Palmer v. R.A. Yancey Lumber Corp.

• Decision Date: 14 September 2017
• Docket Number: Record No. 160664.
• Citation: 803 S.E.2d 742,294 Va. 140
• Parties: Joanna PALMER v. R.A. YANCEY LUMBER CORPORATION
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

294 Va. 140

803 S.E.2d 742

Joanna PALMER

v.R.A. YANCEY LUMBER CORPORATION

Record No. 160664.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

September 14, 2017

J. Addison Barnhardt (Grisham & Barnhardt, on briefs), for appellant.

W. Alexander Burnett (Andrew O. Mathews ; Williams Mullen, on brief), Richmond, for appellee.

PRESENT: All the Justices

OPINION BY JUSTICE ELIZABETH A. McCLANAHAN

Joanna Palmer challenges the circuit court's order approving modifications to an easement by necessity crossing her property. The court did so after finding that the modifications are reasonably necessary for the beneficial use of property owned by R.A. Yancey Lumber Corporation ("Yancey"). We affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

I. BACKGROUND

The parties stipulated to the following facts. Palmer owns approximately 44 acres located in Albemarle County adjoining State Route 736 (the "Palmer Property"). Yancey owns 317 contiguous acres located in Albemarle County and Nelson County (the "Yancey Property"). The Palmer Property and the Yancey Property derived from the common ownership of Richard Richardson, dating back to the time of his death in 1828.¹ Richardson's property was subdivided at that time with the probate of his will and the Yancey Property was left landlocked. That is to say, there was no access from the Yancey Property to a public road by an express easement or any other means.

Consequently, when Richardson's property was subdivided, "an implied easement by necessity for access and reasonable use and enjoyment of the Yancey Property was created by the law burdening the Palmer Property and for the benefit of the Yancey Property." A private road (the "Access Road") has long been and continues to be "the sole means of ingress and egress from the Yancey Property to a public road," which "comprises some or all of Yancey's easement by necessity." The Access Road runs from the corner of the Yancey Property through two intervening tracts of land (the "Kiser Property" and the "Campbell Property"² owned by third parties), and then through the Palmer Property to State Route 736. Yancey and its predecessors have used the Access Road "for ingress and egress purposes, including but not limited to access for timbering and timber related activity," and "[t]he ability to timber the property is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of the Yancey Property." In their final stipulation, however, Yancey and Palmer state that they disagree over "the size and scope of the easement by necessity."

The disagreement arose when Yancey prepared to presently harvest timber from the Yancey Property. It last timbered the property in the late 1980's. Its plans are to cut approximately 83 acres of pines and then cut some of the mixed hardwood in the near future. Yancey also wants to haul the logs using tractor-trailers instead of ten-wheel logging trucks—which are the kind of trucks that Yancey's neighbor had recently used for four to five weeks to haul timber from the Campbell Property. This would necessitate improving and widening the Access Road in certain locations. Yancey was given an express nonexclusive easement to use the Access Road for ingress and egress of vehicles, "including without limitation customarily used tree harvesting equipment and transports," by the owners of the Kiser Property and the Campbell Property. Palmer rejected Yancey's request for such an express easement over the Palmer Property.

Yancey thereafter filed the instant declaratory judgment action against Palmer alleging, among other things, the facts set forth in the above-stated stipulations, along with the allegation that "[t]imbering is the best and highest use of the Yancey Property." Yancey further alleged that it is thus "entitled to use the Access Road for ingress and egress for all purposes, including timbering ... as an easement by necessity."³ Yancey asked the circuit court to (i) declare that it possesses such an easement as a "permanent easement, wide enough for ingress and egress of all vehicles [used for, among other purposes,] timbering," and (ii) enjoin Palmer from interfering with its right to so use the easement.

Prior to trial, the parties agreed to the above-stated stipulations and then a two-day bench trial was conducted. In its case in chief, Yancey presented the testimony of its president, Emmett Yancey ("Emmett"), who explained Yancey's plans for timbering both the pines and mixed hardwoods on the Yancey property. This includes Yancey's desire to modify the Access Road in order to enable the company to utilize tractor-trailers for transporting the logs from the Yancey Property to State Route 736, and from there to its sawmill at another location. Using tractor-trailers, according to Emmett, is the most efficient and cost-effective way to haul the logs—as opposed to using the shorter ten-wheel logging trucks. Moreover, it is the only way to haul the pine logs at full-length, which is the size best suited for Yancey's sawmill equipment and most demanded in the lumber market.

