Gillespie v. Dring

350 F. Supp. 3d 333
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 10, 2018
DocketNO. 3:15-CV-0950
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 350 F. Supp. 3d 333 (Gillespie v. Dring) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gillespie v. Dring, 350 F. Supp. 3d 333 (M.D. Pa. 2018).

Opinion

A. Richard Caputo, United States District Judge

Presently before me is a Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 61) filed by Defendants *335Lori Dring and Nancy Asaro. Dring and Asaro's Motion will be granted, and judgment entered in their favor on both Counts of Plaintiff Property Owners' Amended Complaint (Doc. 22).

I. Background

The parties are familiar with the factual background of this long-standing dispute over property rights at Lake Ariel in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. I summarize here only the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant Property Owners, necessary for resolving Dring and Asaro's Motion (for simplicity, I will refer to Defendants Dring and Asaro collectively as "Dring").

The Property Owners own land on the west side of Lake Ariel. Dring owns land south of the Property Owners' land, and also owns a strip of land between the Property Owners' land and the lake. This strip of land is called the Western Shore Strip. A private organization called the Ariel Land Owners ("ALO") owns the lake itself.

Nearly two decades ago, Dring, ALO, and the Property Owners became embroiled in litigation over property rights at the lake, which culminated in a 2006 settlement agreement. The agreement provided, among other things, that ALO and Dring release claims against each other, and that the Property Owners and Dring release claims against each other "arising out of or relating to the Lawsuit and the Western Shore Strip." (Doc. 64-1 at 4). Per the settlement, Dring was to subdivide the Western Shore Strip into two parcels-the North Strip and the South Strip. (Id. at 2). Section 3 of the agreement requires Dring to "execute and deliver to ALO a quit claim deed ... to the North Strip, subject to a permanent easement to be granted in favor of the Property Owners for access over the North Strip and to maintain docks and/or boathouses ...." (Id. ). In Section 5 ALO was to, among other things, grant Dring a permanent easement over a nearby property called Cardinal Lane. (Id. at 2-3).

Joseph O'Brien, counsel for both the Property Owners and ALO during the settlement agreement's drafting, admitted that the "intention of Section 3 ... was that the easement in favor of the Property Owners was to be created in the quit claim deed to be delivered to ALO for the North Strip ...." (Doc. 64 at ¶ 13; Doc. 75 at ¶¶ 1-13 (admitted by the Property Owners) ). O'Brien "further admitted that Section 15 provides that the parties were to exchange the deeds and instruments provided for in the Settlement Agreement at the same time." (Id. ).

At the time of formation of the settlement agreement, ALO (if not all parties to the settlement) believed it had good title to Cardinal Lane. ALO received the deed to the property from the Swingles, which was dated January 12, 2004 and recorded in Wayne County soon thereafter. (Doc. 64 at ¶ 17; Doc. 75 at ¶ 17). However, the Swingles conveyed the same property to the Culottas via a deed dated February 11, 2002 and recorded in Wayne County on the same date. Joseph O'Brien admitted to Dring's counsel on November 8, 2013 that "ALO's ability to convey the Cardinal Lane easement had been challenged." (Doc. 75 at ¶ 22). Since then, the Court of Common Pleas of Wayne County has determined that the Culottas have title to Cardinal Lane, not ALO. (Doc. 94-2 at 7-8). It seems that the Culottas are unwilling to negotiate with ALO. (Doc. 75 at ¶ 22).

On Dring's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 6), I ruled that ALO's granting an easement to Dring over Cardinal Lane was not clearly a condition precedent to Dring's obligation "to convey to ALO a quitclaim deed to the North Strip subject to a permanent easement *336to be granted in favor of [the Property Owners]." (Doc. 15 at 9). I also ruled, in granting Dring's Motion to Reconsider (Doc. 20), that Dring could try to show through parol evidence that ALO's performance was in fact a condition precedent to Dring's performance. (Doc. 27). In other words, absent parol evidence to the contrary, Dring had to deliver the North Strip deed with the Property Owners' easement even though ALO might have breached; the Property Owners, in releasing their claims against Dring, had fully performed. (Doc. 15 at 10).

The most recent ruling concerning this dispute was my August 16, 2018 ruling in a related case between Dring and ALO. Dring v. Ariel Land Owners, Inc. , No. 3:15-CV-00478, 2018 WL 3934623 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 16, 2018). On cross-motions for summary judgment, I determined that while Dring had not yet performed on the settlement agreement by subdividing the Western Shore Strip, Dring was excused from doing so because ALO had repudiated the agreement by, among other things, failing to obtain marketable title to Cardinal Lane. Id. at *7-8. ALO's repudiation, I held, "made it futile for Dring ... to satisfy the condition precedent" of subdividing the Western Shore Strip into the North Strip and South Strip. Id. at *8. As such, Dring is "shielded from a claim that [she] breached the Settlement Agreement[,] because it would have been futile to satisfy the condition precedent." Id. I also held that Dring could not pursue a breach of contract claim against ALO because Dring's failure to subdivide the Western Shore Strip was not caused by ALO's repudiation. Id.

On July 17, Dring requested oral argument on her Motion for Summary Judgment pursuant to Local Rule 7.9. (Doc. 95). Oral argument was held on September 14, 2018.

The Motion has been fully briefed and is now ripe for review.

II. Legal Standard

Summary judgment shall be granted "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). "A court may grant a motion for summary judgment if, after it considers all probative materials of record, with inferences drawn in favor of the non-moving party, the court is satisfied that there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Chavarriaga v. N.J. Dep't of Corrs. , 806 F.3d 210, 218 (3d Cir. 2015) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett , 477 U.S. 317, 330, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) ); Brooks v. Kyler , 204 F.3d 102

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350 F. Supp. 3d 333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gillespie-v-dring-pamd-2018.