Ranch At the Falls LLC v. O'Neal

• Citation: 38 Cal.App.5th 155,250 Cal.Rptr.3d 585
• Decision Date: 31 July 2019
• Docket Number: B283986
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: RANCH AT THE FALLS LLC et al., Plaintiffs, Cross-defendants and Respondents, v. Keith O'NEAL et al., Defendants, Cross-complainants and Appellants; Eagle Knight Security Systems, Inc., Defendant and Appellant; Murad M. Siam, as Trustee, etc., et al., Movants and Appellants.

38 Cal.App.5th 155

250 Cal.Rptr.3d 585

RANCH AT THE FALLS LLC et al., Plaintiffs, Cross-defendants and Respondents,

v. Keith O'NEAL et al., Defendants, Cross-complainants and Appellants;Eagle Knight Security Systems, Inc., Defendant and Appellant;Murad M. Siam, as Trustee, etc., et al., Movants and Appellants.

B283986

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8, California.

Filed July 31, 2019

Berding & Weil, Nicholas A. Rogers and Aaron A. Hayes for Defendant and Appellant Indian Springs Homeowners Association, Inc.

Beaumont Tashjian, Lisa A. Tashjian and Tara M. Radley for Defendant and Appellant Eagle Knight Security Systems, Inc. and for Cross-complainant and Appellant Indian Springs Homeowners Association, Inc.

Ferguson Case Orr Paterson, Wendy C. Lascher and John A. Hribar for Defendants, Cross-complainants and Appellants Keith O'Neal and Gladys Maniago.

Garrett & Tully, Ryan C. Squire, Zi C. Lin and Adjoa M. Anim-Appiah for Movants and Appellants.

Cozen O'Connor and Frank Gooch III for Plaintiffs, Cross-defendants and Respondents.

GRIMES, Acting P. J.

SUMMARY

The trial court entered a judgment in favor of a plaintiff who sought to quiet title to two claimed easements within residential gated communities in which plaintiff has no ownership interest. The judgment found plaintiff was entitled to an express easement (or in the alternative a prescriptive easement) and an equitable easement over all the private streets in a gated community (Indian Springs) in Chatsworth, and likewise was entitled to express (or in the alternative, prescriptive) and equitable easements over a homeowner's lot (the Lenope property) in an adjacent gated community (Indian Oaks). Together, the two claimed easements provided access, from the west, to the plaintiff's ranch, which she or her lessee used to stable horses owned by them and by members of the public. Ranch operations required deliveries of supplies in large trucks, removal of manure, visits by veterinarians, access by members of the public to ride or visit their horses, and so on.

Plaintiff also had access to her ranch by a different route (from the east) that included an undisputed right to travel over one now-private street (Iverson Road) in Indian Springs and other now-private streets in a third gated community (Indian Falls). Plaintiff finds this route to her ranch unacceptable because, after passing through Indian Springs and Indian Falls, the route requires use of an old and narrow bridge on Fern Ann Falls Road that she considers dangerous. This bridge is on private property, but not on property that is part of any of the three gated communities.

We conclude the trial court erred on several points.

First, the court found the individual homeowners in Indian Springs, who owned the private streets abutting their lots to the mid-line (subject to reciprocal easements with other homeowners), were not indispensable parties to plaintiff's lawsuit, but nonetheless were bound by the judgment. This was clear error.

Second, the court erred when it found an express easement over all the private streets of Indian Springs. The declaration of easement plainly shows on its appended

map the exact route of the easement, over only one private street (Iverson Road) in Indian Springs, and then over the private streets of Indian Falls. (There is no controversy over the use of the private streets in Indian Falls.)

Third, the judgment provides an express easement "or, alternatively, a prescriptive easement," but the court's statement of decision did not mention or discuss a prescriptive easement. Plaintiff did not establish the requirements for a prescriptive easement over the private streets of Indian Springs, or over the Lenope property.

Fourth, the court failed to make the necessary findings to support an equitable easement, and the record does not contain evidence to support the factors that are necessary to impose an equitable easement over the private streets of Indian Springs, or over the Lenope property.

Fifth, while a recorded easement exists over the Lenope property (granted by plaintiff when she owned the Lenope property), the easement by its terms does not benefit plaintiff's ranch, and instead benefits a third property that plaintiff no longer owns. In any event, plaintiff cannot use that easement because it cannot be reached except through the private streets of Indian Springs, to which plaintiff has no right of access.

Accordingly, the judgment must be reversed.

