Sommer v. Misty Valley, LLC
| Decision Date | 21 December 2021 |
| Docket Number | 48007 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Idaho |
| Parties | JARED SOMMER and KATHERINE SOMMER, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents-Cross Appellants, v. MISTY VALLEY, LLC, an Idaho limited liability company, Defendant-Appellant-Cross Respondent. |
Appeal from the District Court of the Seventh Judicial District of the State of Idaho, Madison County, Gregory W. Moeller and Steven W. Boyce, District Judges.
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley, Pocatello, for Appellant/Cross-Respondent/Defendant. John A. Bailey, Jr. argued.
Manwaring Law Office, Idaho Falls, for Respondents/Cross-Appellants/Plaintiffs. Kipp L. Manwaring argued.
This appeal involves a dispute over the scope of an express easement. Jared and Katherine Sommer brought a declaratory judgment claim against Misty Valley, LLC, after receiving written notice that the real estate developer planned to use an express easement across the Sommers' land for access to a recently platted residential subdivision. The Sommers asserted that the planned use constituted an impermissible expansion of the scope of the easement and brought a claim to terminate the easement. After a bench trial, the district court limited the use of the easement to the dominant parcel which only included part of Misty Valley's planned subdivision, and declined to terminate it. Misty Valley appealed the district court's judgment, and the Sommers cross-appealed. We affirm the district court's judgment and deny costs and fees on appeal to both parties.
Jared and Katherine Sommer are neighbors of a 152-lot residential subdivision planned by Misty Valley in Madison County, Idaho. The Sommers own the lot that is subject to the express easement at issue, and their home is located across the street and to the east of the easement on another parcel.
The origins of this dispute trace back to a series of land transfers that took place beginning about twenty years ago. Different members of the Saurey family owned and farmed three contiguous parcels. On July 2, 2002, Brent and Patricia Saurey (the "Saureys") conveyed title to a 43-acre parcel ("Brent Saurey Parcel") to the North Fork Duck Club, LLC, together with a grant of easement ("Easement") for ingress, egress, and utilities across the Saureys' retained property ("Servient Parcel"). The Saureys, in granting the parcel and the Easement, "believed that the land would be used for duck hunting and possibly a residential development." The property was zoned "Agricultural" which would have permitted two or three houses on the parcel. The Saureys retained ownership of the Servient Parcel until they sold it to the Sommers in 2017. The following diagram shows the parcels and easement at issue:
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On the same day of the Brent Saurey Parcel conveyance, Lyle and Jossine Saurey, the parents of Brent and Kerry Saurey, also conveyed title to a neighboring parcel ("Saurey Trust Parcel") to the Duck Club. The language of the warranty deed did not mention the Brent Saurey Parcel conveyance, the Brent Saurey deed, the Brent Saurey Parcel, the Servient Parcel, or the Easement. About a week after that, Kerry Saurey conveyed a third neighboring parcel ("Kerry Saurey Parcel"), to the Duck Club. Again, the language of the warranty deed did not mention the prior conveyances, the Brent Saurey deed, the Brent Saurey Parcel, the Saurey Trust Parcel, the Servient Parcel, or the Easement.
In 2004, about two years after acquiring the three Saurey parcels, the Duck Club conveyed the Brent Saurey Parcel to Misty Valley. In May 2008, Misty Valley also acquired title to the Kerry Saurey Parcel and Saurey Trust Parcel from the Duck Club. Thereafter, Misty Valley applied for a zone change from "Agricultural" to "Trans Ag 2" for all three parcels. The application included a conceptual map of a 130-lot residential subdivision and depicted a road located in the Easement area. Jared Sommer, who at that time, only owned a home located across the street and to the East of the Easement, attended the August 14, 2008 public hearing before the Madison County Planning and Zoning Commission where he voiced his opposition to the application. The Planning and Zoning Commission subsequently approved the zone change for all three parcels. About five years after the zone change, Misty Valley acquired a fourth neighboring parcel from Marie Sommer, Reed Sommer, Gene Brower, and Cheryl Brower (the "Sommer/Brower Parcel"). Again, the conveyance did not contain any mention of the Saurey conveyances described above, the Brent Saurey deed, the Brent Saurey Parcel, the Kerry Saurey Parcel, the Saurey Trust Parcel, the Servient Parcel, or the Easement.
