Plagge v. Gambino

570 S.W.2d 106, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 3494
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 20, 1978
DocketNo. 17194
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 570 S.W.2d 106 (Plagge v. Gambino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Plagge v. Gambino, 570 S.W.2d 106, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 3494 (Tex. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

COLEMAN, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from an order denying a temporary injunction. Findings of fact and conclusions of law have been filed. The appellant contends the trial court abused its discretion in failing to apply the.law correctly to the undisputed facts. The judgment is affirmed.

On September 1, 1977, Robert Louis Plagge leased a portion of the property known as Quail Valley Stables from a partnership comprised of James McNaughton, Stanley W. Cameron and Thomas H. Over-street, hereinafter called McNaughton partnership.

On October 31, 1977, the McNaughton partnership deeded a portion of the property to Quail Valley Car Care Center, Inc. The property conveyed contained 1.9 acres. A barn was located on this part of the property which formerly was used for indoor riding. An improved driveway or road led from the highway through the 1.9 acre tract alongside the front barn to the back barn. The appellees subsequently blocked the driveway or road when its contractor installed certain gasoline tanks in connection with the construction of a car care center.

While the property leased by Plagge had some 400 feet frontage on the highway, there was no other improved road or driveway leading into the interior of the property or to the back barn where horses were stabled. Plagge contends that he owns an implied easement over the road as it existed at the time he entered into his lease agreement and sought an injunction to prevent the car care center from blocking the roadway. There is evidence that Plagge has been damaged and will continue to be damaged by reason of the obstruction to the use of the roadway. There is also evidence that the issuance of an injunction would result in damage to appellee.

[108]*108In a hearing on an application for a temporary injunction the question before the court is the right of the applicant to a preservation of the status quo of the subject matter of the suit pending a final trial of the case on its merits. Where the applicant properly proves a case showing probable right and probable injury, the trial court is clothed with broad discretion in determining whether to issue the writ and its order will be reversed only on a showing of a clear abuse of discretion. Transport Company of Texas v. Robertson Transports, 152 Tex. 551, 261 S.W.2d 549 (1953). The trial court abuses its discretion when it fails or refuses to apply the law to conceded or undisputed facts. Southland Life Insurance Co. v. Egan, 126 Tex. 160, 86 S.W.2d 722 (1935).

The rule of law which the appellant asserts grants him the right to use the road in question is stated in Mitchell v. Castellaw, 151 Tex. 56, 246 S.W.2d 163 (1952), in these words:

“It is universally recognized that where the owner of a single area of land conveys away part of it, the circumstances attending the conveyance may themselves, without aid of language in the deed, and indeed sometimes in spite of such language, cause an easement to arise as between the two parcels thus created — not only in favor of the parcel granted (‘implied grant’) but also in favor of the one remaining in the ownership of the grantor (‘implied reservation’). The basis of the doctrine is that the law reads into the instrument that which the circumstances show both grantor and grantee must have intended, had they given the obvious facts of the transaction proper consideration. .
“On the other hand, even in the case of an implied grant, courts do not lightly hold the grantor to convey more than stated in his deed; and he being less favored in law than his grantee, the weight of authority seems still more reluctant to imply a reservation in his favor at the expense of his grantee . . .”

The question of implied grants of easements was considered at length in Drye v. Eagle Rock Ranch, Inc., 364 S.W.2d 196 (Tex.1962), where the court said:

“If an owner used one part of his land for the benefit of another portion of his own land, the portion served had a ‘quasi-dominant tenement.’ The portion which was used was subject to a ‘quasi-servient tenement.’ The doctrine of implied easement appurtenant developed when the owner, under those circumstances, sold the portion of his land which had had the use of the other portion — as for drainage, support, way, or water. If use of the ‘servient’ tract was apparent, continuous, and necessary to the use of the ‘dominant’ land sold, the courts presumed that the necessary use of the ‘servient’ tract passed by implication to the purchaser.”

In Drye v. Eagle Rock Ranch, Inc., supra, the court found it unnecessary to decide whether the doctrine of “strict necessity” for an implied reservation applies also to the implied grants of easements appurtenant. The court did state that in the great majority of cases in which easements have been implied, the necessity has been economic or physical necessity for the use of the land rather than some merely desirable right for the occupant of the land. In support of this statement the court cited Howell v. Estes, 71 Tex. 690, 12 S.W. 62 (1888); Ulbricht v. Friedsam, 159 Tex. 607, 325 S.W.2d 669 (1959). Ulbricht v. Friedsam, supra, states as the correct rule of law governing an implied grant of an easement a quotation from 28 C.J.S. Easements § 31, p. 687, et seq., as follows:

“ ‘Where the owner of an entire tract of land or of two or more adjoining parcels employs a part thereof so that one derives from the other a benefit or advantage of a continuous, permanent, and apparent nature, and sells the one in favor of which such quasi easement exists, such easement, being necessary to the reasonable enjoyment of the property granted, will pass to the grantee by implication.’ ”

[109]*109Two questions immediately appear when these propositions of law are applied to the facts of this ease. First, do the facts show that the road in question is necessary” to the “reasonable enjoyment” of the property granted; second, is the conveyance of an interest in the land by means of a written lease for term of years a sufficient severance of title to support the creation of an easement by implication? The Texas cases which we have considered all use such words as “grantor and grantee”, “convey”, “sell”, and “purchaser.” No Texas cases have been found holding that the grant of an easement of use could be implied from a lease agreement. However, in Adams v. Grapotte, 69 S.W.2d 460 (Tex.Civ.App—Eastland 1934), aff'd and opinion adopted in Grapotte v. Adams, 130 Tex. 587, 111 S.W.2d 690 (1938), the statement is made that access to a public highway is an incident to the ownership of land abutting thereon, and the right to such access is private property passing to the lessee.

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Bluebook (online)
570 S.W.2d 106, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 3494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plagge-v-gambino-texapp-1978.