Rueckel v. Texas Eastern Transmission Corp.

• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: HENDERSON
• Citation: Rueckel v. Texas Eastern Transmission Corp., 3 Ohio App.3d 153, 444 N.E.2d 77, 3 OBR 172 (Ohio App. 1981)
• Decision Date: 07 December 1981
• Parties: , 3 O.B.R. 172 RUECKEL et al., Appellees and Cross-Appellants, v. TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSION CORPORATION et al., Appellants and Cross-Appellees. *

Page 153

3 Ohio App.3d 153

444 N.E.2d 77, 3 O.B.R. 172

RUECKEL et al., Appellees and Cross-Appellants, v. TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSION CORPORATION et al., Appellants and Cross-Appellees. ^*

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Fifth District, Fairfield County.

Dec. 7, 1981.

Syllabus by the Court

Where a property owner unlawfully obstructs or interferes with the easement rights of an easement holder, the holder of the easement rights has the authority to remove those obstructions.

Miller, Barnes & Christian and T. Michael Christian, Lancaster, for Emil Robert Rueckel and Agnes Rowena Rueckel.

Robert A. Lawhon, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, James J. Maiwurm, Cleveland, and Charles E. Reed, Lancaster, for Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. and Allegheny Pipeline Co.

HENDERSON, Presiding Judge.

Case No. 16-CA-81 is an appeal from a summary judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County granting judgment to defendants-appellants, Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation (Texas Eastern) and Allegheny Pipeline Company (Allegheny), by determining that the pine trees planted on the rights-of-way of the defendants obstruct, burden and interfere with the exercise of their easement rights, and finding that defendants are entitled to remove the pine trees on their rights-of-way and that plaintiffs-appellees, Emil Robert Rueckel and Agnes Rowena Rueckel, are prohibited from interfering with the removal of the pine trees on the rights-of-way of Texas Eastern and Allegheny, but refusing to grant summary judgment on the issue of damages and refusing to find that the plaintiffs have no right to plant, maintain and grow trees on the rights-of-way of the defendants in the future.

Case No. 18-CA-81 is a cross-appeal by the plaintiffs from the summary judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, enjoining plaintiffs from interfering with the removal of the pine trees on the rights-of-way of Texas Eastern and Allegheny.

In case No. 16-CA-81, defendants raise the following assignment of error:

"The Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, Ohio erred in denying in part the motion of defendant and counterclaimant Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation and additional counterclaimant Allegheny Pipeline Company for summary judgment in that, after finding that the pine trees planted and maintained by plaintiffs on the Texas Eastern and Allegheny rights-of-way across the plaintiffs' property are akin to a permanent obstruction making ingress and egress across the plaintiffs' property impossible; that those trees obstruct, unreasonably burden and interfere with the exercise of the easement rights of Texas Eastern and Allegheny; and that Texas Eastern and Allegheny are entitled to remove those pine trees from their rights-of-way, the court stated that 'there remains for a jury a question as to what, if any, damages the plaintiffs have sustained' and (a) failed to issue a declaratory judgment to the effect that Texas Eastern and Allegheny are entitled to remove the pine trees within their rights-of-way across the plaintiffs' property without paying plaintiffs any compensation therefor; (b) failed to issue a declaratory judgment to the effect that plaintiffs have no right to plant, maintain and grow trees within the Texas Eastern and Allegheny rights-of-way across plaintiffs' property; and (c) failed to issue an order prohibiting plaintiffs from growing trees within the Texas Eastern and Allegheny rights-of-way across plaintiffs' property."

In case No. 18-CA-81, the cross-appellants (plaintiffs) raise the following assignment of error:

"I. The trial court committed prejudicial error when it ordered that the easement holders, defendants-appellants, had a right to remove the trees on the plaintiffs-cross-appellants' premises within the pipeline rights-of-way where the documents creating the easements did not proscribe the planting of trees and even contemplated the fact of there [sic ] planting, the trees did not in any way damage the pipe in the ground, the easement documents did not provide for free ingress and egress for maintenance purposes, and the removal of the trees was necessitated only because of maintenance procedures which constituted increased, uncontemplated, and consequently, unlawful burdens on the landowners.

