Martinal v. Lake O' Woods Club, Inc.

208 N.E.2d 722, 140 Ind. App. 358, 1965 Ind. App. LEXIS 468
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 12, 1965
DocketNo. 20,068
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 208 N.E.2d 722 (Martinal v. Lake O' Woods Club, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinal v. Lake O' Woods Club, Inc., 208 N.E.2d 722, 140 Ind. App. 358, 1965 Ind. App. LEXIS 468 (Ind. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinions

Carson, J.

— Appellee, plaintiff below, a not for profit corporation brought this action in two paragraphs the first of which was for a permanent injunction and the second for damages.

Appellees sought to restrict and permanently enjoin the appellants from trespassing on the waters of an allegedly privately owned non-navigable lake known as Sagers Lake, and to recover damages for said trespass. Appellants were and are the owners of adjoining property.

The issues were formed by appellee’s complaint in two paragraphs and appellants’ answer under Rule 1-3 of the Supreme Court of Indiana including affirmative paragraphs of answer.

[360]*360The court found for the plaintiff on paragraph 1 of the plaintiff’s complaint and for the defendant on paragraph 2. Plaintiff was granted a permanent injunction, costs were assessed against the defendant on paragraph 1 and against the plaintiff on paragraph 2.

Plaintiff corporation alleged that the defendant trespassed on the aforementioned lake by swimming, wading, boating, fishing and removing fish therefrom, by operating boats thereon and by conducting a business of licensing, inviting and permitting others to go upon and in said privately owned lake. The plaintiff alleged ownership of the real estate covered by the lake including all of the bed of said lake up to the shore line where the water touched the land belonging to the defendant, Frank Martinal and his predecessors Amos Martinal and Isaline Martinal; that the plaintiff had acquired fee simple title from Chauncy and Charles Sager by warranty deed dated December 20, 1937, and recorded April 1, 1941; that the Sagers, as immediate grantors of the plaintiffs quieted title to the described real estate by a judgment rendered in the Porter Superior Court on April 20, 1937, a copy of which judgment was made an exhibit to the plaintiff’s complaint.

Appellant makes one assignment of error:

“The trial court erred in overruling the motion of the defendants, Frank Martinal, Amos Martinal, and Isaline Martinal, for a new trial.”

The motion for a new trial contained six specifications:

“(1) The decision on Paragraph No. One is contrary to law.
(2) The decision on Paragraph No. One is not sustained by sufficient evidence.
(3) The decision of the Court is contrary to law.
(4) The finding of the Court is contrary to law.
(5) The decision of the Court is not sustained by sufficient evidence.

[361]*361(6) The finding of the Court is not sustained by sufficient evidence.”

In support of the specifications alleged in the motion for new trial the appellants have presented six propositions in the argument portion of their brief. These propositions are as follows and we shall discuss them in the order of their presentation:

“Proposition I. The matters in controversy in this case, under the issues formed by the pleadings, have all been previously adjudicated against appellee in the Starke Circuit Court.”
“Proposition II. The extra-ordinary equitable remedy of injunction will not lie to prevent allegedly continuing trespasses to realty where the title to the realty is in doubt.”
“Proposition III. Appellants are the owners of riparian rights and the conduct complained of constitutes nothing more than the valid, reasonable exercise of those rights.”
“Proposition IV. Appellants are the owners of prescriptive rights and rights acquired through adverse possession.”
“Proposition V. Appellee, by its conduct, is estopped from claiming that appellants are trespassers.”
“Proposition VI. Appellee, by its conduct, is barred from seeking equitable relief by the extra-ordinary remedy of injunction.”

The plaintiff’s evidence consisted of testimony by officers of the plaintiff corporation identifying plaintiff’s deed as an exhibit, certain photographs of people in boats on the lake, the use of the plaintiff’s property by the members of the plaintiff’s club, and testimony of the City Engineer of Valparaiso who had also been the County Surveyor of Porter County establishing the situs of the Sager lake as encompassed in a survey introduced as exhibit 44 being a plat prepared by the witness.

The engineer Mr. Morthland further testified that he had used this same map in a law suit between the same parties some seven or eight years previously.

[362]*362■ The defendant’s evidence consisted entirely of exhibits including the defendant’s answers and the previous proceedings in the Starke Circuit Court.

• The action in the Starke Circuit Court was between the same parties and involved the same general issues. It should be noted however, at this point that the allegations of the plaintiff’s complaint in the present action embraced in paragraph 10 raise a new issue not within the scope of paragraph 5 and 6 of the action filed originally in the Porter Superior Court and tried in the Starke Circuit Court. Paragraph 10 of the complaint in this case reads as follows:

“10. That defendants, or one or more of them, have repeatedly trespassed upon said lake by wading and swimming therein, by fishing therein and thereon and by removing fish therefrom, by operating boats, rafts and other vessels thereon and by conducting a business of licensing, inviting and permitting others to go upon and in said lake . as aforesaid and that unless restrained and enjoined therefrom defendants will continue to so act.” (Our emphasis)

and paragraphs 5 and 6 of the original complaint read as follows:

“5. That the defendant has on many occasions in the past from time to time trespassed on said property of the plaintiff, and come upon and used said lake and the water thereof, and has fished in the waters and watered his cattle in the lake.
6. That the defendant has permitted and encouraged other parties not personally known to this plaintiff, as his guests and invitees, to come upon the lake and to trespass thereon and to fish in the waters of the lake.”

The main issue raised and argued by the parties is the question of whether or not the decision of the Starke Circuit Court is res judicata as to the action now before us for consideration. After we dispose of this point the remainder of the propositions assigned by the appellant in support of the alleged error will be discussed and answered collectively.

[363]*363A succinct statement of the matters to be considered in ascertaining whether or not a prior judgment is res judicata as to a subsequent judgment is found in the case, of Roll et al. v. Roll et al. (1957), 128 Ind. App. 360, 365, 146 N. E. 2d 553:

“It is the rule in Indiana that in determining the conclusiveness of a judgment the matter in issue in the trial wherein it was rendered must be ascertained by an examination of the pleadings and judgment. Angola State Bank v. State ex rel. Sanders (1944), 222 Ind. 244, 52 N. E. 2d 620.”

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Related

Indiana Department of Natural Resources v. United Minerals, Inc.
686 N.E.2d 851 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1997)
Martinal v. Lake O' Woods Club, Inc.
208 N.E.2d 722 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
208 N.E.2d 722, 140 Ind. App. 358, 1965 Ind. App. LEXIS 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinal-v-lake-o-woods-club-inc-indctapp-1965.