State ex rel. Secretary of Dept. of Transp. v. Regency Group, Inc.
| Decision Date | 27 September 1990 |
| Docket Number | MERCANTILE-SAFE |
| Court | Delaware Superior Court |
| Parties | The STATE of Delaware, upon the Relation of the SECRETARY OF the DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Plaintiff, v. The REGENCY GROUP, INC., Defendant. and LEON N. WEINER & ASSOCIATES, INC., Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff, v. HOWARD L. ROBERTSON, INC., Third-Party Defendant.DEPOSIT AND TRUST COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. INPROJET CORPORATION and G.R.G. Realty Corp., Defendants. and The STATE of Delaware (Through the DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION), Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff, v. HOWARD L. ROBERTSON, INC. and Leon N. Weiner & Associates Inc., Third-Party Defendants. . Submitted: |
Presently before the Court are two motions for summary judgment. The first motion is that of third-party defendant Howard L. Robertson, Inc. [Robertson]. The second motion is that of the plaintiff State of Delaware [State].
There are now two pending consolidated cases in this Court. They involve actions for damages resulting from three land transactions. In two prior conveyances the defendants had sold portions of land overlapping the area deeded to the State. In the third and final transaction, the State was the grantee. The first case is an original action which the State filed in 1987 against the predecessor of defendant The Regency Group [Regency] and against Leon L. Weiner & Associates [Weiner] 1. Those defendants cross-claimed seeking indemnity and/or contribution from each other. Weiner in turn brought a third-party action for negligence against Robertson and Regency cross-claimed against Robertson.
The State's original action in this Court sought damages for breach of covenant of title. The State claims that, as part of a multi-acreage conveyance to it, the defendants included 1.2207 acres of land which they had previously conveyed to another in a separate larger transaction. Those others did not join in the grant to the State. The State seeks a proportionate return for the purchase price it paid. The State was permitted on January 15, 1991 to amend its complaint in this original action to include an action for ejectment.
In early 1990 an action originally instituted in Chancery in 1982 was transferred to this Court by the State. The Chancery matter started as a mortgage foreclosure action. While the foreclosure action was unopposed, there developed a dispute of whether 25.353 acres owned by defendants were or were not covered by the mortgage. During that litigation, the State filed an action for damages involving the 25.353 acres. The State claimed a breach of the covenant of title by the defendants and negligence by Robertson. The 25.5353 acres were part of a larger conveyance to the State and a part of an earlier larger conveyance to an unrelated grantee who had not joined in the conveyance to the State.
Two opinions arose during the course of that litigation. Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. v. Inprojet Corp., Del.Ch., C.A.No. 6910, 1984 WL 19483, Hartnett, V.C. (October 12, 1984) and Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. v. Inprojet Corp., Del.Ch., C.A.No. 6910, 1987 WL 10526, Hartnett, V.C. (April 30, 1987).
Chancery ultimately determined that (1) all equitable issues had been resolved and (2) only claims for money damages remained. See January 2, 1990 letter of Vice Chancellor Hartnett. The State then elected to transfer the case to this Court.
The State's motion for summary judgment relates to the 25.353 parcel. Robertson's motion relates to that parcel and the action involving the 1.2207 acres.
In the 1960's, as part of a large development project, defendants acquired substantial tracts of land in the Pike Creek Valley area of New Castle County. On June 22, 1970 the defendants conveyed 49.909 acres to Franklin Industries. On September 13, 1972, defendants 2 conveyed approximately 212.299 acres of their land to the Pike Creek Valley Country Club [Country Club]. 3 In 1971, defendant Robertson had prepared plans, placed on record at various times, for the various parcels comprising the property conveyed to the Country Club. In August 1972, Robertson supplied a legal description of the Country Club land to the attorney for defendants.
