Newfound Management Corp. v. Sewer

• Decision Date: 27 March 1995
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 91-315.
• Citation: 885 F. Supp. 727
• Parties: NEWFOUND MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, GENERAL PARTNER OF NEWFOUND LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, Plaintiff, v. Irvin A. SEWER, Cedric Lewis, Lucinda Anthony, Earle Sewer, Violet Sewer, Jasmine Sewer, Lorel Sewer, Judith Callwood, Leon Callwood, Lorne Callwood, and Persons Unknown Who Have Attempted to Obstruct Construction Work on Plaintiff's Land, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Virgin Islands

885 F. Supp. 727

NEWFOUND MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, GENERAL PARTNER OF NEWFOUND LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, Plaintiff, v. Irvin A. SEWER, Cedric Lewis, Lucinda Anthony, Earle Sewer, Violet Sewer, Jasmine Sewer, Lorel Sewer, Judith Callwood, Leon Callwood, Lorne Callwood, and Persons Unknown Who Have Attempted to Obstruct Construction Work on Plaintiff's Land, Defendants.

Civ. No. 91-315.

District Court, Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John.

March 27, 1995.

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Jewel L. Cooper, Tom Bolt & Associates, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., Alan Garber, Clair A. Carlson, Jr., Mason & Martin, Boston, MA, for plaintiff Newfound Management Corp.

Mario Bryan, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., for defendant Cedric Lewis.

Vincent Frazer, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., for all other defendants (The "Sewer Defendants").

OPINION

BROTMAN, District Judge:

INTRODUCTION

Before the court is an action in trespass, libel, slander, slander of title, intentional interference with business relations, and to quiet title to Parcel 6p and Parcel 7a, Estate Hansen Bay, East End Quarter, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, by Newfound Management Corporation, plaintiff. In addition, plaintiff petitions for permanent injunctive relief against Irvin A. Sewer, Lucinda Anthony, Earle Sewer, Violet Sewer, Jasmine Sewer, Lorel Sewer, Judith Callwood, Leon Callwood, and Lorne Callwood (collectively known as the "Sewer defendants"), and co-defendant Cedric Lewis. The underlying issues concerning the boundaries and title to nine parcels of property on the East End including 6p and 7a were tried to the bench from October 3 to October 5, 1994 pursuant to V.I.CODE ANN. tit. 28 § 372.¹ On October 6, 1994, plaintiff submitted supplemental proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.² On October 7, 1994, defendants submitted the same. A jury trial on plaintiff's other claims will follow the entry of a decision on these preliminary matters.

The present land dispute between descendants of old St. John families and a mainland real estate development corporation, New-found Management Corporation ("New-found") is truly bitter. In the late 1800s, two families owned the ruggedly beautiful Hansen Bay section of the East End of St. John with its commanding views of bays and the sea. At that time, the land in question belonged to members of the George and Sewer families but had little monetary value; almost one hundred years later, Newfound has purchased sizable tracts of the East End and the land's value has increased manyfold. On the steep, thickly overgrown hillsides where family members once farmed and burros still graze, further development is likely.

Land recording practices and a perplexing mixture of unsurveyed land, conflicting surveys, uncertain genealogies and unprobated estates complicate the title and boundary issues presented to the court. Until the late 1950s, no one had surveyed the perimeters of various parcels on the East End. Prior to that era, deeds and estate documents conveying property merely referred to parcels by using place names or combined letter and numerical designations. These designations appeared on nineteenth-century Danish tax records that listed East End property owners, corresponding holdings and stated acreage measurements, as well as on deeds and other agreements between landowners.³ The absence of more specific identifying information muddles further the existing disagreements concerning ownership and boundaries of St. John properties. This opinion will seek to locate the disputed parcels, define boundaries and determine title according to the proofs submitted to the court at trial.

After a careful, detailed review of the entire record, including expert testimony and exhibits presented by the parties, the court enters the following findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

FINDINGS OF FACT

A. Historical Background:

The 1894 and 1913 Agreements

1. In 1893, two families, the Georges and the Sewers, owned the properties in question, part of Hansen Bay in the East End Quarter on St. John. When the families disagreed concerning the sale of specific piece of property, a member of the George family, Wellington George, asked a Danish surveyor, I. Anderson⁴, to divide the property so as to avoid such disputes in the future. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

2. On October 19, 1893, Anderson surveyed the property in the presence of two members of each family. His survey was not intended to reflect the exact acreage held by each family; it merely provided an agreed upon boundary.⁵ He established compass bearings for the A-B, B-C, and C-D lines. After Anderson drew the boundary, the Georges possessed approximately 66½ acres and the Sewers approximately 78½ acres. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

3. Anderson marked the boundary line with stone piles at points B and C and placed two more stone piles on the boundary between C and D. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

4. Such a survey, using only a compass, was a common practice when a surveyor sought to roughly divide low-priced land. CHARLES B. BREED & GEORGE L. HOSMER, THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF SURVEYING 110 (8th ed. 1946).

