Kutz v. Lee

422 P.3d 362, 291 Or. App. 470
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 25, 2018
DocketA162018
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 422 P.3d 362 (Kutz v. Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kutz v. Lee, 422 P.3d 362, 291 Or. App. 470 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

AOYAGI, J.

*472Plaintiffs filed this action for declaratory and injunctive relief against a group of private landowners and the Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID), asserting the existence of a public easement on land that defendant landowners own and on which defendant COID has its own easement. Defendants filed motions to dismiss under ORCP 21 A(8) for failure to state a claim. The trial court dismissed plaintiffs' claims on three independent grounds: plaintiffs lack standing, plaintiffs failed to give timely notice under the Oregon Tort Claims Act (OTCA), and plaintiffs' claims are barred by the OTCA statute of limitations. Plaintiffs appeal. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse.

I. FACTS

On review of the grant of a motion to dismiss under ORCP 21 A(8), we accept as true all well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint and make reasonable inferences from those allegations in favor of plaintiffs. Yanney v. Koehler , 147 Or. App. 269, 272, 272 n. 1, 935 P.2d 1235, rev. den. , 325 Or. 368, 939 P.2d 45 (1997). That includes documents that the complaint incorporates by reference, see BoardMaster Corp. v. Jackson County , 224 Or. App. 533, 535, 198 P.3d 454 (2008), which, in this case, the parties agree includes certain plat maps. We state the facts in accordance with that standard.

Defendants Olen and Lois Lee, Katherine Hagstrom, and the other individual defendants (collectively landowners) own residential lots in the Orion Estates neighborhood in Bend. Their lots are located adjacent to the Central Oregon Irrigation Canal. A 20-foot-wide dirt path, hereinafter "the canal path," runs along the canal through the 15 canal-front lots in Orion Estates and continues an unspecified distance north and south of Orion Estates.1 Defendant COID has an easement for right of way on the canal path to facilitate the operation, maintenance, and repair of the canal. COID personnel and vehicles use the canal path for those purposes.

*473The Orion Estates plat was recorded in 1980. The plat map shows a "canal easement line" running parallel to the canal through Orion Estates lots 12 through 26. The plat contains a dedication "to the public forever, all streets and easements as shown."

The only easements shown on the plat map are the canal easement line and utility easements. Fifty-six people, whom plaintiffs identify as the then-owners of the Orion Estates lots, signed the dedication on the plat. Multiple governmental officials approved the plat, including the then-chairman of COID. The following excerpt from the Orion Estates plat map shows the location of the canal-front lots, the "canal easement line," and the canal. Annotations have been added to indicate the lots currently owned by the Lees (lot 16) and Hagstrom (lot 19). The canal path is located in the area between the canal easement line and the canal.

*365Map: Excerpt from plat map of Orion Estates (1980) ↑N

*474According to the complaint, from at least 1980 (or earlier) until 2007 (or later), members of the public residing in Orion Estates and surrounding neighborhoods used the canal path, including the portions located on defendant landowners' lots, for recreational activities such as walking, bicycling, jogging, and exercising dogs. Dozens of members of the public used it on a daily basis and hundreds on a yearly basis. The Bend High School track team used it for training runs. From 1982 until 2006, members of the public also used the canal path to reach a public golf course and golf course restaurant located immediately north of Orion Estates. One of the golf course greens was adjacent to the canal path, and a path led directly from the green onto the canal path.

In 2006, a developer purchased the golf course property and thereafter built the Orion Greens neighborhood in its place. As in Orion Estates, the canal path runs through the canal-front lots in Orion Greens. Heading north from Orion Estates, the canal-front lots in Orion Greens are numbered 24, 25, 26, and 27. (Orion Estates lot 12 abuts Orion Greens lot 24.) The City of Bend required the developer of Orion Greens to provide public access to the canal path as a condition of development, specifically a "12' pedestrian access easement" and a "50' primary trail easement to B.M.P.R.D. [Bend Metro Parks and Recreation District]." As a result, a 12-foot-wide paved pedestrian path currently runs across Orion Greens lot 27 from a public street to the canal path. Plaintiffs allege that the BMPRD easement runs along the back of Orion Greens lots 24, 25, and 26, coextensive with the canal path, and provides for public *366use and access to the canal path to the north and south.2

At some point after 2007, three things happened, not necessarily in this order. First, defendant COID entered into two "joint road use agreements" with, respectively, the Lees and Hagstrom. The complaint describes the agreements *475as "permitting" the Lees and Hagstrom to construct gates on their properties "subject to conditions imposed by COID." The agreements were recorded in Deschutes County in 2009. Second, the Lees built a five foot high chain link fence and gate at the northern end of their property that completely blocks public passage on the canal path. Third, Hagstrom built a five foot high chain link fence and gate wrapped in barbed wire at the southern end of her property that also completely blocks public passage on the canal path. As a result, the canal path is impassable to members of the public from the northern boundary of the Lees' property (Orion Estates lot 16) to the southern boundary of Hagstrom's property (Orion Estates lot 19).

On an unspecified date, plaintiffs purchased a home in the Kings Forest First Addition neighborhood, which, as shown on the Orion Estates plat map, is located immediately west of Orion Estates. According to the complaint, plaintiffs have access to the canal path by travelling on public streets and then using the paved pedestrian path across Orion Greens lot 27.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
422 P.3d 362, 291 Or. App. 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kutz-v-lee-orctapp-2018.