the Cotes' land to Siegfried Paul Clemens Schulz.³ In the 1920 deed to Schulz, Virgin reserved "the road as laid out along the head of said lots as shown on plan... recorded in Oxford Registry." The deed further provided that "grantee is to have all the wood and timber growing in the above described roads." The Cotes' land, conveyed after the creation of the subdivision, appears on the subdivision plan as part of a large undifferentiated tract labeled "George A. Virgin Land" and is neither a numbered lot nor adjacent to the disputed way.

[¶ 6] After the Cotes purchased their lot in 1997, they continued to use the disputed way as had the former owners of the lot. The Cotes also replaced the dock that had been used by the former owners of the lot. When Mark Cote cleared some brush on the disputed road, he also apparently cleared brush from Lamson's land. In addition, he cut a birch tree from Lamson's property that had been damaged from the ice storm and was hanging over the disputed way and laid it across the way.

[¶ 7] Lamson objected to the Cotes' use of the road. After sending a letter demanding that the Cotes discontinue using the disputed way and the dock, Lamson filed a five-count complaint in the Superior Court. In her complaint she sought a declaratory judgment that title to the center line of the disputed way is vested in her pursuant to 33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A (count I) and 23 M.R.S.A. § 3032 (count II). Count II also requested an injunction ordering the Cotes to remove their dock. Lamson also claimed trespass damages under 14 M.R.S.A. § 7552 (1980 & Supp.2000) (count III), and 14 M.R.S.A. § 7551-B (Supp.2000) (count IV) as well as common law trespass damages (count V).

[¶ 8] The Cotes filed a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment that they had the right to use the disputed way because they had acquired a prescriptive easement. The parties submitted a partial stipulation of facts to the Superior Court prior to trial. [¶ 9] After a bench trial, the Superior Court concluded that title to the center line of the disputed way passed to each of the two abutting property owners (the Lamson lot and lot 32) pursuant to 33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A, notwithstanding the absence from the litigation of the lot 32 owners and Virgin's successors. The court also found that the disputed way was subject to the deemed vacation provisions of 23 M.R.S.A. § 3032 and that the Cotes, as members of the general public, had no right to use the road. The court ordered the Cotes to remove their dock from the disputed area. The court awarded nominal damages ($1.00) to Lamson on her common law trespass claim (count V), entered judgment for the Cotes on counts III and IV of the complaint and dismissed the Cotes' counterclaim for prescriptive easement as moot. The Cotes filed a motion to alter and amend the judgment and findings pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 52 and M.R.Civ.P. 59. The court denied the motion without comment. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

[¶ 10] The Cotes challenge the court's declaration that Lamson owns to the center line of the road and the court's determination that the Cotes' prescriptive easement claim was moot. The Superior Court's findings of fact will not be set aside unless they are clearly erroneous. M.R.Civ.P. 52; Dowley v. Morency, 1999 ME. 137, ¶ 13, 737 A.2d 1061, 1066-67. We review the court's application of law for clear error. Johnson v. Smith, 1999 ME 168, ¶ 5, 740 A.2d 579, 581.

A. Standing

[¶ 11] The Cotes first contend that Lamson has no standing to bring this action. "[S]tanding is a threshold issue bearing on the court's power to adjudicate disputes." Franklin Prop. Trust v. Foresite, Inc., 438 A.2d 218, 220 (Me.1981) (citations omitted). In order for Lamson to have standing, she must assert that she has some right, title, or interest in the disputed way. See id. at 220-21. Her property abuts land that is arguably a proposed unaccepted way. She alleges that she has an interest based on 33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A and 23 M.R.S.A. § 3032.

[¶ 12] The Cotes argue that, because Lamson cannot prevail in demonstrating her interest in the disputed way, she has no standing to adjudicate her interest. This argument puts the cart before the horse. An abutter of property that is in dispute, who presents a good faith claim of title or of a statutorily or equitably created interest in the disputed property, has standing to litigate the existence of that interest. The Superior Court did not err in allowing Lamson to seek a declaratory judgment that she has title to the center line of the disputed way.

B. Application of 33 M.R.S.A § 469-A

[¶ 13] Because the parties did not join either the owner of lot 32 or Virgin's successors, the record regarding the current ownership of the road is sparse. As between the parties before us, however, there is no factual dispute regarding record title. Virgin never conveyed title to the road to either Lamson's or the Cotes' predecessors in title, and both parties concede that they do not own record title to the disputed way.

[¶ 14] Lamson asserts that she has obtained title, not through conveyance, but through the operation of 33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A. Section 469-A was created to resolve ownership disputes regarding roads and streets laid out on subdivision plans where the original owner did not reserve title in the roads and where the roads have never been accepted by a town. In order to avoid orphaning those "paper streets," section 469-A(1) provides:

Any conveyance made before the effective date of this section which conveyed land abutting upon a proposed, unaccepted way laid out on a subdivision plan recorded in the registry of deeds shall be deemed to have conveyed all of the grantor's interest in the portion of the way which abuts the land conveyed, unless the grantor expressly reserved his title to the way by a specific reference to this reservation in the conveyance of the land.

33 M.R.S.A. § 469-A(1) (emphasis added). This section requires the claimant to prove not only the existence of a conveyance made before the effective date of the section, that is, September 29, 1987, which conveyed land abutting a proposed, unaccepted way, but also that the proposed way was laid out on a subdivision plan recorded in the registry of deeds and that the grantor did not reserve title in that proposed way. See id.

[¶ 15] In 1899, when the Lamson lot was carved out of Virgin's property, no subdivision plan had been recorded in the registry of deeds. Lamson's lot is therefore not addressed by section 469-A because it does not result from a conveyance "made before the effective date of this section which conveyed land abutting upon a proposed, unaccepted way laid out on a subdivision plan recorded in the registry of deeds." Id. (emphasis added).⁴

[¶ 16] Moreover, because...