"II. The trial court committed prejudicial error when it granted summary judgment declaring and ordering that the easement holders, defendants-appellants, were entitled to remove trees from the plaintiffs-cross-appellants' premises as there existed unresolved questions of fact (A) as to the construction of the easement documents, (B) as to the inability of the easement holders to obtain the relief requested by them because of the applicability of the doctrines of laches and estoppel, and (C) as to whether the court-ordered right of the defendants-appellants to remove the trees constituted an unlawful burden on the landowners."

This opinion will serve to answer the assignments of error in case Nos. 16-CA-81 and 18-CA-81 and will be filed in both cases.

This case arose out of a dispute between plaintiffs (the landowners) and Texas Eastern and Allegheny, concerning the rights of the landowners under rights-of-way granted by the landowners' predecessors in title (the Foxes). The first right-of-way grant was dated December 18, 1942, and was filed for record on February 20, 1943 at 9:25 a.m. The second right-of-way grant was dated February 8, 1949 and was filed for record on March 14, 1949 at 10:57 a.m.

Plaintiffs filed a complaint against Texas Eastern and Allegheny on November 9, 1979, seeking damages for pine trees damaged or destroyed in the course of maintenance operations carried out by Texas Eastern in November 1977. Plaintiffs also sought a declaratory judgment with regard to their future right to plant trees within the area of the pipeline rights-of-way and a determination of whether defendants must compensate plaintiffs for any trees removed within the rights-of-way or damaged in the course of pipeline maintenance procedures.

Texas Eastern and Allegheny filed an answer to plaintiffs' complaint and filed a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment to find and declare that:

(1) The pine trees planted by plaintiffs within the Texas Eastern right-of-way obstruct, unreasonably burden and interfere with the exercise of the easement rights of Texas Eastern and Allegheny;

(2) Texas Eastern and Allegheny are entitled to remove the trees within their rights-of-way across the plaintiffs' property without paying compensation therefor; and

(3) The plaintiffs (landowners) have no right to plant, maintain and grow trees within the rights-of-way of the defendants.

Defendants also sought an injunction prohibiting the landowners from interfering with the removal of the pine trees on the defendants' rights-of-way and further prohibiting, in the future, the landowners from growing trees on said rights-of-way. On June 2, 1980, a motion for summary judgment was filed by the defendants.

On November 25, 1980, the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, after considering the motion of the defendants, the affidavits of the parties and their memoranda of law, issued a summary judgment (a copy of which is attached hereto, marked "Exhibit A," and made a part hereof ¹ ), in which the court found that the pine trees were a permanent obstruction, making ingress and egress impossible, and that the pine trees on the defendants' rights-of-way across plaintiffs' property did obstruct, unreasonably burden, and interfere with the exercise of the easement rights of the defendants. The court further found that the defendants were entitled to remove the pine trees on their rights-of-way across the property of the plaintiffs and that the plaintiffs were to be prohibited from interfering with the removal of the pine trees on the defendants' rights-of-way.

The court, however, refused to determine what, if any, damages the landowners had sustained, holding that this was a jury question and further refused to issue the declaration sought by the defendants, to the effect, that (1) Texas Eastern and Allegheny were entitled to remove the pine trees within their rights-of-way across the landowners' property without paying the landowners compensation therefor, and (2) the landowners had no right to plant, maintain and grow trees within the defendants' rights-of-way across the landowners' property. The court also refused to issue an order prohibiting the landowners from growing trees within the defendants' rights-of-way across the property.

From the affidavits attached to the motion for summary judgment, we find that the pine trees involved in this dispute were first brought to the attention of Texas Eastern in the fall of 1973. Thereafter, correspondence between Texas Eastern and the landowners occurred and the landowners were expressly advised that Texas Eastern and Allegheny had the right to remove the trees from their rights-of-way where such trees interfered with the proper operation, inspection, maintenance or repair of defendants' pipelines. The landowners admitted that they received such notification. However, the trees did not create an immediate problem until November 1977, when Texas Eastern was engaged in the installation of a cathodic protection system, designed to protect Texas Eastern and Allegheny pipelines on the landowners' property from corrosion. When Texas Eastern removed some of the trees within the limits of the rights-of-way in order to begin installation of this system, the landowners objected and prevented the crew from completing the installation of the cathodic protection system. Negotiations between the companies and the landowners continued until November 9, 1979, when the landowners filed their complaint.

The evidence further indicates that the first pipeline right-of-way, over what is now plaintiffs' property, was granted by plaintiffs' predecessors in title, Carl M. and Forest Fox, to the ...