Lance v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 23 March 2018
• Docket Number: No. 16–0323,16–0323
• Citation: 543 S.W.3d 723
• Parties: John A. LANCE, Debra L. Lance, F.D. Franks, and Helen Franks, Petitioners, v. Judith and Terry ROBINSON, Gary and Brenda Fest, Virginia Gray, Butch Townsend and Bexar–Medina–Atascosa Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1., Respondents
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

543 S.W.3d 723

John A. LANCE, Debra L. Lance, F.D. Franks, and Helen Franks, Petitioners,

v.Judith and Terry ROBINSON, Gary and Brenda Fest, Virginia Gray, Butch Townsend and Bexar–Medina–Atascosa Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1., Respondents

No. 16–0323

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued November 7, 2017

Opinion delivered: March 23, 2018

Amicus Curiae Timothy Patton.

Dan V. Pozza, Pozza & Whyte, PLLC, San Antonio, TX, Cynthia Cox Payne, John D. Payne, Attorney’s at Law, Bandera, TX, for Petitioners F.D. Franks, Helen Franks, Debra L. Lance, John A Lance.

Edward T. Hecker, Gostomski & Hecker, P.C., San Antonio, TX, for Respondent Bexar-Medina-Atascosa Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1.

Stephan B. Rogers, Kelly P. Rogers, Ross S. Elliott, Rogers & Moore, PLLC, Boerne, TX, for Respondents Brenda Fest, Gary Fest, Virginia Gray, Judith Robinson, Terry Robinson, Butch Townsend.

Justice Boyd delivered the opinion of the Court.

So stupendous is the conception, so vast the scale of actual accomplishment in the construction of the Medina Dam Project that thousands of its nearest neighbors have positively no conception of the immensity of this undertaking. Yet, by a strange twist of Fate's perversity, this everlasting monument to man's mastery over the greatest forces of nature has achieved a deserved fame in the four corners of the earth, until not only the kings of finance, but royalty itself has leaned forward from its gilded throne and hearkened to the resistless lure of this giant among enterprises.¹

One hundred years ago, the Medina Valley Irrigation Company (MVICO) embarked on an ambitious plan to create a functional oasis in the Texas Hill Country. The project, which included the Medina Dam, the Diversion Dam a few miles downstream, and a twenty-six-mile canal system, was an engineering marvel at the time. When MVICO completed the Medina Dam in 1912, it became the largest dam in the state and the fourth largest in the country. By the time the lake first reached its capacity in 1919, the 254,000 acre-feet of water creating 100 miles of live-oaked shoreline had become a popular destination. In addition to the scenic views and recreational opportunities in the Box Canyon west of San Antonio, the project has provided agricultural irrigation, prevented flooding, supplied drinking water, and offered a peaceful place to live or enjoy a weekend home.²

But the project has faced its challenges as well. Seventy men died while constructing the dam. The investors and operators endured financial defaults and receiverships. Droughts and the canyon's porous limestone have repeatedly left docks stranded on a lake bed dry enough for cattle grazing. Floods and aging have required expensive re-stabilization efforts. And disputes over ownership and easement rights in the land surrounding the lake have resulted in repeated and protracted litigation.

In this case, three families who own lots on a peninsula at Medina Lake filed suit after their new neighbors denied them access to an open-space area the community has long considered public space for recreation and access to the lake. The new neighbors claim they own the open-space area and that the community members have no easements or other rights to use it. The plaintiffs contend that a local water district owns the land, and alternatively, that they have an easement right to use it regardless of who owns it. The trial court and court of appeals agreed with the plaintiffs. We affirm in part and reverse in part and remand the case to the trial court.

I.Background

To develop the Medina Dam Project, MVICO had to acquire property rights from those whose lands would be flooded to create the lake. MVICO acquired those rights in various forms from numerous different landowners, including Theresa Spettle and her three daughters. In January 1917, the Spettles conveyed slightly over 1,500 acres to MVICO. The deed for this conveyance (the Spettle Deed) describes eighteen separate tracts by referring to each tract's acreage amounts, prior surveys, and metes and bounds. For example, the deed describes the tract that included the land at issue in this case as "104.5 acres, more or less, off the West end of Survey No. 231–Adams, Beaty, & Moulton, Medina³ County, Texas, more particularly described by metes and bounds as follows: Commencing at point ''0 1'', thence ...," followed by numerous calls describing specific distances in particular directions, until finally "to place of beginning."