FACTS

1. The Parties and the Properties¹

This case may be most readily understood by a chronological narration of the background facts. This narration begins in 1982, when development of the gated communities of Indian Springs and adjacent Indian Falls began (the latter is not involved in this litigation).

In 1982, the developer of Indian Springs filed a declaration establishing the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R's) governing Indian Springs. The CC&R's established the Indian Springs Homeowners Association, Inc., a defendant in this case ( Indian Springs HOA). There were 57 lots in the tract (Tract No. 33622 ), and "private streets" were identified as Zaltana Street, Avenita Court, Serafina Drive (now La Quilla Drive) and Taima Avenue. The common area was defined as the security gate and "the reciprocal easements held by and against each owner for use and maintenance of the Private Streets installed over portions of each Lot, as shown on the Map."² The tract map of Indian Springs shows ownership lines to the center of the private streets.

In 1996, the plaintiff, April Hart, purchased a ranch at 22575 Fern Ann Falls Road in Chatsworth. (The ranch has been owned at various times by Ms. Hart; Ranch at the Falls, LLC; and another entity. The parties have stipulated that these are alter egos of Ms. Hart, so we will refer to her as plaintiff.) The Fern Ann Falls area is not a part of any of the three gated communities that are relevant to this case (Indian Springs, Indian Oaks, and Indian Falls). Indian Falls lies to the east of plaintiff's ranch; Indian Oaks (which did not exist in 1996) lies to the west of the ranch; and Indian Springs lies to the south of Indian Oaks and the ranch. Public access to plaintiff's ranch from the east was available over a route including Iverson Road.

That year (1996), plaintiff built a "horse ring," and to do so brought in ten truck and trailer loads of sand to the ranch from the west, coming "[a]cross what is now known as Indian Oaks, and south, what is now known as Indian Springs," and "the tractor had to obviously make some roads in there."

On June 1, 1998, the Indian Springs HOA recorded a declaration of easement in favor of abutting landowners, including plaintiff's ranch (the 1998 easement declaration). The declaration recited that Indian Springs HOA was "the owner of certain common areas within Indian Springs Estates, including the private streets through the project (hereafter ‘Servient Tenement’), pursuant to" the 1982 CC&R's. The recitals also stated that Los Angeles County was vacating the county's easement for public streets over the servient tenement. The only public street in Indian Springs was Iverson Road. This privatization of public streets was "conditioned upon the conveyance of a non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress throughout the Servient Tenement" to owners of the dominant tenement (including plaintiff's ranch). The declaration further recited the Indian Springs HOA's desire to comply with the conditions established by the county "by conveying to the owners of lots in the Dominant Tenement an appropriate easement."

The body of the declaration then conveyed "an easement for ingress and egress and related purposes over the private streets in the Servient Tenement as depicted on the Map attached hereto as Exhibit ‘B’." The map identified the "streets involved in grant of easement" by means of dotted hatching over those streets. The only street in Indian Springs so identified is Iverson Road. The other private streets on the easement route were in the neighboring community of Indian Falls. (On April 1, 1998, the Indian Falls Homeowners Association (Indian Falls HOA) executed a similar declaration of easement in favor of plaintiff and other abutting landowners, over "the private streets in the Servient Tenement as depicted on the Map attached hereto as Exhibit ‘B’." This was the same map as that attached to the Indian Springs easement declaration, showing Iverson Road in Indian Springs and the private streets in Indian Falls as "streets involved in grant of easement.")

On March 23, 1999, the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County adopted a resolution privatizing the same streets depicted on the maps just described: " Iverson Road & Streets Within Tract No. 42353." (Tract No. 42353 is Indian Falls.)

The effect of the Indian Springs declaration of easement, which was accepted by the county, was to grant an easement to abutting landowners over Iverson Road, and no other private streets within Indian Springs.

Contemporaneously with their declarations of easement, the Indian Springs and Indian Falls HOAs also made "Easement and Maintenance Agreement[s]" with each other. (These are substantively identical; the parties refer to them as the "maintenance agreements.") Each homeowners association gave the other and abutting property owners "right of way easements over and across those portions of the private streets as depicted on Exhibit ‘3’ hereto within Indian Falls Estates and Indian Springs Estates. The easements are granted only to create a direct path through the respective projects for ingress and egress." Exhibit 3 showed the same streets as shown on the maps attached to the two easement declarations.³

In 2002, grading began for the development of Indian Oaks.

In November 2002, plaintiff and her then-husband bought property in Indian Springs, at 22545 La Quilla Drive, and moved there from the ranch (where plaintiff had lived since 2000). Her move to Indian Springs...