Dayton v. Jordan

381 P.3d 1031, 279 Or. App. 737, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 937
CourtCoos County Circuit Court, Oregon
DecidedJuly 27, 2016
Docket14CV1087; A158858
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 381 P.3d 1031 (Dayton v. Jordan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Coos County Circuit Court, Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dayton v. Jordan, 381 P.3d 1031, 279 Or. App. 737, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 937 (Or. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

DEHOOG, J.

In this quiet title action, Stephen Dayton and Carolyn Dayton (plaintiffs) appeal a limited judgment granting one of Randy Jordan and Sun Buggy Fun Rentals, Inc.’s (defendants) counterclaims and declaring that defendants have an implied easement over a road that runs through plaintiffs’ property and forms the northern border of defendants’ property. In summary judgment proceedings, defendants argued that they had acquired the easement through a deed that referenced a partition plat depicting defendants’ property, plaintiffs’ property, and the disputed road. In defendants’ view, when plaintiffs’ predecessor sold defendants’ property by reference to the partition plat, that depiction of the road resulted in an implied easement over the road and appurtenant to defendants’ property. The trial court accepted that theory and granted summary judgment for defendants on that counterclaim. Because the court apparently misconstrued applicable case law regarding implied easements, we conclude that the court erred in granting summary judgment on that basis. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

The relevant historical facts are not disputed. Plaintiffs and defendants operate competing all-terrain vehicle (ATV) rental businesses on adjoining parcels near the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Plaintiffs’ parcel is immediately north of defendants’ parcel; the southern boundary of plaintiffs’ parcel is the northern boundary of defendants’ parcel. A road — the point of conflict in this appeal — runs east to west through plaintiffs’ parcel along that boundary. That disputed road connects with Highway 101 to the east and the dunes to the west; it provides the only direct access from either parcel to the dunes.

Previously, both parcels — and the disputed road— were part of a larger, undivided parcel owned by Pacific Coast Recreation RV, Inc. (Pacific Coast). The original Pacific Coast parcel included additional property located to the north, south, and west of the parcels at issue in this appeal. When the Pacific Coast parcel was still intact, another entity, Coos Bay Lumber, owned property to the west of the Pacific Coast parcel, which separated that parcel from the dunes. Thus, to [740]*740gain access to the dunes, Pacific Coast obtained an easement over the Coos Bay Lumber property in 1990. That easement over the Coos Bay Lumber property abutted the disputed road, such that the road, together with the 1990 easement, gave occupants of the Pacific Coast parcel direct access to the dunes. The 1990 easement expressly stated that it was conveyed to Pacific Coast for “egress from and ingress to the Pacific Coast Property by pedestrians, recreational vehicles and light-duty passenger automobiles, trucks, vans and tour vehicles.”

Pacific Coast subsequently partitioned its property a number of times. Two partitions are of particular significance to this appeal. The first and most significant partition, which Pacific Coast made in 1999, created tax lot (TL) 606, the parcel that now belongs to defendants. At that time, the parcel that is now plaintiffs’ parcel remained a part of Pacific Coast’s larger, undivided property. The 1999 partition plat depicted the disputed road on the Pacific Coast property to the immediate north of TL 606, but it did not state that the new parcel had an easement over the disputed road.

Then, in 2005, Pacific Coast made a second significant partition and created TL 600, which is now plaintiffs’ parcel, as well as two other parcels located north of the disputed road. The 2005 partition plat depicts the disputed road running entirely on, and forming the southern boundary of, TL 600. That plat expressly purported to grant all future owners of the three parcels that it created — including plaintiffs’ parcel — an easement over the disputed road “for ingress and egress to the sand dunes.” No parcel created through either partition, however, has a formal, deeded easement over the disputed road.

The 1999 partition that created TL 606 is central to defendants’ arguments in this appeal. In 2004, Pacific Coast conveyed TL 606 to defendants’ predecessor, Endicott, through a deed of sale that described the property being conveyed to Endicott by reference to the plat from that 1999 partition — the partition that created defendants’ parcel. At the time that Pacific Coast sold TL 606 to Endicott in 2004, plaintiffs’ parcel had not yet been created, and Pacific Coast [741]*741still owned both the disputed road and the property to the north of TL 606. Defendants later acquired TL 606 from Endicott.

This litigation arose out of the parties’ competing interests in using the disputed road for their respective ATV rental businesses. Plaintiffs filed a complaint seeking to quiet title as to any adverse claims by defendants and to enjoin defendants from using the disputed road. Defendants’ answer raised two counterclaims, each seeking a declaration recognizing an easement for their benefit over the road. Defendants’ first counterclaim, the subject of this appeal, alleged that the easement over the disputed road was “implied from reference to” the 1999 plat. Their second counterclaim, the subject of the appeal in Dayton v. Jordan, 280 Or App 236, 381 P3d 1041 (2016), alleged that the easement over the disputed road was “implied from prior use.”

Defendants moved for summary judgment regarding the first counterclaim. They argued that the depiction of plaintiffs’ parcel and the disputed road on the 1999 plat— together with the reference to that plat in the 2004 deed to Endicott — had created an implied easement appurtenant to defendants’ property. As part of that argument, defendants highlighted the relationship between the 1990 easement over the Coos Bay Lumber property and the various partitions of the Pacific Coast property described above. Defendants asserted that the 1990 easement was appurtenant to each parcel created by those partitions, and noted that the disputed road was the only way to access that easement from those parcels. Thus, defendants reasoned, the circumstances surrounding the 1999 plat suggested that the disputed “road was placed on the plat for a reason”— to indicate that the road benefitted the parcel that the plat created — namely, TL 606.

In response to defendants’ motion, plaintiffs argued that the mere fact that the 1999 plat depicted the disputed road was insufficient to establish an implied easement, even though the deed to Endicott referenced that plat. Rather, plaintiffs argued, the court was required to apply the eight-factor test set forth in Cheney v. Mueller, 259 Or 108, 118-19, 485 P2d 1218 (1971), to determine [742]*742whether defendants had an implied easement over the road. Collectively, those so-called “Cheney factors” consider the circumstances surrounding the alleged creation of an implied easement to ascertain the intent of the putative grantor. See id. Because, plaintiffs argued, defendants had not produced sufficient evidence for the court to evaluate those factors, that intent remained a disputed factual issue that precluded summary judgment in favor of defendants.

Defendants replied that it was well established that a plat reference alone is sufficient to create an easement. In support of that theory, defendants cited a line of Supreme Court cases, including Carter v. City of Portland, 4 Or 339 (1873), Kuck v. Wakefield, 58 Or 549, 115 P 428, reh’g den, 58 Or 555, 115 P 430 (1911), and Menstell et al. v. Johnson et al., 125 Or 150, 262 P 853 (1927), reh’g den,

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Bluebook (online)
381 P.3d 1031, 279 Or. App. 737, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dayton-v-jordan-orcccoos-2016.