North Shore, Inc. v. Wakefield

• Decision Date: 16 March 1995
• Docket Number: No. 940053,940053
• Parties: NORTH SHORE, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Daniel V. WAKEFIELD, Luella M. Schafer, and all other persons unknown claiming any estate or interest in, or lien or encumbrance upon, the property described in the complaint, Defendants and Appellees. Civ.
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Page 297

530 N.W.2d 297

NORTH SHORE, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Daniel V. WAKEFIELD, Luella M. Schafer, and all other

persons unknown claiming any estate or interest in, or lien

or encumbrance upon, the property described in the

complaint, Defendants and Appellees.

Civ. No. 940053.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

March 16, 1995.

Murray G. Sagsveen (argued), Zuger Kirmis & Smith, Bismarck, for plaintiff and appellant.

Joseph J. Cichy (argued), Olson Cichy, Bismarck, for defendants and appellees.

NEUMANN, Justice.

North Shore, Inc., appealed from a judgment quieting title in certain land to Daniel V. Wakefield and Luella M. Schafer and awarding Wakefield and Schafer $34,491, plus costs, for damages to that land. We affirm.

I

The land involved in this case is referred to by the parties as riparian land between the meander line ¹ and the ordinary high watermark of Devils Lake and is adjacent to government Lots 1 and 2 in Section 14 and government Lot 1 in Section 23 in Grand Harbor Township (T153N-R65W), Ramsey County. The parties all trace their claims to the riparian land from a common source, Frank A. Walford. Walford platted three subdivisions in government Lot 1 in Section 23, and in 1975, he conveyed a lot in one of those subdivisions, Walford's Second Main Lakeview Subdivision, by contract for deed to Leo and Luella Schafer. Leo died, and Luella now owns that lot. The meander line of Devils Lake is located on the southeast side of Schafer's lot.

Walford died in 1978. As relevant to this case, three conveyances were made involving his remaining land. In May 1981, Walford's heirs conveyed a tract of land in Section 14, now platted as the North Shore subdivision, by warranty deed to North Shore's predecessor in interest, North Shore Heights Limited Partnership. The meander line of Devils Lake is located on the southeast side of that tract of land. The south boundary of that tract is the section line between Sections 14 and 23, and the northeast boundary is established by a 1968 agreement between Walford and a neighbor.

On September 14, 1982, Walford's heirs conveyed a contiguous tract of land in Sections 14 and 23 by warranty deed to Julian and Rose Kostecki. On September 29, 1982, the Kosteckis conveyed part of that land, now known as the Wakefield Addition, by warranty deed to Wakefield. Most of the Wakefield Addition is west of the North Shore subdivision in Section 14 and is not adjacent to Devils Lake. However, the Wakefield Addition includes a strip of land in Section 23, which lies between the North Shore subdivision and Schafer's lot and has 40 feet of frontage on the meander line of Devils Lake.

North Shore began developing its subdivision and moved some dirt and landfill to the riparian land in Section 23. By virtue of their ownership of the upland, Wakefield and Schafer claimed ownership of that riparian land. North Shore thereafter obtained quit claim deeds from the Walford heirs for the riparian land next to its subdivision in Section 14 and from the Kosteckis for the riparian land next to the Wakefield Addition in Section 23. North Shore then brought this action against Wakefield and Schafer to quiet title to the riparian land in Section 23. Wakefield and Schafer counterclaimed to quiet title and seek damages for North Shore's activities on the land.

The trial court decided the action in three phases. First, the court construed the deeds that conveyed the land to the parties and concluded that the Kosteckis' warranty deed to Wakefield conveyed riparian land in Section 23 to Wakefield. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Wakefield and Schafer, holding, as a matter of law, that they owned riparian land in Section 23. After a bench trial in the second phase, the court divided the riparian and accreted land among the parties. In the third phase, the court awarded Wakefield and Schafer $34,491, plus costs, for damages to their land. North Shore appealed.

II

We initially consider the issue about ownership of riparian land in Section 23. The parties agree that, at statehood, Devils Lake was a navigable body of water. See Matter of Ownership of Bed of Devils Lake, 423 N.W.2d 141 (N.D.1988); Rutten v. State, 93 N.W.2d 796 (N.D.1958). They also agree that Walford initially owned all the upland and associated riparian land. They further agree that the Walford heirs conveyed the riparian land associated with the upland when they conveyed the respective tracts of upland to the Kosteckis and to North Shore. However, North Shore argues that the Kosteckis' warranty deed to Wakefield is unambiguous and conveyed only the specific tract of upland described therein by metes and bounds and by acres, and did not convey any riparian land in Section 23 to Wakefield. Alternatively, North Shore asserts that the Kosteckis' deed is ambiguous, creating a factual issue about the parties' intent, which, North Shore argues, must be resolved in its favor because the Kosteckis did not intend to convey any riparian land in Section 23 to Wakefield. In either case, North Shore argues that the Kosteckis' later quit claim deed granted it the riparian land in Section 23.

