Walker v. Hollinger
| Decision Date | 27 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 23345,23345 |
| Citation | 132 Idaho 172,968 P.2d 661 |
| Parties | Ronald J. WALKER and Vicki Walker, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Jay D. HOLLINGER, an individual, and Carol L. Bradshaw, an individual, Defendants-Appellants. James R. MARTIN and Colene G. Martin, husband and wife, Allan G. Cameron and Carle A. Cameron, husband and wife, Todd A. Bartolome and Melonie S. Bartolome, husband and wife, James Davis and Susan C. Davis, husband and wife, Alice Thuma, Bradley Callahan and Debbie Callahan, husband and wife, Davis Short and Ruth K. Short, husband and wife, Lesley Bahner and John Fiedler, husband and wife, Joann L. Halbasch and Lyle G. Halbasch, husband and wife, Carlo Difebbo, Jim C. Forsythe, Daniel R. Herrity, Arville O. Glenn and Brenda A. Glenn, husband and wife, and Does 1 through 300, Plaintiffs-Respondents-Cross Appellants, v. Jay D. HOLLINGER and Carol L. Bradshaw, as co-owners of a certain parcel of real property located in Boise County, Idaho, Defendants-Appellants-Cross Respondents. Boise, September 1998 Term |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Pike & Shurtliff, Boise, for appellants. M. Karl Shurtliff argued.
Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald, Meridian, for respondents, the Walkers. John O. Fitzgerald, II, argued.
Snyder, Matthews & Nelson, Boise, for respondents, the Martin Group. William R. Snyder argued.
This appeal involves a claim for a prescriptive easement. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of certain lot owners in the Wilderness Ranch Subdivision after determining that a prescriptive easement existed in their favor over the property of Jay Hollinger and Carol Bradshaw (the Hollingers). The Hollingers appeal, arguing that the district court applied the wrong legal theory in concluding that a prescriptive easement exists. Some of the lot owners cross appeal, claiming the district court erred by dismissing their claim for reservation of an easement by deed and easement by implication.
This appeal involves the consolidation of two cases. The plaintiffs in the first case are Ronald and Vicki Walker (the Walkers). The plaintiffs in the second case are referred to collectively as the "Martin Group." The district court made several factual findings common to both cases which are undisputed, including, but not limited to, the following:
1. The parties who comprise the Martin Group and the Walkers presently own lots in the Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions.
2. The Hollingers are owners of property that borders on Wilderness Ranch Subdivision No. 1 on one side and Daggett Creek Road on the other side.
3. Prior to the time that the Walkers, the Martin Group and the Hollingers purchased their properties, the lands encompassing both the Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions and the Hollinger property was part of a single large parcel. In 1980, Wilderness Ranch Ltd., a limited partnership, purchased the entire tract and started to develop it by platting and subdividing most of the tract into a number of subdivisions. There was and is a private road running through the parcel that connects with Daggett Creek Road, a public road. Daggett Creek Road in turn connects with State Highway 21, the primary road between Boise and Idaho City. The private road has existed since the late 1930's and is depicted on a Metsker map from 1940, a Boise National Forest map from 1959, and a geological survey map from 1969. It crosses what it now Wilderness Ranch Subdivision No. 1, crosses Daggett Creek by means of a bridge, and crosses forty or fifty feet of the Hollinger property before it intersects with Daggett Creek Road. Part of the Daggett Creek bridge is on the Hollinger property. The private road traditionally was used as a means of access to the entire tract.
4. When Wilderness Ranch was platted and subdivided, roads were constructed that provided access to Highway 21. The primary means of access is a road that crosses More's Creek and intersects Highway 21. The old private road became part of the road system in Wilderness Ranch and continued to provide access to Daggett Creek Road and ultimately to Highway 21. The declaration of covenants for Wilderness Ranch Subdivision No. 1 refers to access via Daggett Creek Road "only as a secondary or emergency means of access."
5. What is now the Hollinger property never has been part of any of the Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions.
