Casco LLC v. McDonald's Real Estate Co.

666 F. App'x 743
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedDecember 21, 2016
Docket15-8089
StatusUnpublished

This text of 666 F. App'x 743 (Casco LLC v. McDonald's Real Estate Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Casco LLC v. McDonald's Real Estate Co., 666 F. App'x 743 (10th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Scott M. Matheson, Jr. Circuit Judge

This appeal concerns a contract and property dispute between neighbors. Cas-co, LLC and McDonald’s Real Estate Company own adjacent real estate and dispute their purported rights and obligations under a Declaration of Reciprocal Easements, Covenants, and Restrictions that was part of a broader real estate transaction.

We affirm the district court’s ruling that Casco breached two provisions of the Declaration and does not have rights under those provisions. The district court erred, however, in ruling that Casco lost its property rights established in the Declaration. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 in this diversity case, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual History

1. The Declaration

JB’s Family Restaurants, Inc. owned Lots 4, 5, and 6 of an area of land in Casper, Wyoming called the Klassen Addition. In 2002, JB’s conveyed to Casco Lots 4 and 6 for $125,000, and JB’s continued to own the adjoining Lot 5. Casco has operated a Quality Inn & Suites on its lots. As part of the transaction, the parties entered into the Declaration.

The Declaration, which Casco drafted and recorded in the Office of the County Clerk of Natrona County, Wyoming, on May 17, 2002, applied to Lots 4, 5, and 6. It stated:

1. New parking lot. Casco, at its sole expense, shall install a new parking lot on real property owned by JB’s prior to removing any of JB’s existing 70 parking spaces 1 .Casco will replace and build said parking spaces on JB’s real property to accommodate at least sixteen (16) nine-foot (9’) parking spaces. After such new parking spaces have been installed upon JB’s real property, JB’s shall be responsible for the maintenance, repair, snow removal, sealing, and other expenses relative to maintaining the parking lots on JB’s real property.
2. Access easement. Attached hereto as Exhibits “A” and “B”, and by reference made a part hereof, is the legal description of an access easement which JB’s do hereby grant, bargain, *746 sell, and convey to Casco across JB’s property, which shall be a perpetual access easement until such time as the parties hereto, their successors and assigns, and predecessors in title mutually agree to terminate such access easement. The parties agree that the obligation for snow removal and maintenance and repair of such access easement shall be JB’s.
3. Sign. JB’s have granted to Casco the right to install, repair, and maintain signs on JB’s real property located on the plat attached hereto as Exhibits “C” and “D”, and by reference made a part hereof. Such signs shall not exceed the following dimensions:
(a) Sign easement #1 shall not be in excess of 66” high, as measured from the ground to the top of the sign.
(b) Total square footage of the two signs shall not exceed the lesser of 300 square feet, or 60% of the total dimensions and sign coverage allowed on Lot 5 by the City of Casper at the time the signs are to be erected.
4. Garbage receptacle. Casco, at its sole expense, shall install, to City’s specifications, a garbage receptacle to be located upon JB’s real property at the location described in the plat attached hereto as Exhibit “B”, prior to removing JB’s existing garbage receptacle.
6. Fences. The parties hereto agree that no fences will be constructed on or within 20’ of the adjoining lot lines between Lots 4, 5, and 6 of the said Klassen Addition, the real property owned by JB’s and Casco without the express written mutual consent of the parties hereto, their successors, or assigns. This restriction shall continue and shall constitute a covenant running with the real property owned by the respective parties hereto.
6. Parking Spaces. The parties hereto, their successors, assigns, and predecessors in title shall have the unrestricted right to use the parking spaces located upon the parties’ real property legally described as Lots 4, 5, and 6, in the Replat of Klassen Addition, an Addition to the City of Casper, Natrona County, Wyoming. Each of the parties shall be responsible for the maintenance and repair of the parking spaces located upon its property, including the -snow removal and the maintenance and repair. The parties hereto shall have the right to ■ designóte handicapped parking on their respective properties. All the parking spaces on the real property owned by Casco and JB’s shall constitute a conveyance of reciprocal easements for this purpose, and shall be a perpetual common easement which may be modified only with the mutual written consent of the parties hereto, their successors, assigns, and predecessors in title. Such parking spaces are set forth in the plat attached as Exhibit “E” hereto.

App. at 28-29.

When the parties signed the Declaration, JB’s parking spaces and trash receptacle were located in the access easement discussed in the Access Easement Provision. The parties intended for (1) the new parking spaces, discussed in the New Parking Lot Provision, and (2) the future garbage receptacle, discussed in the Garbage Receptacle Provision, to be located outside the access easement. Attached to the Declaration were exhibits of maps showing the intended configurations of Lots 4, 5, and 6 after the Casco redevelopment. For unexplained reasons, Casco never redeveloped the property.

*747 2.McDonald’s Redevelopment

After purchasing JB’s former property in 2013, McDonald’s planned a redevelopment of its lot, Lot 5. Casco did not consent to McDonald’s redevelopment. Instead, it communicated various objections, the specific nature of which the parties have not explained.

McDonald’s nevertheless executed its redevelopment plan, making the following changes:

1. It demolished JB’s restaurant and replaced it with a new McDonald’s restaurant.
2. It removed the garbage receptacle on Lot 5 and built a new one in a different location on that same lot. This new location was not the location of the “proposed trash enclosure” depicted in the Declaration’s exhibits.
3. It constructed a storage shed next to the new garbage receptacle.
4. Its replacement of the garbage receptacle and construction of a storage shed eliminated two.parking spaces.
5. It installed a new sign, occupying 420.55 square feet out of 600 square feet allotted by the City of Casper.

McDonald’s redevelopment does not interfere with the access easement. McDonald’s has never denied a Casco employee or guest access to the access easement. Nor has Casco identified any employee or guest who has been unable to park on Lot 5.

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Bluebook (online)
666 F. App'x 743, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casco-llc-v-mcdonalds-real-estate-co-ca10-2016.