Yancey presented the testimony of William Foster, a land surveyor, who provided measurements of the Access Road on the Palmer Property to assist in specifically identifying the location and width of the modifications that Yancey was seeking to make to the Access Road. Foster testified that the Access Road is 30 feet wide at the entrance of the Palmer Property where it adjoins State Route 736. The roadbed, according to Foster, then varied in width from as wide as 15 feet to as narrow as 8 feet at the rock outcroppings along the edge of the roadbed near the Campbell Property.

Larry Endsley, a procurement manager for a lumber manufacturer, American Hardwood Industries, with nearly 40 years of experience in the timber industry, testified for Yancey as an expert witness regarding this industry, and specifically the economics and logistics of timber removal. This included expertise in road construction and modification for transporting timber over private properties. According to Endsley, timber industry standards dictate the use of tractor-trailers for timbering the Yancey Property based on both the volume and type of timber that Yancey plans to harvest. He testified that, under these standards, ten-wheel logging trucks would only be appropriate for smaller timbering operations, like the recent one on the Campbell Property, for economic reasons.⁴ These standards, he further explained, also call for tractor-trailers to haul pine logs because the shorter ten wheel-trucks lack the capacity to haul pine logs at full-length. This part of his testimony essentially reiterated Emmett's earlier testimony.

Endsley also provided extensive testimony regarding his recommendations for modifying the Access Road over the Palmer Property for purposes of accommodating tractor-trailers. This would involve making various improvements, including widening that portion of the Access Road in three limited locations. As such, two-thirds of the Access Road over the Palmer Property would not be widened at all. Furthermore, according to Endsley, the Access Road needs to be widened at those locations, whether Yancey were to haul the timber by tractor-trailers or ten-wheel trucks, as the widths of the roadway at those locations are currently not suitable for even ten-wheel trucks.⁵

Finally, Yancey presented excerpts from Palmer's deposition. In those excerpts, Palmer indicated that she "absolutely" preferred that the Yancey Property be used for timbering as opposed to anything else. She further acknowledged that "you have to have access for large vehicles," and that it was "not possible to bring a tractor-trailer in without widening the [Access Road]." However, she testified that tractor-trailers, as opposed to ten-wheel logging trucks, "take it a step beyond" what she prefers to have "driving in front of [her] house," which is located approximately 40 to 50 feet from the Access Road (with a stream running between them) and approximately 300 feet from where the Access Road intersects with Route 736.

In defending against Yancey's action, Palmer did not offer any expert testimony to rebut Endsley's testimony. She offered only (i) her own lay testimony, consisting mainly of her objections to the proposed modifications to the Access Road for esthetic reasons; (ii) the lay testimony of a long-time friend, who was familiar with the Access Road because he had been Palmer's "house sitter" many times over the course of several years; and (iii) the lay testimony of a nearby neighbor, who in previous years had frequently walked to a spring near Palmer's house using the Access Road. Each of these witnesses described the condition of the Access Road as it appeared over several years and compared that to how it currently appears. They also described the logging truck traffic on the Access Road that they had observed on various occasions over the years. Palmer testified in particular about her recent observations of ten-wheel trucks hauling timber from the Campbell Property for a period of four to five weeks. Her neighbor added that this amounted to "heavy traffic."

Palmer's overall objection to Yancey's action was that its proposed modifications to the Access Road would result in negatively impacting the character of her property. More specifically, Palmer stated that she objected to, among other things, the entrance to her property being widened because she did not want it to look like a commercial entrance; to any trees being trimmed or removed; and to the removal of any rock outcroppings.

The circuit court took the matter under advisement and thereafter held a hearing to issue an oral ruling. The court rejected Palmer's argument that as a matter of law the easement by necessity could not be widened by order of the court without her consent. The court concluded that it did have such authority. The court then determined that, based upon the parties' stipulations of fact that Yancey possesses what has long been an easement by necessity along the Access...