Hodge v. Bluebeard's Castle, Inc.

62 V.I. 671, 2015 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 15
CourtSupreme Court of The Virgin Islands
DecidedJune 10, 2015
DocketS. Ct. Civil No. 2012-0087; S. Ct. Civil Nos. 2012-0087, 2012-0123
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 62 V.I. 671 (Hodge v. Bluebeard's Castle, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hodge v. Bluebeard's Castle, Inc., 62 V.I. 671, 2015 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 15 (virginislands 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

(June 10, 2015)

Cabret, Associate Justice.

In 2002, the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands2 held that a road providing access to property owned by Maria Hodge and Lawrence Hodge is a public right-of-way and issued a declaratory judgment and permanent injunction preventing Bluebeard’s Castle, Inc. (“BCI”), from blocking the Hodges access to the road. On appeal, the United States District Court of the Virgin Islands — sitting in its former appellate capacity — vacated the Superior Court’s order and remanded. On remand, the Superior Court changed course, finding that the road is not a public right-of-way. The Hodges now appeal to this Court, arguing that we should reverse the District Court and reinstate the Superior Court’s 2002 order. Because we agree that the District Court misapplied Virgin Islands law in vacating the Superior Court’s 2002 order [677]*677and remanding for further proceedings, we vacate the District Court’s order and the Superior Court’s post-remand orders, and reinstate the Superior Court’s original 2002 order.

1. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Bluebeard’s Castle Hotel — owned by BCI — is on Bluebeard’s Hill on St. Thomas. To the west of the hotel is Frederiksberg Gade, a public road, and to the south is Beltjen Road, another public road. The hotel is connected to Frederiksberg Gade by a road running up Bluebeard’s Hill that is referred to in the record alternatively as “Vy til Frederiksberg,” or the entrance road to Bluebeard’s Castle. This road connects with a road running directly south of the hotel through the hotel parking lot, which in turn connects with a road leading down the other side of the hill to meet Beltjen Road. The road leading down the other side of the hill connecting with Beltjen Road is referred to in the record as the “cable TV road,” or the hotel exit road. This right-of-way in its entirety from Frederiksberg Gade to Beltjen Road is referred to in the record as “the disputed road.” The disputed road provides the only access to Parcel 39C in Estate Taameberg.

Parcel 39C was created in July 1917, when the larger Parcel 39A was divided in two, creating a new Parcel 39C to the north accessible only through the disputed road, and leaving the remainder of Parcel 39A to the south accessible through Beltjen Road. The West Indian Company then bought Parcel 39C in 1919. In 1939, it built a house and garage on the property, where its employees lived until the house burned down in 1981, leaving only the garage intact. The company then sold the property to Maria Hodge and Lawrence Hodge in 1985.

Lawrence Hodge used the garage to store equipment, accessing it from Frederiksberg Gade through the disputed road without incident until 1994, when BCI constructed a gate across the entrance road near the intersection with Frederiksberg Gade, preventing the Hodges from reaching Parcel 39C from Frederiksberg Gade when closed. Initially, BCI closed the gate daily between 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., but closed it permanently in 1996, forcing the Hodges to approach from Beltjen Road by taking the exit road and driving through the hotel parking lot to reach [678]*678Parcel 39C from the east. In 1997, BCI blocked this route as well, placing a chain and a “do not enter” sign where the hotel parking lot met the entrance road, rendering Parcel 39C and the entire length of the entrance road inaccessible.

After BCI blocked access to Parcel 39C entirely, the Hodges filed a complaint against BCI in the Superior Court on November 26, 1997, alleging that the disputed road is, and always has been, a public road, used for over 80 years to access Parcel 39C, and that BCI created a nuisance by blocking access to the road. Alternatively, the Hodges asserted that because the disputed road provided them the only access to their property, they had the right to an easement by prescription. On October 18, 2001, the Government of the Virgin Islands filed a motion to intervene “in order to protect its interest and that of the people of the Virgin Islands in what the Government deems as a public road known as Frederiksberg Gade or Fredericksberg Vy in Estate Taarneberg.” The Superior Court granted this motion on October 29, 2001. The Government then filed its own complaint, alleging that “[f]or decades, said road served as a public access road to [the Hodges’] and other privately owned parcels . . . and as a public means of access to [BCI’s] property,” and that the Government maintained the road and posted signs regulating traffic. The Government alleged that BCI did not have the right to block off the road and did not have permission from the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works (“DPW”) to do so. In a survey map later introduced by the Government at trial, Bluebeard’s Hill was depicted as follows:

[679]*679[[Image here]]

The portion of the parcel labeled “39a” marked in pink is Parcel 39C. The blue line near the intersection of Frederiksberg Gade and the entrance road indicates where BCI erected the gate in 1994, and the blue line to the right indicates where BCI placed the chain and “do not enter” sign in 1997, preventing access to the entrance road from the hotel parking lot.

After the Government’s intervention, the Superior Court denied BCI’s motion for summary judgment on April 17, 2002, holding that there were genuine issues of material fact regarding the status of the road and rejecting BCI’s argument that the statute of limitations barred the Hodges’ action. Hodge v. Bluebeard’s Castle, Inc., 44 V.I. 242, 247-55 (V.I. Super. Ct. 2002).

The Superior Court held trial from May 28, 2002, to June 3, 2002. In accordance with the parties’ stipulation, the Superior Court determined the road’s status, with a jury sitting in an advisory capacity on this [680]*680question, but serving as the finder of fact regarding the Hodges’ nuisance claims. Following trial, the jury found that the disputed road is a public right-of-way and that BCI maintained a public and private nuisance when it blocked the road. The jury awarded the Hodges $6,000 in compensatory damages and $1.00 in punitive damages.

In its June 17, 2002 findings of fact and conclusions of law, the Superior Court agreed with the jury’s advisory finding that the disputed road is a public right-of-way and has been since at least 1912. The Superior Court held that even without evidence that the road was established as a public right-of-way as provided in the Virgin Islands Code, the road was public because it was a public right-of-way before the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States in 1917, and there was “no convincing evidence [that] the disputed roadway [was] conveyed to a private party.” The Superior Court also credited evidence that the road is widely regarded as public by the community and has been for decades, and that DPW paved and maintained the road and regulated traffic by posting street signs and establishing speed limits. As a result, the Superior Court ruled in the Hodges’ favor, issuing a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction preventing BCI from blocking the road. The Superior Court later awarded the Hodges $116,008.90 in attorney’s fees and costs in a July 22, 2002 order.

BCI appealed the Superior Court’s ruling to the Appellate Division of the United States District Court of the Virgin Islands on July 26, 2002, which issued an opinion nearly seven years later on April 1, 2009. Bluebeard’s Castle, Inc. v. Hodge, 51 V.I.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 V.I. 671, 2015 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodge-v-bluebeards-castle-inc-virginislands-2015.