Taylor Pierce [Pierce], currently Robertson's chairman, submitted an affidavit with Robertson's motion. He states that defendants also requested Robertson to prepare a description of the land/tentative right-of-way in Pike Creek Valley which the State was contemplating for use as a connector freeway from New Linden Hill Road to I-95. The area involved for the right-of-way was 89.897 acres. Robertson supplied defendants with a legal description of the right-of-way in March 1972. A portion of the right-of-way included the Country Club land-to-be.
Pierce states that the State did not ask Robertson to do any work in connection with the proposed right-of-way. Harvey Berry [Berry], Chief of Right-of-Way Division of the Department of Transportation, states, however, that the State did ask Robertson for its help and Robertson provided a metes and bounds description to the State in June 1972.
The State and the defendants signed a contract of sale on November 1, 1972. The property to be transferred is described as:
An irregular parcel of land as shown and noted on Division of Highways Plans 72-06-001 as prepared by Howard Robertson consisting of approximately 86.307 acres.
On December 22, 1972 defendants conveyed, under seal, 89.987 acres to the State for the right-of-way. Of that parcel, 25.353 acres had been conveyed in defendants' September 13 sale to the Country Club. The State purchased the right-of-way for $517,850. The September conveyance to the Country Club had been recorded several months before the conveyance to the State.
The State, per Berry, says it first discovered the overlap in 1982 after the Chancery action was started and some engineering work on the Country Club property had been performed. However, the State did have a title examination performed prior to the December 1972 purchase. As part of its motion, Robertson supplied an affidavit from Donald C. Taylor [Taylor], a highly respected, experienced, long-practicing, local attorney in real estate matters. As Taylor indicates, the State's title search preceding the December 1972 conveyance should have revealed the September 1972 conveyance and overlap in description. He found approximately 50 common metes and bounds in the two conveyances.
Summary judgment may only be granted where there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Wilson v. Joma, Inc., Del.Supr., 537 A.2d 187 (1988). The Court must consider the facts stated in a light most favorable to the non-moving party. Schagrin v. Wilmington Medical Center, Inc., Del.Super., 304 A.2d 61 (1973). If a material fact is in dispute or if it seems desirable to inquire more thoroughly into the facts in order to clarify the application of law, summary judgment is inappropriate. Tew v. Sun Oil Co., Del.Super., 407 A.2d 240 (1979). A further consideration is that the disposition of litigation by motion for summary judgment should be encouraged, when possible, for it should result in a prompt, expeditious and economical ending of lawsuits. Davis v. University of Delaware, Del.Supr., 240 A.2d 583, 584 (1968).
The defendants' third party action in the original action in this Court claims Robertson prepared the legal discription for the 1970 deed to Franklin Industries. They allege Robertson was negligent in preparing the legal description for the State which included the 1.2207 acres because it knew or should have known that the defendants had already granted that acreage to Franklin Industries.
The State's action against Robertson filed in Chancery in 1984 makes the same allegation of negligence. That is, the claim is that Robertson prepared descriptions for the September and December conveyances. The State contends that Robertson knew or should have known of the September 1972 conveyance when it prepared the description of the land to be conveyed to the State and should have made that known to the State. The defendants claim Robertson was negligent because it knew or should have known that defendants had made the September 1972 transfer to the Country Club and failed to tell the State.
Robertson denies any negligence. On March 29, 1989, Robertson filed a motion for summary judgment in Chancery. It raised essentially the same grounds there as it does here, albeit rephrased because of the differing legal principles involving an action in equity and an action at law. Robertson submitted a brief in support of its Chancery motion. The motion was pending when the Chancery action was transferred to this Court.
The bases of Robertson's instant motion are (1) the actions against it are time barred; (2) there is no evidence it breached a duty owed by it to anyone else in this litigation; and (3) the only evidence is that it properly performed its duties.
The State does not oppose Robertson's motion. The defendants oppose Robertson's motion on the grounds that (1) more time is needed for discovery on the issue of Robertson's role and its relationship to one or more of defendants and (2) it is premature to grant summary judgment.
The defendants' response to Robertson's motion did not address the issue of the expiration of the statute of limitations. In its 1984 answer to the action for...
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