5. The George-Sewer line divided the property with the George family's holdings north of the line and designated Hansen Bay No. 6a. The Sewer family land lay south of the line and was designated Hansen Bay No. 6b. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

6. Two primary agreements memorialized the identification and transfer of East End Hansen Bay properties, specifically the 1894 and 1913 Agreements. These properly recorded agreements described land ownership interests and many early transfers of property between St. John property owners. These agreements set forth the initial transfers upon which later conveyances depended.

7. In the 1894 agreement recorded in Book U, pages 183-189, the families agreed that Anderson's survey would bind them. Thus the descendants of William George owned the northern parcel and descendants of Eve Marie Sewer owned the southern parcel. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

8. When the families executed the agreement they recognized that Anderson's survey was imperfect. Their agreement stated:

Whereas the Surveyor was not able to measure the estate properly, as such would cause great expenses and take long time, entirely out of propotion to the value of the estate, it was agreed that the sketch, made by the Surveyor on the 19th October 1893, and the boundary he then fixed, should be binding for all parties. grammatical and spelling irregularities in original

Pl.'s Ex. 15.

9. The 1894 agreement split the Sewer holdings to the South, called 6b, into 3 parcels: Martin Sewers' holdings labeled 6c (stated acreage of 4½ acres), Richard Stevens' holdings labeled 6d (stated acreage 9¾ acres), with the remaining acres (stated acreage 64½ acres) held in common by the Sewer heirs. Pl.'s Ex. 15.

10. The 1894 agreement also divided a section of George family property known as Longbay No. 1, sited north of the Anderson line, into two properties: Parcel 6e, owned by the George family and comprising 6 4/5 acres, and Parcel 6f, owned by the Sewer family and comprising 1 1/5 acres. Pl.'s Ex. 15.⁶

11. In 1894, the heirs of Eve Maria Sewer transferred by quitclaim deed to Martin Sewer, their one-fifth claim in Longbay No. 1.⁷

12. An intervening agreement, in 1898, further divided the portion of Longbay No. 1 owned by the George family, parcel 6e. Four George heirs signed a quitclaim deed conveying a section of the parcel, subsequently designated 6-0, to Alphonso Roberts. The deed was recorded at Book 3-H, Page 472, No. 139. The stated acreage conveyed was 3 4/5 of parcel 6e's 6 4/5 acres. Pl.'s Ex. 21. Other William Henry George heirs, including Martha George, Emanuel George and James Wellington George, held the remaining portion of Parcel 6e, totalling approximately three acres.⁸

13. Then, in 1913, the Sewer and George families, as well as other East End landowners, entered into the second significant agreement, recorded at Book 3-I, Page 11, No. 272-276, which further clarified the ownership of various parcels of land in the East End. Pl.'s Ex. 16, 173. The 1913 Agreement assigned the George family holdings, formerly described in the 1984 Agreement as parcel 6a, the designation "6". Similarly, the Agreement assigned the Sewer family holdings, formerly described as parcel 6b, the designation "7".

14. In addition, the 1913 Agreement characterized descriptions of acreage as mere approximations. The 1913 agreement stated that:

It is true that the above mentioned acres are only given as guess and approximately as no measuring ever has been made, and the acreage thus spoken of can consequently be less — or more but the difference can not be so great, that we could own substantially more. We could think it possible, that some of the land in the East End of St. Jan never has been entered in the Matricul, as the land was considered worthless and also now partly is considered of hartly any value....

It is understood, that the acreage, mentioned above is only calculatory and approximately and may be found different, when any measuring should be made. There is however no misunderstanding amongst us with regard to the boundaries. grammatical and spelling irregularities in original Pl.'s Exs. 16, 173.

15. The 1913 agreement further described Longbay No. 1 as "6o" divided into five parcels. Accordingly, in 1913, Longbay No. 1 — parcel "6o" consisted of 3 4/5 acres owned by Alfonso Roberts, 1 1/5 acres owned by Martin Sewers, 3 acres owned by Ann Marie George, James Wellington George and Mary Elizabeth Boynes. Pl.'s Exs. 16, 173.

The court will next set forth findings of facts that locate each parcel of property and identify ownership interests. The court considers nine parcels, 6-0, 6-0-1, 6-0-2, 6f, 6y, 6z, 10, 6p and 7a, respectively.

B. Parcel "6o", now known as Parcel 6-0, a portion of Longbay No. 1

Location and Title

1....