B & B, LLC v. Lake Erie Land Co.

943 N.E.2d 917, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 347, 2011 WL 682338
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 28, 2011
DocketNo. 45A04-1002-PL-183
StatusPublished

This text of 943 N.E.2d 917 (B & B, LLC v. Lake Erie Land Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
B & B, LLC v. Lake Erie Land Co., 943 N.E.2d 917, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 347, 2011 WL 682338 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

BAKER, Judge.

In this case of first impression, we consider whether a landowner, who raises the subterranean water table on his land and creates a federally regulated wetland, may invoke the common enemy doctrine of water diversion and shield himself from liability to adjoining landowners whose property also became federally regulated wetlands? We answer this question in the negative and conclude that the trial court erroneously granted the defendant-landowner’s motion for a judgment on the evidence.

Appellant-plaintiff B & B, LLC (B & B) appeals the trial court’s grant of judgment on the evidence with regard to its claims against appellee-defendant Lake Erie Land Company (LEL) for trespass, nuisance, and negligence. Specifically, B & B maintains that the order granting LEL’s motion for judgment on the evidence cannot stand because LEL failed to raise the common enemy doctrine as an affirmative defense in the pleadings and at trial. B & B also argues that the trial court misconstrued the evidence and improperly applied the common enemy doctrine in these circumstances. Moreover, B & B maintains that the trial court erred in determining that LEL did not commit an act of trespass as a matter of law and that the evidence clearly demonstrated that LEL breached a duty that it owed to it.

We conclude that the defense of the common enemy doctrine was properly raised and presented at trial. However, we find that the trial court erred in determining that that B & B’s action was barred by the common enemy doctrine and that its claims against LEL should have been permitted to proceed. Thus, we reverse the trial court’s grant of LEL’s motion for judgment on the evidence and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS1

In 1996, Robert Pruim purchased approximately 280 acres of land in Lake Station. For thousands of years, this land, which was located near Little Calumet River, was swampy and unusable. Sometime in the 1920s, a ditch (Burn’s Ditch) was built along the river’s path to drain the land. Burn’s ditch runs from Little Calumet River in Gary to Lake Michigan in Portage. The effect of Burn’s ditch lowered the water table four or five feet. Several farmers also placed field tiles at various locations that were placed two to four feet deep in the ground. The land was farmed from the 1920s until the 1990s.

Pruim and his business partner, Raymond Tressmer, desired to build a waste transfer station for garbage and develop the remainder of the property as an industrial park. The transfer station was to be built at the northwestern corner of the site.

During the course of the transfer station development, wetland issues developed that had to be resolved through the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps). As a result, the Army Corps issued a citation for the potential wetland violation.

Thereafter, Pruim hired J.F. New (New), a national resources consulting firm, that assists clients in obtaining wetland permits. New conducted a wetland delineation of the property in 1995 and issued a report in 1996. Wetlands were [920]*920determined to exist on the northwest corner of the property, which was west of the land that B & B would ultimately acquire. Another wetlands area existed in the northeast area of the property that was east of that property.

Although the area that B & B would purchase was dominated by wetland plants and wetland soil, New believed that the area did not have wetland hydrology at that time. As a result, New decided to classify the area as uplands, and the Army Corps agreed with that assessment.

A problem developed with Pruim’s plans to develop the balance of the site into an industrial park. It was determined that much of the property lay within the flood-way and Burn’s Ditch that runs along the southern border of the property. As a result, the property was very difficult, if not impossible, to develop. New had been working with LEL to develop a concept to build a wetlands mitigation bank2 in northwest Indiana.

LEL purchased the mitigation bank property from Pruim in October 1997. The original intent had been to purchase the property all the way up to 15th Avenue on the north. However, Pruim decided to keep a strip of land along 15th Avenue. Although the mitigation bank property is a relatively flat area, the land along 15th Avenue that eventually became the B & B property sits on a slope. The property slopes downward from 15th Avenue going south toward the mitigation bank.

Pruim’s decision to retain the property along 15th Avenue became problematic because the southern portion of the property was at essentially the same elevation as the mitigation bank property. Consequently, in raising hydrology to restore the mitigation bank property to wetlands, it was possible that the southern portion of the land that was retained could return to a wetlands area.

To resolve this problem, LEL contracted with Pruim, whereby Pruim agreed to allow LEL to raise the water level on the north end of the property being purchased to an elevation of 591.5 feet. At some point, Pruim transferred what was to become the B & B parcel to Tressmer. B & B then purchased the property from Tressmer in 2001, with the intention of operating a concrete crushing and recycling facility. Lying to the immediate south of this property were the two mitigation bank parcels that LEL owned. The southern part of B & B’s property is at the same elevation as LEL’s property. The remainder of the land gradually rises in elevation to a level a few feet higher than the lower land.

After B & B obtained permits from the City of Lake Station to begin operating the recycling plant, a large amount of broken concrete was dumped onto its land. It was intended that a concrete crusher would be brought onto the property to crush the concrete so as to be suitable for sale and re-use as roadbed material.

Before the mitigation bank was developed, LEL obtained the necessary permits and approvals from the Army Corps and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). Dr. Greg Oly-phant, a specialist in wetland hydrology, [921]*921was retained by LEL to perform the hy-drologic assessment. He initially visited the site in the fall of 1997 or spring of 1998 regarding the area’s potential as a restored wetland. Soil borings were performed and monitoring wells were installed at various locations on the mitigation bank property.3

From 1998 through 2002, LEL removed field tiles from the mitigation bank, built berms along the boundaries, and placed a ditch plug and water control structure in a north/south ditch that runs down the eastern portion of the property. In March 1998, LEL was informed that “it is apparent that the proposed mitigation bank is likely to inundate the property to the northwest of the applicant.” Ex. 15, Tr. p. 139. The removal and destruction of the farm drainage system, which included the removal of clay tiles and plugging of the ditch in 1999-2000, caused the water table to rise. In fact, during the course of obtaining various permits and credits for the mitigation bank, LEL was notified that raising the water table to exceed 591.5 feet above sea level would potentially flood neighboring properties.

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Bluebook (online)
943 N.E.2d 917, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 347, 2011 WL 682338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/b-b-llc-v-lake-erie-land-co-indctapp-2011.