Minihan v. Stiglich

311 P.3d 922, 258 Or. App. 839
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedOctober 9, 2013
DocketCV08090475; A144998, A145972
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 311 P.3d 922 (Minihan v. Stiglich) 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
Minihan v. Stiglich, 311 P.3d 922, 258 Or. App. 839 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

Defendant Stiglich and plaintiff Minihan are neighbors in a residential area located next to the Willamette River. Plaintiff, along with several dozen other homeowners not including defendant, owns an undivided interest in a narrow lot that provides access to the river. The southern border of plaintiffs access lot runs along the northern border of defendant’s property. After defendant erected a fence on the access lot and engaged in other activities that interfered with plaintiffs use of the lot, plaintiff sued defendant. After a bench trial, the court awarded plaintiff $10,000 in compensatory damages and $40,000 in punitive damages on plaintiffs claim of intentional trespass and subsequently granted plaintiff summary judgment on plaintiffs quiet title claim. In A144998, defendant challenges the damages awards as well as the order granting summary judgment. In A145972, plaintiff assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for attorney fees under ORS 20.105(1), which allows a prevailing civil litigant to obtain fees from an opponent who had no objectively reasonable basis for asserting a defense to the claim. We affirm.

I. FACTS

A. The Boundary Dispute

We begin with the background of the dispute leading to the compensatory and punitive damages awards on plaintiffs trespass claim. We view the record in the light most favorable to plaintiff, who prevailed below. Lunda v. Matthews, 46 Or App 701, 703, 613 P2d 63 (1980) (“[In] an appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiffs, private landowners, granting damages and injunctive relief in an action for trespass *** [t]he evidence [is] viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs [.]”).

The access lot, Lot 16, is a 15-foot-wide strip of land running west to east along the northern border of defendant’s lot, Lot 10, from a neighborhood street to the Willamette River. Lot 16 is jointly owned by plaintiff and all of the homeowners owning property in the River Park subdivision of West Linn, and the lot provides them with access to the river and an adjoining stretch of beach. Plaintiff has been [842]*842an owner of Lot 16 since 1987. Plaintiff purchased his home, in part, because it was accompanied by the deeded interest in Lot 16. Before the conflict that led to this litigation, plaintiff regularly used Lot 16 to access the river and its beach without interference to engage in various recreational activities, such as walking his dogs, enjoying the open air with his wife, and viewing the local fireworks display each Independence Day with family members whom he would invite to join him for the occasion.

Defendant is the sole owner of Lot 10 and resides in a home on that property. Defendant purchased Lot 10 from the previous owner, Bates, in 2001. Several years before selling Lot 10 to defendant, Bates and the owners of Lot 16, including plaintiff, had a disagreement over the boundary line. After arranging for a survey to determine the boundary line, Bates conceded that the line lay where plaintiff had asserted it was located and then removed personal property — a metal shed and a large winch system — that he had placed on Lot 16.

Defendant began encroaching on Lot 16 shortly after he purchased Lot 10, building a grape trellis and dog run on the access lot. Plaintiff notified defendant that the trellis and dog run were on Lot 16. Defendant disagreed, asserting that the boundary line lay further north. For several years thereafter, defendant continued to dispute the location of the boundary line and frequently accused plaintiff of trespassing when plaintiff was utilizing Lot 16. Defendant began to verbally harass plaintiff when plaintiff would use the access lot.

The conflict escalated on July 4, 2006, when plaintiff and his wife set out to go to the river via Lot 16 and discovered that defendant had strung a rope between some trees directly across the front of the access lot and posted a “No Trespassing” sign. Defendant had placed the obstruction there that day in order to prevent plaintiff and his invitees from using Lot 16 to access the river. When plaintiff and his wife walked past the obstruction and continued on Lot 16 toward the river, defendant came out from his home and stood in front of them to block them, accused them of trespassing, began cursing at them, and insisted that he [843]*843would not permit plaintiff or plaintiffs invitees to use Lot 16 to access the river that evening. As a result, plaintiff can-celled his plans to walk down to the beach that night with visiting family to observe fireworks.

Plaintiffs neighbor and co-owner of Lot 16, Hurd, subsequently commissioned an engineer to locate and map the monuments identifying the boundary line between the access lot and Lot 10. The engineer located the boundary monuments while defendant was present. Those monuments demonstrated that the property line was located where plaintiff had previously indicated. Defendant nevertheless refused to accept the results and continued to contend that his property extended beyond the boundary line established by multiple surveys.

Shortly thereafter, in November 2006, defendant requested that the county perform a survey of the property. The county agreed and hired Compass Engineering to establish the boundary line. Although defendant was aware that previous surveys of Lot 10 were available at the county surveyor’s office, he never attempted to review them.

While waiting for the results from the survey that he had requested, defendant continued to interfere with plaintiffs use and enjoyment of Lot 16. Two significant events occurred during the summer of 2007. On June 27, plaintiff and his wife were sitting at the beach on Lot 16 when defendant approached them, accused them of trespassing, and then called the police. Defendant’s sons and several other individuals, who were drinking alcohol, also approached plaintiff and his wife, surrounding them, until the police arrived. Although plaintiff was on his own property, he volunteered to relocate further up the beach to placate defendant. After the police left, however, defendant continued yelling at plaintiff, and plaintiff elected to return home rather than endure further harassment from defendant.

Several days later, on July 3, defendant erected a chain-link fence on Lot 16. The fence was located wholly on Lot 16 and ran diagonally across Lot 16 from the southwest corner to the northeast corner. Plaintiff could not use the access lot to reach the river the following day, the July 4 [844]*844holiday. Because of the fence, plaintiffs use and enjoyment of the property was “[p]retty much eliminated.”

Compass completed its survey of Lot 16 the following month, August 2007, and submitted it to the county for review and approval. The survey confirmed that the boundary line was located where the earlier surveys had established it, i.e., where plaintiff had long maintained that it lay. The survey specifically concluded that defendant’s fence was wholly located on plaintiffs property. Defendant refused to accept that the survey was accurate and did not remove the fence. Defendant continued to maintain that plaintiff was, in fact, trespassing on his property. The county accepted the survey and filed it in April 2008.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
311 P.3d 922, 258 Or. App. 839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minihan-v-stiglich-orctapp-2013.