Sears v. Catholic Archdiocese of Wash.

• Decision Date: 07 October 2010
• Docket Number: Nos. 06-CV-1469, 07-CV-23.,s. 06-CV-1469, 07-CV-23.
• Parties: William SEARS, et al., Appellants, v. CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON, et al., Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

5 A.3d 653

William SEARS, et al., Appellants,

v.CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON, et al., Appellees.

Nos. 06-CV-1469, 07-CV-23.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued March 26, 2008.

Decided Oct. 7, 2010.

David B. Lamb, with whom Laurance J. Ochs, Washington, DC, was on the brief, for appellants.

Christopher T. Handman, with whom Jessica L. Ellsworth, Washington, DC, was on the brief, for appellees.

Before RUIZ, and BLACKBURNE-RIGSBY, Associate Judges, and JOSEY-HERRING, Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia. ^*

RUIZ, Associate Judge:

Appellants appeal from summary judgment dismissing their complaint for a declaration of their ownership in a piece of land-known as "Old Lot 826"-by adverse possession. Appellants (William Sears, Stephen Howard and Alison Kretzschmar) own three properties that back onto Old Lot 826, which is titled to appellees, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and Saint Peter's Parochial School (jointly referred to as "Archdiocese"). Appellants claim that the trial court erred in dismissing their complaint for quiet title in Old Lot 826. First, appellants argue that they acquired ownership to Old Lot 826 based on their predecessors' adverse possession, which they say transferred to them by deed when they bought their respective properties. Appellants also assert, in the alternative, that they now own the land as a result of their own adverse possession, after "tacking," or adding, their predecessors' time of adverse possession to their own. We disagree with appellants on both points for the reasons that follow, and affirm the judgment of the trial court.¹

I. Statement of Facts²

A. Disputed Old Lot 826

Appellants' properties-lots 816, 817, and 818, in square 793 of the District of Columbia-are adjacent to each other. On the lots are three adjoining rowhouses, with street addresses at 321, 323 and 323 1/2 D Street, S.E. The back of each of these lots abuts a piece of vacant land that was formerly designated as lot 826 ("Old Lot 826"). On the other side of Old Lot 826 was what was formerly known as lot 837 ("Old Lot 837"). Thus, Old Lot 826 was located between appellants' lots (816, 817, and 818) on one side, and Old Lot 837 on the other.

Saint Peter's Parochial School has been on Old Lot 837, which is owned by the Archdiocese and is located at 422 3rd Street, S.E., for many years. In 1950, the Archdiocese acquired Old Lot 826, located right behind the school. On December 23, 1976, the Office of the Surveyor of the District of Columbia combined and subdivided Old Lot 826 with Old Lot 837 into what is now known as lot 25 (where the school is located) and twelve smaller lots (nos. 807-818) in square 793. This appeal concerns appellants' claims that as a result of their ownership of lots 816, 817 and 818, they are also entitled to ownership by adverse possession of Old Lot 826, which is currently part of lot 25, owned by the Archdiocese.³

B. The Current Owners of Lots 816, 817 and 818

1) Lots 816 and 818

Appellant Sears bought lot 816 from Thomas and Chris Downey ("the Downeys") on March 28, 1996,⁴ and lot 818 from Thomas Mahr and Karen Nelson on June 26, 2001.⁵ Each deed described the property being conveyed with a metes and bounds description and specified the lot number ( i.e., lots 816 and 818) of the deeded property. Neither deed purported to convey, or included a description of, Old Lot 826. To the contrary, in the case of the deed to lot 818, a handwritten note from the seller advised that: "Lot 818 is being sold. Land beyond survey line is part of Lot 25 and is not of record to the seller of [lot 818]." As to lot 816, Ms. Downey warned Sears when he bought it in 1996, that

we always enjoyed the use of this property, that we held it but we didn't have a deed to it, and that he could legally pursue this if he wanted to.... I said that all of the land did not convey. Whatever was on the deed was on the deed, but they had the full use of the yard and that we had always had it too.

(Emphasis added.) ⁶ Sears testified that he did not receive a quit-claim deed forOld Lot 826 when he bought either of lots 816 or 818. He also admitted that he had never paid property taxes on Old Lot 826.

2) Lot 817

Appellants Howard and Kretzschmar bought lot 817 from Todd Greentree and Julia Thompson on July 5, 1996.⁷ The deed to that lot similarly described the deeded property in metes and bounds and specified that the property "is known for assessment and taxation purposes as Lot 817 in Square 793." The deed contains no description that would include, or made any reference to, Old Lot 826. Howard testified that he did not pay property taxes on Old Lot 826 because "we did not hold title to it."

