Q-2, LLC v. Hughes

2014 UT App 19, 319 P.3d 732, 752 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2014 WL 266207, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 22
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJanuary 24, 2014
DocketNo. 20120607-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2014 UT App 19 (Q-2, LLC v. Hughes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Q-2, LLC v. Hughes, 2014 UT App 19, 319 P.3d 732, 752 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2014 WL 266207, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 22 (Utah Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

CHRISTIANSEN, Judge:

11 Wayne L. Hughes Sr. and Patricia L. Hampton-Hughes (the Hugheses) challenge the trial court's grant of partial summary judgment to Q-2, LLC on the Hugheses' claim of adverse possession of a disputed parcel of land. We reverse and remand.

BACKGROUND

2 This case involves a disputed property boundary between neighboring parcels of land in Syracuse, Utah.2 The dispute arises from a discrepancy between the recorded [734]*734property lines and a fence line that separated the Hugheses' property from the neighboring parcels to the east from approximately 1927 to 1971. At the time the Hugheses purchased their property in 1998, the fence had deteriorated, and the Hugheses subsequently occupied and used the property up to the record property line.

1 3 In 2001, the owner of a parcel adjoining the Hugheses' property brought an action against the Hugheses seeking to quiet title to the property between the record property line and the former fence line on a theory of boundary by acquiescence. Dahl Inv. Co. v. Hughes, 2004 UT App 391, ¶ 4, 101 P.3d 830. There, the district court concluded that a boundary by acquiescence had been established by the prior owners' acceptance of the fence line as a boundary from approximately 1925 to 1965, and this court affirmed. Id. 11. In doing so, we rejected the Hugheses' argument that their subsequent non-acquiescence to the fence line as a boundary defeated the plaintiff's claim. Id. 191 10-11.

14 In late 2008, Q-2, another adjoining landowner, brought the present quiet title action to adjudicate the boundary between the Hugheses' property and its own. While Q-2 was not a party to the Daki litigation, Q-2 alleged that a boundary by acquiescence had been established by the mutual acquiescence of Q-2's and the Hugheses' predecessors-in-interest to the same fence line that was at issue in Dahl3 The Hugheses filed a counterclaim alleging that notwithstanding Q-2's boundary by acquiescence claim, the Hugheses had adversely possessed the disputed property subsequent to the establishment of the boundary by acquiescence.

T5 Before trial, Q-2 moved for partial summary judgment on the Hugheses' adverse possession claim. Q-2 argued that because the Hugheses believed the disputed property to be their own and because they had not possessed the land for seven years beyond the date when the boundary by acquiescence was adjudicated, the Hugheses could not establish a prima facie claim of adverse possession. The trial court granted Q-2's motion for partial summary judgment and dismissed the Hugheses' adverse possession claim with prejudice. The case proceeded to trial, and the trial court found that the parties' predecessors-in-interest had mutually acquiesced to a boundary at the old fence line from at least 1927 to 1971. The trial court therefore concluded that Q-2 had sue-cessfully proven its claim of boundary by acquiescence, ordered the boundary between the parties' properties established at the location of the old fence line, and quieted title to the disputed property in Q-2.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

T6 On appeal, the Hugheses challenge only the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Q-2 on the Hugheses' claim for adverse possession of the disputed property. We review the trial court's grant of summary judgment for correctness. Orvis v. Johnson, 2008 UT 2, ¶ 6, 177 P.3d 600.

ANALYSIS

T7 The Hugheses concede that the trial court correctly concluded, based on the evidence presented at trial, that Q-2 had established its claim of boundary by acquiescence. Their only contention on appeal is that the trial court erroneously dismissed their claim of adverse possession. The Hugheses argue that legal title to the disputed property passed to Q-2's predecessor-in-interest no later than 1971, when the elements of boundary by acquiescence were established, and that the Hugheses' possession of the property after 1998 was therefore adverse to the legal title as required by statute. Conversely, Q-2 argues that the Hugheses held legal title to the disputed property until the trial court ordered title quieted in Q-2 at the conclusion of trial on its boundary by acquiescence claim and that the Hugheses' possession of the property prior to that time was therefore not adverse to the legal title. Thus, to evaluate the Hugheses' adverse possession claim we must first determine when [735]*735legal title to the disputed property passed to Q-2 or its predecessor-in-interest.

I. Legal Title to the Disputed Property Passed to Q-2's Predecessor-in-Interest at the Time the Elements of Boundary by Acquiescence Were Met.

T8 The Hugheses argue that legal title passed to Q-2's predecessor-in-interest by operation of law once the elements of boundary by acquiescence were met. We agree. A boundary by acquiescence is established when, for a period of at least twenty years, adjacent landowners mutually ac-quiesee to a visible boundary line and occupy the property up to that line. See Jacobs v. Hafen, 917 P.2d 1078, 1080 (Utah 1996). The determination of when, for purposes of adjudicating the rights of later possessors, the legal title to property transfers under the boundary by acquiescence doctrine appears to be an issue of first impression for Utah Courts. However, we find clear guidance in our supreme court's boundary by acquiescence jurisprudence.

¶ 9 In Brown v. Peterson Development Co., 622 P.2d 1175 (Utah 1980), our supreme court considered a factual seenario similar to the one at issue here. The plaintiffs owned a parcel of property abutted to the east by three lots owned by the defendants, and divided from those lots by an old fence line and irrigation ditch. Id. at 1176-77. The plaintiffs claimed ownership of all land west of the fence line, despite the fact that some parts of that land were described in the defendants' deeds. Id. at 1177. The court concluded that undisputed evidence demonstrated that the parties' predecessors-in-interest had acquiesced to the old fence line as the boundary line between their properties for more than forty years, and had occupied and utilized the property in accordance with that boundary line. Id. The court held that the plaintiffs' predecessor-in-interest, Reynold Johnson, had acquired title to the disputed property west of the fence line by operation of law under the boundary by acquiescence doctrine. Id. The court observed that the defendants' "legal title to any part of the disputed strip of land had been extinguished when Johnson's occupancy and possession had ripened into a legal title" and that the defendants held only "bare record title to any land west of the old fence that was embraced within the descriptions in their title documents." Id. Notably, the court understood this "ripening" of Johnson's legal title to have occurred prior to the conveyance of Johnson's property interest to the plaintiffs and, by extension, prior to the parties' litigation over the boundary. See id. at 1178 ("The later quitclaim deeds passed the legal title to [the plaintiffs].").

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Bluebook (online)
2014 UT App 19, 319 P.3d 732, 752 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 2014 WL 266207, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/q-2-llc-v-hughes-utahctapp-2014.