Carleton v. Dierks

203 S.W.2d 552, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1001
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 4, 1947
DocketNo. 9633
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 203 S.W.2d 552 (Carleton v. Dierks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carleton v. Dierks, 203 S.W.2d 552, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1001 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

McCLENTON, Chief Justice.

Appellees obtained a judgment establishing a “right-of-way and easement for a permanent roadway” over appellant’s lands, and perpetually enjoining appellant, “his heirs and assigns,” from locking the gates to the roadway, and from obstructing or interfering with the use thereof by appellees- “and their respective heirs and assigns.” In a prior appeal in the case an interlocutory order granting appellees a temporary injunction was affirmed. 195 S.W.2d 834, 837.

In the main the facts in the instant appeal are not essentially different from those in the former appeal, in the opinion in which they are epitomized as follows: “The Carl-cton tract, known as the Schwartz tract, consisted of 614.1 acres. It was located in Comal County. Its southern boundary was the Boerne-New Braunfels road; and its northern boundary in part was the southern boundary of land owned by plaintiffs or some of them. The Schwartz tract was owned by Alfred Engal from 1931 until April 1943, when he sold it to defendant. For over forty years priorto 1939 or 1940, plaintiffs and their families had used a roadway over the Schwartz tract as a passageway to and from their land. In October 1939 plaintiffs made-a verbal agreement with Engal for a new road along a straight route over the tract, upon consideration of $20 paid by plaintiffs to Engal, and the further consideration that plaintiffs relinquish all right to the old roadway; would clear the new right of way; construct the new road thereon; build substantial gates where the new road entered and left defendant’s premises; maintain the road and gates and permit Engal to use that part of. the road leading to his premises. Plaintiffs performed their part of this agreement, expending therein over $500.”

Additionally it was shown that appellees had expended some $1,200 on their own lands in constructing necessary approaches •■to the new right-of-way.

The judgment was predicated upon two special issue jury findings, namely:

1. That “plaintiffs, Dierks, made valuable and permanent improvements upon said right-of-way in reliance on Engal’s oral agreement to provide them with a permanent right-of-way.”

2. “That the locking of the gates across the road in question constitutes an unreasonable interference with plaintiffs’ use and enjoyment of said road, even though plaintiffs were furnished with keys.”

Of the seven points of error urged by appellant, the first four are predicated upon the contention that appellees’ rights in the roadway constituted a mere revocable license, and that the court should have permitted such revocation upon appellant’s offer to reimburse appellees for their outlay in this regard. The issues thus presented arise under the following record showing. After appellees had closed their case, and towards the end of appellant’s evidence, he tendered a trial amendment alleging that he “recognizes that plaintiffs have a license to travel over and across the lands of defendant, said license being an oral license, and the defendant here now revokes said license, but as a condition precedent to such revocation offers to do equity, and here now tenders into the Registry of the court for the benefit of the plaintiffs the amount of money as may be legally determined to be due and' owing to the plaintiffs for the expenditures that the plaintiffs have been put to on reliance upon the oral agreement of plaintiffs and Alfred Engal,” etc. Among other objections to the filing of this amendment, appellees urged that it came too late. Permission to file the amendment was denied. Thereafter appellant offered evidence to show the amount of appellees’ outlay upon the roadway, and tendered a special issue finding the amount thereof. No error is predicated upon the refusal to permit filing the trial amendment. The points urged are upon the exclusion of the proffered evidence and refusal to submit the tendered issue.

There are a number of grounds upon which these rulings of the trial court should be upheld. In the first place there was no pleading to support these issues. The action of the court in denying filing the amendment cannot be considered because not urged. But even were it urged, the [555]*555ruling should be sustained for the reason that it was a matter within the sound discretion of the court, Rule 66, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, and no abuse of discretion appears.

But we do not think the record presents a case of a mere revocable license. On the contrary, we think a permanent easement was shown.

Even had there been no prior right to a roadway over the premises, the verbal agreement with Engal, and paying the consideration and making the permanent improvements in compliance therewith, were sufficient to support a permanent easement. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Supreme Court in 1875, said: “The owner of land may create an casement by a parol agreement or representation which has been so acted on by others as to create an estoppel en pais. As 'where he has by parol agreement granted a right to such easement in his land, upon the faith of which the other party has expended moneys which will be lost and valueless if the right to enjoy such easement is revoked, equity will enjoin the owner of the first estate from preventing the use of it.’ (Washburn on Eas. and Serv., 97, and numerous cases cited.)” Harrison & Co. v. Boring & Kennard, 44 Tex. 255.

This rule which is one of general acceptation, has been consistently followed in this State. Texas & St. L. Ry. v. Jarrell, 60 Tex. 267; Bowington v. Williams, Tex. Civ.App., 166 S.W. 719; Miles v. Bodenheim, Tex.Civ.App., 184 S.W. 633.

An additional element in the instant case is that there was an old roadway across the premises which had been used by appellees and their predecessors in title for over forty years prior to the agreement with Engal; and it was a part of the consideration for the new roadway that appellees relinquish all right to the old roadway. This was a recognition of some right of appellees in the old roadway, and the agreement was in effect a re-routing or change in location of an existing roadway. It is a rule of general application that the location of an easement “may be changed with the express or implied consent of both parties, and an estoppel to claim a former location to be the true one arises from acquiescence in a change.” 17 Am.Jur., p. 988, § 87. “It is competent * * * for the owner of the land and the person having a right of way over it to change the route or location of the way by mutual consent, and such consent may be implied from their acts and acquiescence.” 28 C.J.S., Easements, p. 764, § 84. “When an easement has once been established, its location may be changed by an executed oral agreement between the owner of the servient estate and the owner of the dominant estate.” Tripp v. Bagley, 74 Utah 57, 276 P. 912, 919, 69 A.L.R. 1417. See also Parker v. Thomas C. Cecil Lodge No. 375, 193 Ky. 136, 235 S.W. 16.

Appellant’s contention that appellees’ rights in the roadway were revocable at any time upon reimbursing appellees for their outlay is predicated upon an isolated quotation from Neches Canal Co. v. Dishman, Tex.Com.App., 44 S.W.2d 955, 960, to the effect that in order to exercise a right of. revocation it is essential that the licensee be so ' reimbursed, — a well-established general principle.

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Bluebook (online)
203 S.W.2d 552, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1001, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carleton-v-dierks-texapp-1947.