6. The district court viewed the premises. The private road, as it crosses the Hollinger property, is open and obvious to the most casual inspection. Apparently the road has been in substantially the same condition for many years. It is constructed of dirt or gravel and is similar in quality to the roads within Wilderness Ranch itself. All the roads in the area, including the road in dispute, are windy and hilly and undoubtedly require extra caution during the winter months.
7. The private road across the Hollinger property has been used continuously by many residents of the Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions since the beginning of its development as a means of access from the development to Daggett Creek Road and Highway 21. It also is used occasionally by a rural volunteer fire department located in Wilderness Ranch to gain emergency access to fires along Daggett Creek Road outside the development. By using this route, the fire department can save a few minutes in response time.
8. From at least November 1989 until access was blocked in March 1995, the Walkers, the Martin Group and their predecessors in interest, during their respective periods of ownership, used the road across the Hollinger property regularly and continuously as a means of access between the Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions and Daggett Creek Road.
9. The Hollinger property was owned by Wilderness Ranch Ltd. from 1980 until the partnership sold it to the Hollingers on January 6, 1992. At that time, the Hollinger property was undeveloped, but shortly thereafter the Hollingers moved a mobile home onto the property.
10. From January 1992 until March 1995 the Hollingers did not physically prevent people from using the road across their property. In March 1995, the Hollingers closed the private road where it crosses their property. They erected a locked gate and a locked wire fence and placed rocks in the road, thereby effectively preventing anyone from using the private road on the forty or fifty feet that transverses their property. They have not directly interfered with the rest of the road, although their conduct indirectly impairs the use of the private road within Wilderness Ranch.
11. From time to time the Wilderness Ranch Homeowners' Association, of which the Walkers and the Martin Group and their predecessors in interest have been members, performed maintenance on the part of the road crossing the Hollinger property. The maintenance work ceased when access was closed.
12. As noted above, the Hollinger property was owned by Wilderness Ranch Ltd. at the time it platted and subdivided the various Wilderness Ranch Subdivisions. Myrl Schroeder, an officer and director of the general partner in Wilderness Ranch Ltd., submitted an affidavit in which he testified that at the time Wilderness Ranch Ltd. started the development, it intended the road across the Hollinger property to be used as an alternate means of access to the subdivisions. Paragraph 13 of the first amended declaration of restricted covenants for Wilderness Ranch Subdivision No. 1 refers to access to the subdivision via Daggett Creek Road in the following language:
The primary access to the property shall be from State Highway 21. The Daggett Creek Road shall be used only as a secondary or emergency means of access.
13. The recorded plat map of Wilderness Ranch Subdivision No. 1 shows a road that abruptly ends on the map at the place where the subdivision borders on the Hollinger property. This is the historic private road. If the Hollinger property had been shown on the plat map, the road as depicted would have continued through the Hollinger property to Daggett Creek Road.
14. Myrl Schroeder also testified in his affidavit that from the start of development, Wilderness Ranch Ltd. intended and believed that purchasers of lots in the subdivisions had the right to use the road across the Hollinger property. Consequently, the partnership never specifically gave permission to anyone to use the road. The partnership knew that purchasers of lots in Wilderness Ranch were using Daggett Creek Road as a means of access to their homes.
15. Although the Hollinger property was not developed at the time the Hollingers bought it, they do not deny that they knew of the road's existence. In fact they both admitted in their depositions that they observed the road when they were shown the property in 1991.
The Walkers filed suit against the Hollingers, alleging that an easement by prescription or by necessity existed in their favor. The Martin Group also filed suit against the Hollingers, alleging that a road easement existed in their favor based on the following theories: (1) easement by reservation in prior deeds, (2) easement by implication, and (3) acquisition by private condemnation. The Martin Group later amended their complaint to assert a claim for a prescriptive easement. Each of the respective parties filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Walkers on their prescriptive easement claim, and after consolidating the cases, granted summary judgment in favor of the Martin Group on their prescriptive easement claim. Because this Court affirms the district court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of the Walkers and the Martin Group with regard to the prescriptive easement issue, the Court will not address the issues raised on cross appeal by the Martin Group regarding easement by implication and easement by reservation in prior deeds.
Generally, when this Court revi...
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