C. Use of Old Lot 826

The parties presented conflicting evidence about the extent and nature of the neighbors' use of Old Lot 826 and the Archdiocese's control of the property. Father O'Sullivan, pastor of Saint Peter's Parochial School, testified that when he started serving at the school in 1970, he noticed a chain link fence separating the two lots owned by the Archdiocese (Old Lots 826 and 837). There was an unlocked gate on the fence, which opened to the school side. In the 1990s, the school locked the gate in order to keep the students out of Old Lot 826; the key was kept in the school's office. Father O'Sullivan testified that he had seen other people walk in Old Lot 826 from time to time, and that the school was exercising a "good neighbor policy" by not excluding others from using the property. He also testified that he called the Archdiocese in 1993 when the Downeys tried to "exercise control over that land."

Mary Rockwell, the vice-principal at Saint Peter's Parochial School, testified that the school had installed a lock on the chain link fence at one time, and changed it at a later time. She said that in the 1990s, someone changed the lock and the school did not have a key. The school then removed the lock and installed a new lock. Ms. Rockwell also testified that the school maintained Old Lot 826, cutting down a rose bush there in the 1990s, and regularly cleaning up debris and vines.

William Hagins and his wife were the prior owners of lots 816 and 817. Mr. Hagins testified that in 1970 he replaced a "rusty chain link fence with a broken gate" in the back of his property with a six-foot chain link fence. ⁸ Mr. Hagins testified that he was not aware that his property line did not extend as far as the fence, and that no one from the church or the school interfered with his use of the property. When he leased the house on lot 816 to Chris and Thomas Downey in 1974,⁹ Mr. Hagins said that use of the property extending to the fence was "included in the rent."

Chris Downey testified that she maintained the back of the property-including part of Old Lot 826-like it was her own: she cleared the area and planted a garden, held parties and fundraisers there, and kept a key to the gate on the chain link fence. When a student from the school crawled under the fence to retrieve a ball, Ms. Downey said she would ask the teacherto not let the school children come into her yard.

In 1986, the Downeys bought lots 816 and 817 from the Hagins. When asked about her "understanding of the back portion of the back yard," Ms. Downey answered:

It was always my understanding that we did not have-we owned by adverse possession. How much of it was unclear, but we knew that we owned part of it by adverse possession, and it had been used that way for many, many years. People had been using it, fencing it in and using it openly before we rented it.

When asked if they had requested a quit-claim deed in order to secure their right in Old Lot 826 when they acquired lots 816 and 817 from the Hagins, however, Ms. Downey said, "I don't even know what that is." Ms. Downey stated that they did "nothing" with the information about adverse possession, and "just continued to enjoy it." When the Downeys sold lot 816 to appellant Sears in 1996, Ms. Downey was "astonished ... [to] realize how short the backyard was with respect to the legal title." As mentioned, she advised Sears that "all of the land did not convey."

Thomas Mahr and Karen Nelson (who sold lot 818 to appellant Sears in 2001) had purchased the lot from Emma McAfee and Irvin William in 1994. Mr. Mahr declared in an affidavit what he knew of his predecessors' use of the property:

[W]e were told that Ms. McAfee and her sister before her had continuously possessed and occupied the area behind the house all the way to the rear of the chain link fence for more than fifteen years even though the area was not shown on the plat of the lot as being part of Lot 818 which was the lot we were purchasing.

Appellant Sears testified that in 2003, he tore down a chain link fence that stood between Old Lots 826 and 837. In its place, Sears installed an opaque wooden fence. He stated that an official from the school "came over to my house to express concern about erecting the improved-the nicer fence," and "another day or two or more after that, a school person, who might have been the principal ... it was a woman ... expressed similar concerns about this new, nicer fence going up...." After the wooden fence was installed, Sears locked the gate, to which only he and his neighbors-appellants Howard and Kretzschmar-held a key.

Pamela Klobukowski, the school's principal, testified that in August 2003 she saw construction workers "installing a wooden fence at the western and southern boundary of the School's playground." She confronted Sears and "told him he did not have the legal right to take down the chain link fence." The Archdiocese then tore down the wooden fence Sears had put up and replaced it with a chain link fence similar to the one that had long existed between the rear of Saint Peter's Parochial School and Old Lot 826. Appellants filed their lawsuit in January 2004.

II. Analysis

We review the trial court's grant of summary judgment de novo. See, e.g., Osei-Kuffnor v....