Myrick, R. v. Mack, S., Alting, S. Deeds, Jr., R.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 9, 2015
Docket713 MDA 2014
StatusUnpublished

This text of Myrick, R. v. Mack, S., Alting, S. Deeds, Jr., R. (Myrick, R. v. Mack, S., Alting, S. Deeds, Jr., R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Myrick, R. v. Mack, S., Alting, S. Deeds, Jr., R., (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

J-S04017-15

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

ROBERT A. MYRICK, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellant

v.

SHIRLEY L. MACK, SANDRA ALTING AND ROBERT L. DEEDS, JR.,

Appellees No. 713 MDA 2014

Appeal from the Judgment entered May 14, 2014, in the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County, Civil Division, at No(s): 08-691

BEFORE: BOWES, ALLEN, and STRASSBURGER*, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY ALLEN, J.: FILED FEBRUARY 09, 2015

Robert A. Myrick, (“Appellant”), appeals from the judgment entered in

favor of Shirley L. Mack, Sandra Alting, and Robert L. Deeds, Jr.,

(collectively “Landowners”). We affirm.

The trial court set forth the following factual and procedural

background relative to this action:

[Appellant] is the owner of a property having approximately 10.698 acres and located in Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania that he purchased from James J. Hartman and John A. Hartman (“[Appellant’s] Tract #1”). [Appellant] is also the owner by the entireties with his wife, Amy M. Myrick, of two additional tracts of property totaling approximately 46 acres and located in Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. These two tracts were purchased by [Appellant] and his wife from George L. Weiler and Carol J. Weiler (“Weiler Farm”).

*Retired Senior Judge assigned to Superior Court. J-S04017-15

[Landowners] are owners as tenants in common of property having approximately 11.197 acres and located in Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania (“[Landowners’] Property #1”). [Landowners] are also owners as tenants in common of property having approximately 34.435 acres and located in Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania (“[Landowners’] Property #2”).

[Landowners’] Property #1 is next to and abuts [Landowners’] Property #2. [Landowners’] Property #1 and [Landowners’] Property #2 are collectively part of Willow Springs Phase IV, a 17 lot subdivision (“Willow Subdivision”). [Landowners’] Property #1 abuts and is directly next to [Appellant’s] Tract #1. [Appellant] argues in the above docketed action that he has an implied easement from his property, [Appellant’s Tract] #1, which he individually owns, over [Landowners’] properties to Zion Road by reason of a common ownership of all the properties by Joseph Espenship in 1836. This Court held a nonjury trial on the issue of whether [Appellant] has an implied easement over [Landowners’] properties and issued a Verdict on January 24, 2014, finding [Appellant] does not have an easement over [Landowners’] properties. On February 20, 2014, [Appellant] filed a Notice of Appeal of this Court's decision and subsequently, filed a Concise Statement of Errors Complained of on Appeal on March 17, 2014. This appeal was premature as this Court had not ruled on [Appellant’s] post-trial motions. On April 9, 2014, this Court denied [Appellant’s] Motion for Post Trial Relief and [Appellant] then filed another Notice of Appeal of this Court's April, 9, 2014 Order denying post trial relief. The Superior Court issued an Order on May 8, 2014 directing [A]ppellant to enter judgment and the notice of appeal previously filed to be treated as filed in this case after the date of entry of judgment. Judgment on this Court's verdict in favor of [Landowners] and against [Appellant] was entered on May 14, 2014.

Trial Court Opinion, 7/28/14, at 1-2.

Appellant presents the following seven issues for our review:

1. The Court erred in making no findings as to the existence of the dominant and servient tenement at the time of separation of title, nor on the necessity that existed at that time, nor that the Appellant’s property was landlocked and an implied easement

-2- J-S04017-15

across the servient tenement property was necessary to the beneficial enjoyment of the Appellant’s property.

2. The Judge's decision and verdict that there was no implied easement across [Landowners’] property was contrary to the weight and sufficiency of the evidence presented and proven at trial.

3. The Judge's decision and verdict completely ignored the opinion of the expert witness that an easement by implication existed at the time of the severance of title, was for the benefit of the dominant tenant and burdened the servient tenant, that visible lanes showed passage from the dominant tenement across the servient tenement that were there for many years and the servient tenement should provide access to the dominant tenement.

4. The Judge erred in considering that [Appellant’s] 10.667 acres had legal access to the public road via jointly held property of [Appellant] and Mrs. Myrick when their jointly held property was not the servient tenement (and was never part of the chain of the Espenship property prior to 1836) and erred by not allowing later additional evidence found of the Penn family real estate patent in the 1700s which verifies that the jointly held Myrick property was never part of the Espenship property.

5. The Judge, as raised by Post Trial motion, should have had a view of the property to determine whether or not there were equitable principles that would allow the easement by implication.

6. The Judge incorrectly ruled that proof of an implied easement created by severance of title was dependent on continuous use, and actual or constructive notice, rather than the test of "reasonable necessity."

7. The Trial Judge erred in implicitly ruling that the Hartman (now [Appellant’s]) property was not landlocked because [Appellant] and Mrs. Myrick could grant an easement across their land to the public road, even though their jointly held property was not the servient tenement, and the implied easement was only particular to and ran with the land (the 10.678 tract for its benefit) and burdened only the Deeds property.

-3- J-S04017-15

Appellant’s Brief at 3-5. Appellant did not separate his argument into

separate sections corresponding to the seven issues he raises on appeal.

Therefore, since Appellant has discussed his issues in a singular fashion, we

shall likewise address them together.

We recognize:

[A]ppellate review of equity matters is limited to a determination of whether the chancellor committed an error of law or abused his discretion. The scope of review of a final decree in equity is limited and will not be disturbed unless it is unsupported by the evidence or demonstrably capricious.

Phillippi v. Knotter, 748 A.2d 757, 758 (Pa. Super. 2000) (internal citation

omitted). Moreover,

[The] findings of the trial judge in a non-jury case must be given the same weight and effect on appeal as a verdict of a jury and will not be disturbed on appeal absent error of law or abuse of discretion. When this court reviews the findings of the trial judge, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the victorious party below and all evidence and proper inferences favorable to that party must be taken as true and all unfavorable inferences rejected.

PARC Holdings, Inc. v. Killian, 785 A.2d 106, 110 (Pa. Super. 2001)

(internal citation omitted). Framing our analysis within the context of the

foregoing standards, and finding no trial court error of law or abuse of

discretion, we affirm the trial court’s judgment in favor of Landowners.

-4- J-S04017-15

In a case where we found that an easement by implication at

severance of title did exist over an appellant-landowner’s property, we

explained the following relevant principles:

In Burns Manufacturing v. Boehm, 467 Pa.

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Bluebook (online)
Myrick, R. v. Mack, S., Alting, S. Deeds, Jr., R., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/myrick-r-v-mack-s-alting-s-deeds-jr-r-pasuperct-2015.