Lewis v. Pleasant Country, Ltd.

840 P.2d 1051, 173 Ariz. 186, 121 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1992 Ariz. App. LEXIS 238
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedSeptember 8, 1992
Docket1 CA-CV 90-365
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 840 P.2d 1051 (Lewis v. Pleasant Country, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Pleasant Country, Ltd., 840 P.2d 1051, 173 Ariz. 186, 121 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1992 Ariz. App. LEXIS 238 (Ark. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

EHRLICH, Judge.

Pleasant Country, Ltd. (“Pleasant Country”) requests that we review the trial court’s grant of quiet title and costs and attorneys’ fees to Anne Lewis, Successor Trustee of the Cynthia K. Earle Irrevocable Trust (“Lewis”). Pleasant Country also challenges the denial of its forcible detainer action against Lewis and Andrew Kravchenko, personal representative of Earle’s estate (“Kravchenko”), and the trial court’s denial of its motion for new trial. A cross-appeal was filed by Kravchenko, requesting that, in the event the quiet title judgment is reversed, the portion of the judgment in favor of Pleasant Country be vacated. Pleasant Country and Lewis request their attorneys’ fees on appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment, the grant of costs and attorneys’ fees and the denial of the motion for new trial, and award Lewis her attorneys’ fees on appeal.

We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to sustaining the judgment, affirming it if there is any evidence to support the trial court’s findings. Paul Schoonover v. Ram Construction, Inc., 129 Ariz. 204, 205, 630 P.2d 27, 28 (1981). Further, absent an abuse of discretion, we will not disturb a denial of motion for new trial. Adroit Supply Co. v. Electric Mut. Liability Ins. Co., 112 Ariz. 385, 389, 542 P.2d 810, 814 (1975); Boatman v. Samaritan Health Services, Inc., 168 Ariz. 207, 212, 812 P.2d 1025, 1030 (App.1990).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

At issue is the ownership of a ten-acre parcel of land known as Solo Springs. In 1960, Udall and Koepke Ranches, Inc. (“the Udall group”) bought 90 acres of land and leased approximately 14,250 adjacent acres from Phoenix Title and Trust Company Trust No. 1962 (“Trust 1962”). Included in the land the Udall group purchased was a portion of Section 16, Township 7 North, Range 1 East, Gila and Salt River Base and Meridan (“section 16”); the remainder of section 16 was contained in the property the Udall group leased. Kenyon Udall (“Mr. Udall”), who was part of the Udall group, accompanied the surveyor, who determined the legal description of the land the group was buying, to the property and pointed out the land that the group intended to buy; the land identified by Mr. Udall included Solo Springs. However, unknown to either the Udall group or Trust 1962, the surveyor mistakenly did not include Solo Springs in the legal description of the purchased property, but instead included it in the description of the leased property. Based upon the surveyor’s legal descriptions, the Udall group and Trust 1962 subsequently executed the land purchase and lease agreements.

In 1962, Cynthia K. Earle (“Earle”) bought Solo Springs from the Udall group, based upon the same legal description used when the group purchased it, and assumed the portion of its lease which encompassed the remainder of section 16. Believing she owned the property, in 1965, Earle built a *189 house, water tower, fuel tank, generator, propane tank, boarding shed, windmill, guest house, feed shed and metal sheds on Solo Springs. In addition, she placed a mobile home and constructed a dead-end access road on the property.

In 1973 Earle inadvertently discovered that there could be a discrepancy between Solo Springs’ legal description and her deed’s depiction of the property. The possibility that her deed did not include Solo Springs again came to Earle’s attention in approximately 1978 when she registered for the water rights to the property. At that time, Earle hired a surveyor who, in October 1978, determined that Solo Springs did not lie within the legal description in her deed but rather was contained in the property which she leased.

On January 11, 1979, Pleasant Country bought approximately 10,000 acres from Trust 1962’s successor, included in the legal description of which was all of section 16 except for the portion that had been deeded to Earle. In September 1985 Earle died. On March 24, 1988, the lawyer for Earle’s estate sent a letter to Pleasant Country claiming ownership of Solo Springs by adverse possession and tendering to it a quit claim deed and $5 for the property in accordance with Ariz.Rev.Stat. Ann. section (“A.R.S. §”) 12-1103(B). Pleasant Country refused the estate’s offer and filed a forcible entry and detainer action to eject John B. Alward, the successor trustee of the Earle trust 1 from Solo Springs. In response, Alward raised the defense of mistake and subsequently instituted suit for quiet title of the land.

The two matters were consolidated and proceeded to trial. The trial court found that, beginning in 1965, Earle actually, visibly, and in a hostile manner possessed Solo Springs, thereby obtaining adverse possession in 1975. In addition, the court held that Pleasant Country did not purchase Solo Springs in its 1979 transaction with Trust 1962’s successor as Earle had acquired adverse title to the land by that time. Accordingly, the trial court found in favor of Lewis and Kravchenko regarding the forcible entry and detainer action. Pursuant to Pleasant Country’s third-party complaint, the trial court awarded it title to the ten acres of land which had been deeded to Earle in her 1962 transaction with the Udall group. Finally, the trial court awarded Lewis her costs and attorneys’ fees pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-1103(B). Pleasant Country filed a motion for new trial, which was denied. It timely appealed and Kravchenko cross-appealed.

DISCUSSION

The elements of adverse possession are set forth in A.R.S. § 12-526(A), which states:

A person who has a cause of action for recovery of any lands, tenements or hereditaments from a person having peaceable and adverse possession thereof, cultivating, using and enjoying such property, shall commence an action therefor within ten years after the cause of action accrues, and not afterward.

According to A.R.S. § 12-521(A):

1. “Adverse possession” means an actual and visible appropriation of the land, commenced and continued under a claim of right inconsistent with and hostile to the claim of another.
2. “Peaceable possession” means possession which is continuous, and not interrupted by an adverse action to recover the estate.

Under the statutes, a claimant must show that the adverse possession was actual, open and notorious, hostile, under a claim of right and was exclusive and continuous for a ten-year period. Ellingson v. Fuller, 20 Ariz.App. 456, 458, 513 P.2d 1339, 1341 (1973); Rorebeck v. Criste, 1 Ariz.App. 1, 3-4, 398 P.2d 678, 680-81 (1965).

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Bluebook (online)
840 P.2d 1051, 173 Ariz. 186, 121 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1992 Ariz. App. LEXIS 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-pleasant-country-ltd-arizctapp-1992.