Tungsten Holdings, Inc. v. Parker, 96-556

• Decision Date: 06 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-556,96-556
• Parties: TUNGSTEN HOLDINGS, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Marie PARKER, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 641

938 P.2d 641

282 Mont. 387

TUNGSTEN HOLDINGS, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Marie PARKER, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 96-556.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs April 10, 1997.

Decided May 6, 1997.

Scott B. Spencer, Libby, for Appellant.

William A. Douglas; Douglas Law Firm, Libby, for Respondent.

LEAPHART, Justice.

Tungsten Holdings, Inc. (Tungsten) filed a "Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Quiet Title" seeking to quiet title to a parcel of property owned by Marie Parker, or in the alternative, for declaration that Tungsten had the right to an easement for purposes of ingress and egress across the disputed property. The matter was tried to the District Court sitting without a jury and, after having personally viewed the property in the presence of the parties, the District Court entered findings of fact, conclusions of law and an order denying Tungsten's prayer for judgment quieting title and also denying Tungsten's claim of right of easement to use the property in question for ingress and egress. We affirm.

Tungsten does not challenge the District Court's findings of fact but does contend that the District Court erred in its conclusions of law.

The following facts, which are undisputed, are excerpted from the District Court's findings of fact:

1. Tungsten and Parker each own real estate along the banks of Warland Creek, a drainage located in Lincoln County, [Montana] approximately 25 miles north of Libby near the Lake Koocanusa Reservoir.

2. Tungsten owns two separate parcels, lot 21, consisting of approximately 10 acres, and lots 27 and 28, consisting in total of approximately 22 acres. Lot 21 is separated from lots 27 and 28 by Parker's property to the south, and by Forest Service property to the north.... [T]he distance between lot 21 and lots 27 and 28 is approximately 1500 feet. Parker's property spans this entire distance.

3. Tungsten's property and Parker's property are located within a bizarrely divided tract of land known as "the McAlmond Claim." The first recorded plat for the McAlmond Claim is dated May 12, 1967.

4. Several amended plats for the McAlmond Claim were recorded since the original, the most recent of which was recorded with the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder 5. On August 5, 1992, Parker obtained title to lot 34 of the McAlmond Claim by Tax Deed, and since that date, she has been the record owner of lot 34. A notation on the tax deed for lot 34 contains the word "ROAD" in the property description....

on October 23, 1968. The 1968 plat, identified as plat 1453, shows a serpentine lot, 40 feet wide and approximately 2700 feet in length, consisting of 2.695 acres, extending from the eastern boundary of lot 21 to the western boundary of the McAlmond Claim. This parcel, identified as lot 34 of the McAlmond Claim, traverses the entire northern boundary of Parker's property and serves as a boundary between property to the north and property to the south of lot 34. None of the plats recorded prior to the 1968 plat showed lot 34 or anything which resembles a roadway in the location now occupied by lot 34.

6. Neither the deed by which lots 27 and 28 were conveyed to Tungsten in 1993, nor any of the previous deeds by which those parcels were transferred to Tungsten's predecessors in interest, reference the existence of a roadway. All of the deeds by which lots 27 and 28 were conveyed to Tungsten and its predecessors in interest reference various plats on record with the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder. None of the plats referenced in the deeds conveying lots 27 and 28 mention the existence of a...