Pryor v. Raper

877 S.W.2d 952, 46 Ark. App. 150, 1994 Ark. App. LEXIS 324
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 15, 1994
DocketCA 93-136
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 877 S.W.2d 952 (Pryor v. Raper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pryor v. Raper, 877 S.W.2d 952, 46 Ark. App. 150, 1994 Ark. App. LEXIS 324 (Ark. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Melvin Mayfield, Judge.

The appellant’s brief states that the history of this case has as many “twists and turns as an Ozark mountain highway.” The judgment appealed from names the defendants as Raymond and Vester Pryor and Ray and Stephanie Pryor. However, the notice of appeal names only Ray and Stephanie as appellants; therefore, we regard Ray and Stephanie as the appellants and will refer to them as “the Pryors.” They appeal from a judgment of the Hot Spring County Chancery Court which restrained them from interfering with appellees’ (the Rapers) use of certain property and which established the “correct legal description” of that property.

This case started in Saline County Circuit Court as an action for ejectment. In a judgment entered on September 3, 1986, Circuit Judge John Cole found that the Rapers had obtained by adverse possession a strip of land south of the Hot Spring/Saline County line, that included their driveway and a portion of their garden plot. The judgment stated that “The section line separating the properties of these parties and by stipulation, establishing the county line between Saline and Hot Spring Counties, is as indicated by the survey of Larry Harper.” However, the judgment stated that the exact dimensions of this strip of land were to be determined later, and on February 7, 1987, an order describing the property was entered. Thereafter, on March 12, 1987, a supplemental order correcting a “clerical mistake” in the description was also entered. We now know that both of these descriptions were in fact erroneous because they described land north, rather than south, of the section and county line.

In an unpublished opinion handed down November 25, 1987, this court affirmed the judgment of the Saline County Circuit Court. Our decision held that the trial court’s finding that the Rapers had obtained title to the disputed strip by adverse possession was not clearly against a preponderance of the evidence. The exact description of the land involved was not an issue on appeal, but we noted that while the strip of land subject to adverse possession lay in Hot Spring County, it was a piece of the Rapers’ property — most of which lay in Saline County. Therefore, we held that under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-60-101 (1987) the suit could be brought in either county. See also Adkisson v. Starr, 221 Ark. 331, 260 S.W.2d 956 (1953).

After our decision in November of 1987, the Pryors (in March of 1989) filed a petition to quiet title in Hot Spring County Chancery Court. On September 20, 1989, that court dismissed the petition holding “proper jurisdiction is in the Circuit Court which previously had jurisdiction in the matter.”

The Pryors then returned to Saline County Circuit Court and filed a “Motion to Correct or Amend Judgment.” They alleged that a clerical error existed in the description of the property awarded the Rapers and asked the circuit court to “take whatever steps it deems appropriate to ascertain the actual metes and bounds description of the ‘driveway and portion of garden plot’” awarded to the Rapers in the court’s previous orders. On January 22, 1990, that court held it was without jurisdiction to redetermine or restructure its previous orders.

On March 26, 1990, the Rapers filed the present action (Petition to Correct Legal Description, Petition for Injunction and Petition for Damages) in Hot Spring County Chancery Court. Count I of the Rapers’ petition alleged that an error existed in the description of the property awarded them in the adverse possession suit in Saline Circuit Court and sought “the equitable powers of Chancery Court to correct the misdescription in the property in order to provide the Plaintiffs with a correct description to their property as originally provided for in the judgment of the Circuit Court.” Count II of the petition alleged the Pryors had “caused numerous holders [sic] and rocks to be dumped” on the property awarded the Rapers and that the Rapers were unable to use their driveway due to the rocks and boulders and “due to the Defendants having caused a deep trench to be dug in the driveway by a backhoe.” The Rapers asked for a permanent restraining order to prohibit the Pryors from interfering with or damaging the Rapers’ property.

On April 12, 1990, the Pryors filed a motion to dismiss, and it was denied by the chancellor. The Pryors then filed a petition for writ of prohibition in the Arkansas Supreme Court, and that petition was denied by an opinion dated November 19, 1990. See Pryor v. Hot Spring Chancery Court, 303 Ark. 630, 799 S.W.2d 524 (1990).

On May 19, 1992, a hearing on the present action was held in Hot Spring County Chancery Court. At the hearing Judge Cole testified that he recalled the decision in the original case in the Saline Circuit Court, at which he presided, and that the Rapers acquired by adverse possession that property which constituted the driveway to their home and most of the garden plot which they had been using for years. He said this property was south of the Hot Spring/Saline County line; that it was determined by a surveyor to be a rectangular shaped strip of property 450 feet on the north and south sides, and 23 feet on the east and west ends; that it was bordered on the north by the county line; and that the 450 feet began running at the east right-of-way line of U.S. Highway 67.

Appellee George Raper testified that appellant Raymond Pryor had placed rocks on the strip of land awarded to the Rapers by the circuit court and that this prevented Raper from driving his car on the strip of land and using it as a driveway. Mrs. Raper testified that she walks up the driveway several times a day and that Mr. Raper is not able to walk through the area because he walks with a cane and there are “ditches through there.” She testified further she must carry groceries and laundry in a wheelbarrow from the highway.

On appeal, the Pryors argue that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to correct the judgment of the Saline County Circuit Court and that the doctrine of res judicata prevented the correction.

First, we note that both parties agree that the description in the judgment of the Saline Circuit Court is incorrect. Judge Cole testified that he held in that case that the Rapers had acquired title by adverse possession to a strip of land south of the county line. His judgment entered on September 3, 1986, held that the section line separating the properties of the parties was the same as the county line separating the two counties, but both of the two subsequent orders that the judge signed in an attempt to fix and correct the description of the land acquired by the Rapers by adverse possession placed the land north instead of south of the section and county line.

Second, we note that both parties have attempted to get a judicial correction of the description of the property awarded to the Rapers by adverse possession.

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Bluebook (online)
877 S.W.2d 952, 46 Ark. App. 150, 1994 Ark. App. LEXIS 324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pryor-v-raper-arkctapp-1994.