We review this issue in the context of summary judgment, a procedural device for the prompt and expeditious disposition of a controversy without a trial if there is no genuine issue of material fact or inferences to be drawn from undisputed facts, or if only a question of law is involved. State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. v. LaRoque, 486 N.W.2d 235 (N.D.1992). Even if a factual dispute exists, summary judgment is appropriate if the law is such that the resolution of the factual dispute will not change the result. Striegel v. Dakota Hills, Inc., 365 N.W.2d 491 (N.D.1985).

The Kosteckis' warranty deed to Wakefield described the conveyed property by metes and bounds and specified that it conveyed 1.75 acres in Section 23 to Wakefield. However, the deed also described the lake side boundary of the property in Section 23 as "along the meander line of Devils Lake." ² This issue involves the effect of that deed's designation of the boundary of the conveyed property as "along the meander line."

Under our rules for construing grants of real property and our rules for determining ownership of riparian land and accretions, we hold that unless a deed indicates a contrary intent with an explicit reservation or exception, or the record title indicates a prior separation of the upland and the riparian land, a deed that designates a meander line as the boundary of a conveyance conveys the grantor's property interest to the ordinary high watermark, and also correlative interests vis-a-vis the State in the area between the ordinary high watermark and the ordinary low watermark.

Chapter 47-09, N.D.C.C., outlines specific rules for construing grants of real property. Section 47-09-11, N.D.C.C., says that "[g]rants shall be interpreted in like manner with contracts in general except so far as is otherwise provided by this chapter." Under N.D.C.C. Sec. 47-09-13, "[a] grant shall be interpreted in favor of the grantee, except that a reservation in any grant ... is to be interpreted in favor of the grantor." Section 47-09-16, N.D.C.C., provides that "[a] transfer vests in the transferee all the actual title to the thing transferred which the transferor then has unless a different intention is expressed or is necessarily implied. It also transfers all its incidents unless expressly excepted, but the transfer of an incident to a thing does not transfer the thing itself."

The language of the deed, if clear and explicit, governs its interpretation; the parties' mutual intentions must be ascertained from the four corners of the deed, if possible. N.D.C.C. Secs. 9-07-02, 9-07-03, 9-07-04. E.g., Royse v. Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Inc., 256 N.W.2d 542 (N.D.1977). Although a court may look to the circumstances under which a deed was made to explain ambiguous language, Mueller v. Stangeland, 340 N.W.2d 450 (N.D.1983), we have said that exceptions or reservations of property in a deed should be set forth with the same prominence as the property granted and should be so explicit as to leave no room for doubt. Royse v. Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Inc., supra. In order to promote certainty from the four corners of a deed and from the record title, our rules for construing deeds thus express a preference for clear and explicit reservations or exceptions in a deed. Id. See generally Anderson & Edin, The Growing Uncertainty of Real Estate Titles, 65 N.D.L.Rev. 1 (1989).

Our statutes also outline specific rules for construing conveyances of upland and determining ownership of riparian land and accretions. ³ Section 47-01-15, N.D.C.C., says that "[e]xcept when the grant under which the land is held indicates a different intent, the owner of the upland, when it borders on a navigable lake or stream, takes to the edge of the lake or stream at low watermark." In State ex rel. Sprynczynatyk v. Mills, 523 N.W.2d 537 (N.D.1994), we recently held that N.D.C.C. Sec. 47-01-15 is a rule of construction under which an upland owner "takes" the interest granted in a conveying instrument to the low watermark, "[e]xcept when the grant under which the land is held indicates a different intent." We held that the interests of a riparian grantee and the State in the area between the ordinary high watermark and the ordinary low watermark were not absolute, and that both parties had correlative interests in that area.

A related statute, N.D.C.C. Sec. 47-06-05, provides that "[w]here from natural causes land forms by imperceptible degrees upon the bank of a river or stream, navigable or not navigable, either by accumulation of material or by the recession of the stream, such land belongs to the owner of the bank, subject to any existing right of way over the bank." Under that statute, we have consistently said that, in the event of...