Mueller v. Pittard

590 S.W.2d 111, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2553
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 9, 1979
DocketNo. 10721
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 590 S.W.2d 111 (Mueller v. Pittard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mueller v. Pittard, 590 S.W.2d 111, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2553 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

FLANICAN, Chief Judge.

This case involves a road dispute. Plaintiff Mueller is the owner of land which lies adjacent to and north of the land owned by defendant Pittard. The land of defendants Skaggs lies west of and adjacent to the Pittard land. A road connects Texas County Highway Y with State Highway 137 and in so doing crosses the respective lands of each of the parties. The portion of the road which is in dispute is that which crosses the Skaggs land and the Pittard land. The Skaggs segment is approximately a quarter of a mile long and the Pittard segment is approximately three quarters of a mile long.

The petition alleged that the defendants had erected obstructions on the disputed portion and sought an injunction requiring the removal of the obstructions and prohibiting further obstructions.

Defendants Skaggs defaulted and the case proceeded to trial on the issues framed by the petition and the answer of defendant Pittard. The trial court found the issues in favor of plaintiff. The decree stated that plaintiff “has a right of easement over and across defendants’ lands, consisting of a strip of land 30 feet wide, following the course established by the roadway described in plaintiff’s petition and the defendants, their servants, agents, and employees, and all persons acting for or by them, are enjoined from interfering with plaintiff’s full enjoyment of the easement.”1

Defendant Pittard appeals.

Defendant’s first contention is that the trial court erred in decreeing that plaintiff had a “right of easement” across the disputed portion for the reason that the petition was not based on the theory of “easement” but was based on the theory that the disputed portion was “a public road.”

The petition, which was not attacked by motion, is lengthy. Some of the facts alleged in it lend support to alternative and perhaps inconsistent theories as predicates for plaintiff’s request for injunctive relief. Missouri procedure permits a pleading to possess the traits of alternativity and inconsistency. Rule 55.10.2

[113]*113Defendant concedes that the petition adequately pleaded that the disputed portion was “a legally established road” within § 228.190 which reads, in pertinent part, “All roads that have been used as such by the public for ten years continuously, and upon which there shall have been expended public money or labor for such period, shall be deemed legally established roads.”

The allegations of the petition, however, are not confined to the claim based on § 228.190. The petition also contains the following: “Said road has been used by the plaintiff and his predecessors in title and by the public generally, openly and notoriously, for a period of more than 50 years; defendants and their predecessors in title, by allowing the plaintiff ... to use said road, have intended thereby to dedicate said road to the plaintiff . . . and have dedicated and allowed the use of said road by the plaintiff and his predecessors in title, in excess of ten years, whereupon an easement has arisen ... to and in the plaintiff . . . and by reason of said, facts, defendants are estopped from denying the plaintiff . . . the use thereof; said [road] affords to the plaintiff the only means in ingress and egress to and from his property.”

In Day v. Grisham, 571 S.W.2d 473 (Mo. App.1978) the petition sought, and the court granted, a declaration of easement by prescription over defendants’ land. Defendants contended that the judgment was beyond the scope of the pleadings in that the petition did not allege “continuous, uninterrupted, visible and adverse use.” The court of appeals, in rejecting defendants’ contention, pointed out that the petition did allege that for over 30 years plaintiffs and their predecessors in title had used the 20 foot roadway across defendants’ land as their only means of access. The court said, at p. 474: “We find that facts stated in plaintiffs’ petition are sufficient to inform defendant with reasonable certainty of the cause of action they were called upon to meet and to bar another action for the same subject matter.”

The instant petition includes, but is not limited to, allegations held in Day to be sufficient to constitute a pleading based on the theory of “easement by prescription.” Defendant’s first contention has no merit for the reason that it proceeds on the invalid assumption that the petition failed to allege sufficient facts to invoke the theory of “easement.”

Defendant’s second contention is that the trial court erred in decreeing that plaintiffs had a “right of easement” over defendant’s land because there was no proof that the alleged use by plaintiff and his predecessors “was continuous, uninterrupted, visible and adverse under a claim of right for the statutory period of ten years.”

In Guerin v. Yocum, 506 S.W.2d 46 (Mo. App.1974) the plaintiff sought injunctive relief against defendant’s blocking of a road which plaintiff used for access to his land and which crossed defendant’s land. The trial court granted the relief and this court affirmed the decree. The petition, in asserting plaintiff’s claim to the use of the road, based that claim upon the alternative theories of easement by prescription and the existence of a legally established road “by reason of public use and expenditure of public money or labor pursuant to § 228.-190.” The trial court granted the injunc-tive relief on the theory of “easement.” This court held that the judgment of the trial court required affirmance if the plaintiff was entitled to relief under either theory. This court held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the finding of “easement of roadway” and further stated: “[W]e express no opinion as to whether the road is a private road by prescription or a public road by prescription ... we conclude only that plaintiff’s right to use the road has been invaded by obstructions placed by defendant . . . ”

As pointed out in Guerin, the trial court was justified in granting injunctive relief if the evidence supported either of the alternative theories — “easement by prescription” or “legally established road” under § 228.190 — pleaded by the petition.

[114]*114Defendant does not contend that the evidence was insufficient to show that the disputed portion was “a legally established road” under § 228.190. A gratuitous review of the record shows that the evidence was sufficient to entitle plaintiff to relief under that theory. The evidence was of the type adduced in Wilson v. Sherman, 573 S.W.2d 456, 458 (Mo.App.1978). The establishment of a public road under § 228.190 is a method separate and distinct from establishment by prescription and if the evidence is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of § 228.190, there is no need to determine whether it meets the requirements of an alternate method for the establishment of a public road, Wilson, p. 459, or a private road, Guerin, p. 48.

Although defendant concedes, at least tacitly, that the evidence was sufficient to show that the disputed portion was a legally established road under § 228.190, defendant contends that the road was abandoned.

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Bluebook (online)
590 S.W.2d 111, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mueller-v-pittard-moctapp-1979.