Panciera v. Ashaway Pines, LLC
| Decision Date | 12 March 2010 |
| Docket Number | C.A. WC07-0836 |
| Parties | KENNETH PANCIERA AND JOANNE PANCIERA v. ASHAWAY PINES, LLC |
| Court | Rhode Island Superior Court |
AMENDED DECISION
THIS DECISION IS BEING AMENDED TO REPLACE THE ORIGINAL DECISION IN THIS CASE WHICH WAS FILED ON FEBRUARY 9, 2010.
This matter is before the Court because Defendant Ashaway Pines LLC ("Ashaway"), seeks to establish the boundaries of a laneway (the "Laneway"), which provides access to a seventy-three acre parcel it owns in the Town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island. The Laneway, roughly 500 feet long is comprised mostly of fill and runs through swampland that abuts, in part, property owned by Plaintiffs Kenneth and Joanne Panciera ("the Pancieras"). On April 29 2009, this Court granted Ashaway's partial motion for summary judgment and held that Ashaway owned the Laneway by adverse possession, but that "[t]his matter shall proceed to determine the precise bounds of the Laneway and on Defendant's counterclaims." During the trial, Ashaway asserted the Laneway is comprised of all the land running northerly from Route 216 in Hopkinton (the "highway"), to the southwest corner of the land described in its deed, plus the thin sliver of swamp between the western edge of the Laneway and the eastern boundary of the abutting owners. Specifically, Ashaway contends the boundaries of the Laneway are established under the doctrines of boundary by acquiescence, adverse possession and the statutory presumption of "lost grant" coupled with "strip and gore." The Pancieras contend they are the deeded owners of the property abutting the Laneway to the east, and also claim to maintain a possessory interest in the thin sliver of swamp that abuts the western edge of the Laneway. Jurisdiction is pursuant to G.L. 1956 §§ 8-2-13 and 8-2-14. For the reasons set forth herein, this Court holds the Laneway's eastern toe of slope forms the boundary between Ashaway's and the Pancieras' respective properties to the east, and declines to establish the exact parameters of the Laneway's boundary to the west.
The Pancieras brought this action on December 19, 2007, seeking to enjoin Ashaway from trespassing on the Laneway, to quiet title to the Laneway in themselves, a declaration that their property includes the Laneway, and damages for slander of title. On December 19, 2007, this Court issued a temporary restraining order barring Ashaway from altering the Laneway or proceeding with Ashaway's application for a special-use permit before the Hopkinton Zoning Board. On February 8, 2008, this Court denied the Pancieras' prayer for a preliminary injunction. Subsequently, on November 17 2008, Ashaway filed a counterclaim seeking to quiet title in the laneway in itself, based upon theories of adverse possession, boundary by acquiescence, and lost grant. On April 29, 2009, this Court granted Ashaway's partial motion for summary judgment and held Ashaway had title to the Laneway by adverse possession. The Court dismissed the Pancieras' complaint, but decided "[f]urther proceedings are necessary, however, in order to determine the precise bounds of the laneway."
On October 20, 21, 26, 27, 29, 30, 2009, and November 2, 3, 4, 9, 2009, this matter was tried before the Court sitting without a jury to determine the exact boundaries of the Laneway. At trial, the following facts were elicited from testimony and numerous exhibits.1[]
Ashaway owns a parcel of land in Hopkinton, Rhode Island ("the Property"), recorded as Lots 7 and 7C on Hopkinton Tax Assessor's Plat 3. The Property has no road access except for a long, artificial causeway composed of fill running through a swamp. The Property has the configuration of a saucepan with the "pot" portion of the tract containing approximately seventy-three acres. The "pot" has no deeded access and is landlocked. The "panhandle," the Laneway, provides the only access to the lot and is a man-made elevated causeway, which runs through a swamp.
The Property is a portion of a three hundred thirty-seven acre tract, which Weeden Barber, Jr. ("Barber") took title to in 1834 by deed from William and Caroline Thurston.3[] A survey from the early 1800s depicts the Property, the southwesterly portion of which was bounded westerly by the land of Joseph D. Kenyon and southerly by "the highway." In 1831, Joseph D. Kenyon acquired title to the land abutting the western boundary of the Thurston tract and the northern edge of the highway ("the Joseph Kenyon tract"). After these conveyances, the southeast corner of the Joseph Kenyon tract abutted the southwest corner of the Thurston conveyance to Barber.
