Kunzler v. O'DELL

855 P.2d 270, 215 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 1993 Utah App. LEXIS 102, 1993 WL 212737
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJune 18, 1993
Docket920640-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 855 P.2d 270 (Kunzler v. O'DELL) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kunzler v. O'DELL, 855 P.2d 270, 215 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 1993 Utah App. LEXIS 102, 1993 WL 212737 (Utah Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

JACKSON, Judge:

Appellants appeal from two post-judgment orders pertaining to the size and burden of a prescriptive easement across their land and the court’s restraining order concerning both parties use of firearms near the easement. Appellee cross-appeals from an order finding him in contempt of court and further restricting his use of the easement. We affirm in part, and reverse in part.

FACTS

Appellants and appellee own adjacent farm acreage located in rural Box Elder County. Appellee’s property bordered appellants’ property on the east and south. A cement ditch ran south along the eastern boundary of appellants’ property and continued south through appellee’s property, bisecting it. Appellee’s cattle could not cross the ditch. On the east end of appellants’ property was a small roadway, just west of the ditch, running north and south. A fence separated the roadway from the rest of the appellants’ property. At a point along this roadway near the northeast corner of appellants’ property was a bridge crossing the ditch. The roadway was used by appellee for ingress and egress of farm equipment and, together with the bridge, provided appellee’s cattle with access to their water supply on the opposite side of the ditch. At the time of the events leading to this lawsuit, appellee had been using the roadway for more than twenty years.

In 1989, appellants removed the fence separating the roadway from the rest of their property. Appellee brought suit claiming he owned the roadway, or had a prescriptive easement. Before the trial began, appellee rebuilt a temporary fence in the area of the original fence. In May 1991, a hearing was held, at which time the trial court ruled that the historical placement of the easement was from the quarter-section line (the boundary on the east) to the fence line, where it existed at the time of the trial. On July 1, 1991, the trial court entered a Judgment and Order awarding appellee a prescriptive easement over the east end of appellant’s property for specific limited uses. The trial court described the easement boundary as running north and south along the quarter-section line and extending sixteen feet onto the appellants’ property. Based on their interpretation of the Judgment, appellants moved the fence that appellee had rebuilt a few feet to the east, narrowing the width of the roadway to approximately sixteen feet. This prompted appellee to file a Motion for “Clarification of the Judgment,” effectively informing the court that its description of the historical location of the fence line contained in the judgment was inconsistent with its legal ruling. In written response to this motion, the appellants joined in appellee's request for clarification stating that the fence that appellee had rebuilt was further than sixteen feet from the quarter-section line. A hearing was held on September 9, 1991, and a new judgment was entered January 10, 1992. The trial court explained the reason the description in its judgment was different from its legal ruling was because the court relied on representations made by both parties that the quarter-section line was sixteen feet to the east of the original fence line. The court invited either party to get a survey done to better describe the historical fence line and reaffirmed its ruling that the easement extended from the fence line, as it existed at the time of the trial (the historical location), to the quarter-section line, whatever that distance may be.

The remainder of the hearing was devoted to the presentation of testimony describing both parties’ inability to follow the court’s order. The evidence revealed both parties made various attempts to aggravate and annoy each other. There were allegations of threatening phone calls and actual physical confrontations at different times along the easement. The trial court reprimanded all the parties for their childish behavior and held appellee and two appellants in contempt. The court sus[273]*273pended the contempt orders conditional upon the parties performing certain actions and generally behaving themselves.

On January 29, 1992, the parties were again before the court on an Order To Show Cause. At this hearing, the court discussed all the conditions the court had imposed on the parties at the clarification hearing. The court found generally that the appellants were striving to follow the court’s orders and that appellee was not. The court found appellee in contempt of court and ordered that he spend five days in jail and pay the appellants’ court costs and attorney fees. The court further ordered that appellee keep the access gates to the easement closed unless he was present. The following day, in a three-way conference call among the trial judge and the parties’ attorneys, the court partially rescinded its order, allowing appellee to keep the gate open if his cattle were nearby.

ISSUES

Appellants claim the trial court abused its discretion when it used a post-judgment order to change the description and use of the easement without receiving a motion from either party. Appellants also claim the trial court abused its discretion when it issued a permanent injunction limiting both parties’ use of firearms near the disputed easement boundary. Appellee cross-appeals from the trial court’s ruling that ap-pellee was in contempt of court and from its ruling limiting appellee’s use of the easement.

ANALYSIS

Post-Judgment Orders

Appellants argue only two rules of civil procedure, Rules 59 and 60, which enable a party to obtain relief from a judgment that is inconsistent with the court’s intended ruling or that is in some other way improper. Appellants argue that under these rules, the trial court’s January 10, 1992 judgment, which changed the description of the easement contained in the original judgment, could only have been proper if the action had been preceded by a motion. Appellants assert no motion was filed under either of these rules. Thus, appellants claim procedural error.

We disagree. Appellee filed a motion to obtain relief from the incorrect judgment and appellants joined in the motion requesting similar relief on their behalf. We hold that appellee’s Motion to “Clarify” the trial court’s original order allowed the trial court to change the deficient judgment under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). Rule 60(b) provides, in pertinent part:

On motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may in the furtherance of justice relieve a party ... from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for the following reasons ... (7) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment. The motion shall be made within a reasonable time....

Utah R.Civ.P. 60(b).

The first issue we must address is whether a motion labeled “Request of Clarification” of the judgment is sufficient to invoke Rule 60(b) relief. The title of a motion is not dispositive as to whether a court can grant relief under the motion. See Watkiss & Campbell v. Foa & Son, 808 P.2d 1061, 1064 (Utah 1991) (the incorrect title on the pleading was not a bar to defendant’s case); Darrington v. Wade, 812 P.2d 452, 457 (Utah App.1991) (the court did not elevate form over substance by refusing to allow a timely objection to a judgment invoking Rule 60(b) relief). Courts should give liberal construction to Rule 60(b). 7 James W. Moore, et al., Moore’s Federal Practice

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Kunzler v. O'DELL
855 P.2d 270 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
855 P.2d 270, 215 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 1993 Utah App. LEXIS 102, 1993 WL 212737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kunzler-v-odell-utahctapp-1993.