The Spettle Deed provides that the lands conveyed to MVICO were to "be used forever as a reservoir for storing water above" the Medina Dam, "for use in the maintenance and operation of the Irrigation System." It expressly gives MVICO the right to "submerge" the property conveyed "by backing water from its dam over said lands." It also reserves for the Spettles rights to "use" the waters and to construct improvements "upon the edges of the reservoir," specifically:

(1) The right to use the waters in the reservoir for domestic purposes;

(2) The right to use the waters in the reservoir for bathing, boating, fishing and hunting; and,

(3) The right to construct upon the edges of the reservoir at their own peril and expense and without any liability of the grantors [sic] for the destruction thereof by water or otherwise, such improvements as may be necessary and incident to the exercise of the privileges above reserved by the grantors, their heirs and assigns, which privileges are to be exercised by said parties only to the extent and in proportion which the acreage above described bears to the total acreage under the flow line of said reservoir.

About six months after executing the Spettle Deed, Theresa and her daughters executed another deed through which they partitioned among themselves about 4,000 acres of their remaining land in Bandera and Medina counties, which until then they held jointly in common. In this Partition Deed, each of the Spettles agreed, on behalf of themselves "and their heirs and assigns," that Theresa would own certain tracts totaling 928 acres, her daughter Mathilda Spettle Redus would own tracts totaling 728 acres, and Mathilda's two sisters would jointly own the remaining acres. The Partition Deed describes each of the tracts by referring to acreage amounts, previous surveys, and boundaries based on points, directions, distances, and various natural markers. The Deed partitions the respective lands to each of the Spettles "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ... with all and singular the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or in anywise incident or appertaining ... as her separate estate, her heirs and assigns ... in fee simple and forever."

As mentioned, the Spettle Deed grants MVICO the right to "submerge" the land it acquired from the Spettles "by backing water from its dam over said lands," and it permits the Spettles to exercise their reserved rights and privileges "only to the extent and in proportion which the acreage above described bears to the total acreage under the flow line of said reservoir." Apparently alluding to those references, the Partition Deed refers to "the backwater or flow line" as one of the natural markers used to describe the partitioned tracts' boundaries. For example, the deed describes the lands partitioned to Mathilda as including "197 acres of Survey No. 231 in name of Adams, Beaty & Moulton," described "more particularly" by metes and bounds beginning at a "stake set on [MVICO]'s backwater or flow line," returning a few times to points along the "backwater or flow line," continuing at one point "along with the meanders of said backwater or flow line, as surveyed for [MVICO]," and finally returning to "the place of beginning."

The land at issue in this case is on a narrow peninsula at Medina Lake known as Redus Point, which was originally part of the 728 acres partitioned to Mathilda Spettle Redus. Respondents Judith and Terry Robinson, Gary and Brenda Fest, and Virginia Gray (collectively, the Robinsons) own Lots 1, 2, and 3, respectively, in the Redus Point Addition Subdivision. The peninsula generally runs from north to south, and the lots sit along the western edge, atop an incline or "cliff" as high as fifty feet above the water when the lake is full. Although it is possible to access the water below the cliff from these lots, the steep, rocky incline makes it difficult and, at least to some degree, unsafe. Because of this, the Robinsons and other Redus Point lot owners have regularly accessed the water along the peninsula's gently sloping eastern side, usually using an open space east of Fauries Road, which runs from north to south along the peninsula. Since at least the 1970s, the Robinsons and other lot owners have constructed improvements in this open space, including walkways, a dock, a boat ramp, and a deck. Although the open space has long been surrounded by a low post-and-cable fence, the community members have freely used the open space as a place for recreation and easy access to the water.

The Robinsons claim that their joint rights to use and improve the open space derives from the Spettle Deed, in which the Spettles reserved to themselves and "their heirs and assigns" the right to "use the waters in the reservoir" for domestic and recreational purposes and to "construct upon the edges the reservoir ... such improvements as may be necessary and incident to the exercise of [those] privileges." They contend that Theresa Spettle and her three daughters, including Mathilda, each retained these rights in the Partition Deed as "hereditaments and appurtenances ... belonging, or in anywise incident or appertaining" to their partitioned lands. More specifically, the Robinsons contend that the Spettle Deed granted MVICO fee-simple ownership in all of the land up to a point that is even with the height of the top of Medina Dam, which the parties refer to as Elevation 1084. The Robinsons assert that the Spettle Deed's reference to...