Subsequently, on June 7, 1855, Barber conveyed a landlocked forty acre, more or less, portion of this land to Nathaniel H. Cook ("Cook").4[] The deed does not discuss any possible ingress or egress to the Property, and the metes and bounds description does not describe the Laneway. In 1861, Cook took title to the northern thirty-one acres, more or less, of the Property from Henry Clark. This conveyance also does not mention any potential avenues of ingress of egress to the Property. As a result, as of 1861, the Property existed in its current seventy-three acre, more or less, condition, without any deeded right-of-way for ingress or egress.
Thereafter, in April 1881, Cook conveyed the Property to James Cook.5[] Then, in March 1884, James Cook conveyed the Property to Jane Cook.6[] In February 1894, Jane Cook conveyed the Property to Gurdon Cook.7[] Later, in December 1902, Gurdon Cook conveyed the Property to Frederick and Amanda Peterson.8[] In July 1912, Frederick and Amanda Peterson conveyed the Property to Pietro and Regina Panciera.9[] In November 1942, Louis Panciera, Antone Manetti, and John Ferguson as Executor of the Will of Regina Panicera executed separate deeds to convey their respective interest in the Property to George and Nellie Manfredi.10[] Subsequently, in 1979, George and Nellie Manfredi conveyed all of the Property, except for the one-acre lot where the original farmhouse sits,11[] to Nancy Vuono.12[] Sometime during or after Nancy Vuono's ownership of the Property, the Laneway came to be known as "Vuono Place." In July 2000, Nancy Vuono conveyed the Property to a limited liability company, Vuono Place, LLC.13[] In October 2000, Sarah Land Company, LLC f/k/a Vuono Place, LLC formally conveyed the Property to Sarah Land Company, LLC.14[] In October 2004, Sarah Land Company, LLC conveyed the Property to Ashaway.15[] No recorded document from a third-party purports to grant a right-of-way to the Property, and no recorded deed of an abutting property states that it is subject to a right-of-way benefiting the Property.
In 1849, Barber conveyed a parcel in the southwest corner of his estate to Eunice Kenyon, which was bounded westerly by the land of Joseph D. Kenyon and southerly by the highway (the "Eunice Kenyon tract"). The western border of the Eunice Kenyon tract abuts the Laneway, and prior to the Laneway's construction, abutted the Joseph Kenyon tract.
Prior to 1874, the conveyances of the Eunice Kenyon tract called out the Joseph Kenyon tract as the western boundary of the property. However, in 1874, this changed when the conveyance from Amos Kenyon to George Burdick described the Eunice Kenyon tract as being bounded on the west "by the land of Nathaniel H. Cook." Subsequent conveyances also explicitly recognized the Laneway as the western boundary of the Eunice Kenyon tract. In 1922, a conveyance from George Burdick to Jennie Palmer describes the western boundary as "land (Laneway) formerly of Nathaniel H. Cook." Additionally, the deed from the heirs of Jennie Palmer to Thomas Winn includes the same call in 1936.
Subsequently, deeds from Thomas Winn to Joseph and Albert Romanella contain specific courses, distances, and monuments to describe the boundaries of the Eunice Kenyon tract. This monumentation sets the western boundary of the Eunice Kenyon tract roughly forty feet east of the Joseph Kenyon tract, essentially accounting for the Laneway. In 1965, the Romanellas conveyed a thirty-foot wide strip of land to George and Nellie Manfredi, "the westerly 30 feet, more or less, of the premises conveyed to Joseph F. Romanella, et al, by deed of Thomas F. Murano, dated August 3, 1957 and recorded in the Land Evidence Records of the Town of Hopkinton in Book No. 47 at page 383." The courses, distances and monuments referred to in this deed place the thirty-foot strip, bounded southerly by the highway and referred to during trial as "the veggie lot," immediately adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Laneway.
Joseph D. Kenyon took title to two large parcels in 1831 which totaled roughly seventy-six acres. The easterly portion of one of these parcels abutted the 337-acre tract conveyed to Barber in 1834. In 1909, Joseph Kenyon's heirs conveyed the southeastern portion of the property to George Ennis. This deed described the property as being bounded "on the south by the aforesaid highway and on the east by lands of Fred W. Peterson."16[] Implicit in this conveyance are the heirs of Joseph Kenyon's beliefs that the Petersons owned the Laneway, and that the Laneway abutted the Joseph Kenyon tract to the highway.
In September of 1922, George Ennis conveyed a one-acre tract to Mary Northup that involved the same southeastern corner. The deed described the northern boundary as running "easterly on said Ennis land 420 feet to a laneway leading to Panciera premises, thence southerly one hundred feet more or less, by said laneway to the highway leading from Ashaway to Bradford."17[] Later, in 2001, a subsequent conveyance of this one acre parcel to Michael Geary and Debra A....
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