Sometime in the beginning of 2017, Jared Sommer and Brent Saurey discussed an anticipated increase in traffic from Misty Valley's planned subdivision. Thereafter, in May 2017, the Sommers purchased the Servient Parcel from Brent and Patricia Saurey.
On August 3, 2017, Misty Valley applied to the Madison County Planning and Zoning Commission for approval of its first preliminary plat for a 152-lot residential subdivision. The preliminary plat outlined a subdivision that encompassed the Brent Saurey Parcel, the Saurey Trust Parcel, the Kerry Saurey Parcel, and the Sommer/B rower Parcel. In addition, it depicted the Easement as one of two required accesses to the subdivision.
On September 14, 2017, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing related to the preliminary plat application. Jared Sommer attended the meeting and voiced his opposition to the development. Subsequently, the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the preliminary plat application. After obtaining approval, Misty Valley initiated contact with the Sommers to inquire about purchasing the Easement property. The Sommers and Misty Valley negotiated, but ultimately did not reach an agreement.
On June 14, 2018, Misty Valley sent the Sommers a letter advising them that Misty Valley planned to build a fence and pair of gates on the Easement property. Jared Sommer testified at trial that Misty Valley did not seek his prior approval or consent for the fence and gates. After receipt of the June 14 letter, the Sommers revoked any outstanding offers to the sell the Easement property to Misty Valley, and sent a cease and desist letter pertaining to construction of Misty Valley's intended fence and gates on the Easement property.
The Sommers filed suit against Misty Valley on August 22, 2018, requesting the court issue a declaratory judgment that Misty Valley's intended use of the Easement for access to its planned subdivision unlawfully expanded the use of the Easement beyond the Brent Saurey Parcel. The Sommers included a claim to terminate the easement. Misty Valley timely answered and asserted, among other things, the defenses of the statute of limitations under Idaho Code section 5-224 and quasi-estoppel.
The Sommers filed their first motion for partial summary judgment in October 2018, asking the district court to rule as a matter of law that the Easement was appurtenant only to the Brent Saurey Parcel. Misty Valley responded with its own motion for partial summary judgment, asserting that the Sommers' action was time-barred under Idaho Code section 5-224 and that the Kerry Saurey Parcel and the Saurey Trust Parcel were part of the "dominant estate."
The district court denied summary judgment on Misty Valley's statute of limitations defense and contention that the Easement benefited additional parcels. However, it granted the Sommers' motion for partial summary judgment, ruling that the Easement was appurtenant only to the real property expressly described in the Brent Saurey deed. The district court held that the Brent Saurey deed did not contain any ambiguity. Therefore, it declined to consider parole evidence offered by Misty Valley regarding the intent to benefit all three Saurey parcels with the Easement.
The Sommers filed a second motion for partial summary judgment in August 2019, asserting that Misty Valley's plan to use the Easement as illustrated in the preliminary plat was an impermissible expansion of the Easement. The Sommers also moved for extinguishment of the Easement. In its Amended Memorandum Decision on October 8, 2019, the district court granted partial summary judgment for the Sommers, holding that "Misty Valley, LLC[, ] may not use the [E]asement to allow unrestricted public access to the subdivision, as doing so would impermissibly and unlawfully expand the scope of the easement." However, the district court denied the Sommers' motion to terminate the Easement after determining there were genuine issues of material fact relating to the scope of any current or proposed future use of the Easement.
The district court subsequently held a bench trial to adjudicate the following unresolved issues: the Sommers' request for a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and termination of the Easement; and Misty Valley's quasi-estoppel and statute of limitation defenses. During the trial, the district court found that Misty Valley failed to supplement its discovery responses with text message communications between one of its witnesses, Terry Mortensen, and Jared Sommer occurring prior to December 6, 2017. The district court sanctioned Misty Valley for this violation by striking a portion of Mortensen's testimony concerning communications prior to that date.
On January 10, 2020, the district court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court found that use of the Easement for access to the entire 152 lots in the subdivision as planned would result in an impermissible...
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