Hill v. U.S. Life Title Insurance Co. of New York

731 S.W.2d 910, 1986 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2760
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 11, 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 731 S.W.2d 910 (Hill v. U.S. Life Title Insurance Co. of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill v. U.S. Life Title Insurance Co. of New York, 731 S.W.2d 910, 1986 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2760 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

LEWIS, Judge.

This is an appeal by defendant, U.S. Life Title Insurance Company of New York (U.S. Life), from a judgment awarding plaintiffs Ronnie Hill and John Taylor the sum of $25,000 as damages and dismissing U.S. Life’s third-party complaint against Dr. John Clarence Leonard (Leonard) in which U.S. Life had asked that the easement in question be declared abandoned and removed from the record as a cloud upon plaintiffs’ title.

The pertinent facts are as follows:

On April 3, 1980, plaintiffs purchased a 676.94 acre farm in Marshall County, Tennessee, from John D. Lambert, executor of the estate of Pauline D. Lambert. On April 11, 1980, U.S. Life issued its “Policy of Title Insurance” insuring plaintiffs

against loss or damage, costs, attorneys’ fees and expense sustained or incurred by the insured by reason of:
1. Title to the estate or interest [in the 676.94 acre tract] being vested otherwise than as stated therein;
2. Any defect in or lien or encumbrance on such title;
3. Lack of a right of access to and from the land; or
4. Unmarketability of such title. Schedule B of the policy provides in part:
This policy does not insure against loss or damage by reason of the following:
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3. Easements or claims of easements not shown by the public records.

The policy defines public records as “those records which by law impart con[912]*912structive notice of matters relating to said land.”

Subsequent to the issuance of the policy, plaintiffs discovered a document dated September 1, 1944, of record in Deed Book C-4, page 149, Register’s Office of Marshall County, Tennessee, purporting to grant an easement across the 676.94 acre farm, which was not listed as an exception in the title policy.

U.S. Life, by its first issue, contends that its policy does not cover the easement because

a right-of-way easement which contains no legal description of the property, gives no indication as to the civil district in which the property is located, does not indicate the county in which the property is located, and contains no point of reference within the four comers of the document from which a description could be prepared[,]

is not shown by the public records even though it may be recorded and is therefore not “binding upon anyone other than the parties to the agreement, without the showing of actual notice.”1

The easement contained in Deed Book C-4 is as follows:

Whereas, we have a good neighbor in the person of Mr. Ed Walker, whom we consider a Christian gentleman in every respect, and
WHEREAS, he has a good farm that lays back of our farm and is very badly hemmed in, Now in order to give him a good way to get in and out to his farm with cars or trucks, we, W.D. Fox and wife, Eva Fox, are hereby deeding him this right of way for the consideration that he make the road at his own expense, and with the further understanding that the owner of the Walker farm is to keep three good gates or stock gaps on this road, and keep them in such a way as to keep the stock in or out, and if the parties who own the Walker place fails to keep good gates or stock gaps on this road, they are to pay what it costs to keep them in good shape.
This September 1, 1944.

Generally, in order that there be constructive notice of an easement, the recorded instrument must sufficiently identify the premises. 66 Am.Jur.2d Records and Recording Laws § 143 (1973).

This Court in Sheffield v. Franklin, 32 Tenn.App. 532, 543-544, 222 S.W.2d 974, 978-979 (1947), stated as follows:

Certainly it is true that a deed to be valid must designate the land intended to be conveyed with reasonable certainty. But with respect to executed contracts conveying real property, the courts have been extremely liberal in construing the description with a view of determining whether it is sufficiently definite and certain to identify the land and make the instrument operative as a conveyance, and it is said to be a broad general principle “that a deed will not be declared void for uncertainty in description if it is possible by any reasonable rules of construction to ascertain from the description, aided by extrinsic evidence, what property is intended to be conveyed.” “It is sufficient”, continues this text, “if the description in the deed or conveyance furnishes a means of identification of the land or by which the property conveyed can be located.”
The test is whether a surveyor with the deed before him and with or without the aid of extrinsic evidence can locate the land and establish the boundaries.
Though parol evidence cannot be resorted to to supply material parts of a deed, it is always admissible to show where the land is that fills the description contained in the instrument. It is permissible to apply, but not to supply, description. And it is very generally held that “parol evidence is permissible to locate natural monuments, such as trees, paths, fords, etc., called for in the deed.”

(Citations omitted.)

See also Miller v. Street, 663 S.W.2d 797, 798 (Tenn.App.1983), where this Court reit[913]*913erated “the test of adequacy of description is whether a surveyor, from the description, could locate the property.”

Neither Sheffield nor Miller contained full descriptions. However, there was enough contained in the instruments so that a surveyor could locate the easement.

U.S. Life contends that there can be no constructive notice in the instant case that the right-of-way encumbered plaintiffs’ land since the “agreement in question gives no indication as to what property it encumbers, other than the fact that it was property owned by W.D. Fox and wife.” It argues that the record shows that the Foxes had conveyed numerous tracts of land during the time period in question.

The Chancellor found that

the document was acknowledged and recorded in Marshall County. It should be pointed out that Marshall County was a small rural county in 1944 and still is. It wouldn’t have been difficult for the defendant to check out conveyances of W.D. Fox, et ux., the grantors of the easement. The said grantors were a second predecessor in title to the plaintiffs. Had the defendant checked out conveyances as aforesaid, it would have found that an executory easement for a right of way had been conveyed and that further investigation was necessary. The court is of the opinion that the recorded document imparts constructive notice of matters relating to the land.

We are of the opinion that there is evidence in this record to support the Chancellor’s finding.

The instrument in question shows that it was notarized in Marshall County, Tennessee, and recorded in Marshall County, Tennessee. The instrument shows that W.D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
731 S.W.2d 910, 1986 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-us-life-title-insurance-co-of-new-york-tennctapp-1986.