BEDESSEM v. Cunningham

2012 WY 36, 272 P.3d 310, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 37, 2012 WL 753258
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 2012
DocketS-11-0127
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2012 WY 36 (BEDESSEM v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BEDESSEM v. Cunningham, 2012 WY 36, 272 P.3d 310, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 37, 2012 WL 753258 (Wyo. 2012).

Opinion

GOLDEN, Justice.

[¶ 1] Marjorie Bedessem (Bedessem), as trustee of her revocable trust, filed a complaint against David and Susan Cunningham (Cunninghams), seeking enforcement of an easement across the Cunningham property to access the Bedessem property. Bedessem claimed an implied access easement or, in the alternative, access pursuant to the restrictive covenants applicable to both properties. The district court found no evidence of an implied easement and that the restrictive covenants authorized only the Architectural Control Committee to sue for enforcement of the covenants. On those grounds it granted Cunninghams' summary judgment motion. We affirm.

ISSUE

[¶ 2] On appeal, Bedessem does not challenge the district court's finding on the implied easement claim and presents only the following issue:

I. Whether the District Court erred when it ruled that Plaintiff did not have standing *311 to enforce a restrictive covenant against Defendants.

FACTS

[¶ 3] In the early 1990s, Red Butte Development Corporation (Red Butte) developed a 600-acre tract of land south of Laramie, Wyoming. The planned development included a two-phase residential subdivision of tracts under thirty-five acres in size. Phase I of the Buttes Subdivision was a 300-acre development that reserved to Red Butte the right to grant use of the subdivision's roads for access from Highway 287 to lands east of the Phase I development.

[T4] In conjunction with its original plan, Red Butte applied for a right-of-way across a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tract of land east of Phase I of the Buttes Subdivision and between the Phase I area and what was proposed, at the time, to be Phase II of the Buttes Subdivision. Red Butte sought to use this right-of way as part of a looped connection to the Phase II development. At some point, however, Red Butte abandoned the second phase of its proposed subdivision and instead opted to develop the easternmost lands as "the Large Tracts." The Large Tracts, designated Tracts I through IV, ranged in size from forty to one-hundred acres, and they are numbered from south to north, Tract I being the southernmost tract.

[¶5] In December 1993, Red Butte sold Tract II of the Large Tracts to Windy Perkins. The Warranty Deed for Tract II granted an access easement to Tract II from the north across Tracts III and IV. In December 1994, Red Butte sold Tract I to the Cunninghams. The Warranty Deed for Tract I gave the Cunninghams access casements to their property that did not cross Tracts II, III or IV.

[T 6] In conjunction with the sale of Tract I to the Cunninghams, Red Butte applied to the BLM to revise the right-of-way across the BLM tract so as to eliminate the loop and terminate the right-of-way across the BLM land at Tract I's western boundary. In March/April 1995, the BLM approved and adopted the requested revision to the right-of-way to terminate Butte Loop as a loop road and to specify that Butte Loop, crossing the BLM tract, would terminate at the Tract I boundary. On April 6, 1995, the BLM right-of-way grant was assigned from Red Butte to the Cunninghams, effectively eliminating the southern portion of the so-call "Loop."

[¶ 7] In 1997-1998, Cunninghams built a home on Tract I, and Windy Perkins, along with her husband, Dr. James R. Smith, built a home on Tract II. During this time, Cun-ninghams agreed that Perkins and Smith could access Tract II via Butte Loop across Tract I, and Perkins/Smith agreed to share the cost of substantial improvements to the road. Eventually, Cunninghams and Perking/Smith became close personal friends, and Cunninghams continued to allow them to access Tract II via Butte Loop and across Tract I. That permission continued throughout the time the parties remained in their residences. '

[T8] In 2008, the owners of Tracts I through IV decided to amend the restrictive covenants that governed their properties, due to concerns about the absence of recorded covenants on Tract IV and inconsistencies in the recorded covenants for the other tracts. On December 19, 2008, the revised covenants were recorded as Vacation of Existing Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions and Re-Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (Covenants).

[¶ 9] In 2007, Perkins listed Tract II for sale. Perking' realtor, Dianne Van Pelt, visited with Cunninghams to obtain layout maps showing the relative locations of the four Large Tracts. During that meeting, Cun-ninghams advised Ms. Van Pelt that they would no longer extend permission to access Tract II via Tract I. They indicated that they expected the new owners to access Tract II from the north, along the express easement contained in the Tract II Warranty Deed. Ms. Van Pelt thereafter had a title insurance company investigate access to Tract II and learned that the only insurable access was the access from the north across Tracts III and IV.

*312 [¶ 10] In September 2008, Jack and Marjorie Bedessem purchased Tract II. 1 They purchased the property subject to the original Tract II Warranty Deed, which granted an access easement to Tract II from the north across Tracts III and IV. The Buy Sell Agreement executed by Perkins and the Be-dessems acknowledged that access to Tract II was from the north. Before closing on the property, the Bedessems requested a meeting with the Cunninghams to discuss the possibility of access to Tract II through Tract I, but for various reasons, that meeting never occurred.

[T 11] After moving into the residence on Tract II, Bedessems accessed their property both from the north, using the easement across Tracts III and IV, and also from the south, across Tract I. Cunninghams informed Bedessems that they did not want Bedes-sems crossing their property to access Tract IL. Eventually, frustrated at Bedessems' continued access from the south, across Cun-ninghams' property, Cunninghams locked the "Cunningham Ranch Gate" where the BLM right-of-way meets the western boundary of Tract I. Despite initial efforts to resolve their dispute, including Cunninghams' agreement that Bedessems could use the southern route across their property when snow made the northern route impassable and for a January 2009 party, the parties were unable to reach agreement concerning Bedessems' continued access across Cunninghams' property.

[¶ 12] In May 2010, Bedessem filed a complaint against Cunninghams seeking declaratory and injunctive relief as well as damages for past conduct, punitive damages and attorney fees. Bedessem claimed an implied access easement or, in the alternative, access pursuant to the terms of the restrictive covenants applicable to both properties. Cunninghams moved for summary judgment, and the district court granted that motion in its entirety. The court found that the expressly agreed upon access easement for Tract II from the north precluded an implied easement, and it further found that the restrictive covenants authorized only the Architectural Control Committee to sue for enforcement of the covenants and precluded Bedessem's enforcement action. On appeal, Bedessem has abandoned the implied easement claim.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[113] This Court has a well-established standard for reviewing a grant of summary judgment:

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Bluebook (online)
2012 WY 36, 272 P.3d 310, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 37, 2012 WL 753258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bedessem-v-cunningham-wyo-2012.