Rhode Island Five v. Bristol County Medical Associates, 89-782 (1993)

CourtSuperior Court of Rhode Island
DecidedJune 28, 1993
DocketC.A. No. 89-782
StatusUnpublished

This text of Rhode Island Five v. Bristol County Medical Associates, 89-782 (1993) (Rhode Island Five v. Bristol County Medical Associates, 89-782 (1993)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rhode Island Five v. Bristol County Medical Associates, 89-782 (1993), (R.I. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This case is unpublished as indicated by the issuing court.]

DECISION
The plaintiff in this case is a Rhode Island general partnership which owns land in Bristol, Rhode Island, on which it is developing a residential condominium project called Bristol Woods. The defendant is a Rhode Island corporation which also owns land in Bristol, Rhode Island. The defendant's land lies between the plaintiff's land and development and Hope Street, a public highway in the Town of Bristol. The plaintiff asks this Court to order specific performance of a promise it alleges the defendant made to grant the plaintiff an easement of right of way across the defendant's land from Hope Street to the plaintiff's land.

I.
Sometime in 1983 before April 7, Anthony A. Nunes proposed to officers of the defendant that they grant him an easement through their property from Hope Street to his property to the east. He proposed to construct a road on the easement at his own expense, to move a traffic light on Hope Street to the intersection of the new road and away from the medical center operated on the defendant's property and to bring in utility service on the new road to be available to the defendant for the further development of its own land. Mr. Nunes proposed to develop an "assisted living" facility for the elderly on the land to be served by the proposed roadway.

On April 7, 1983, Paul A. Botelho, M.D., the defendant's president, and an authorized agent, wrote and signed the following letter to Mr. Nunes:

"In consideration of your proposal made at our meeting of last week, we have agreed to accept the concepts you presented with the following stipulations:

1. We be allowed to review the final architectural plans with the exact location of the road before submission to any review board.

2. Our agreement must specifically exclude low income and or "Section 8" housing construction on your property.

3. Our agreement must specifically prohibit the private practice of medicine from any buildings constructed on your property.

In going forward with this project, I ask that you work with our Administrator in clarifying and solidifying these details." (Emphasis supplied.)

On April 20, 1983 the defendant's stockholders met and voted to approve the granting of the proposed easement according to written minutes of the meeting signed by the secretary and an authorized agent of the defendant. The pertinent portion of the minutes reads as follows:

"President Paul A. Botelho, M.D., called the meeting to order and an explanation of a proposal to grant an easement through property owned by the Corporation was presented by the Administrator and Dr. Botelho.

After discussion, the President called for a vote to approve or reject the proposal to grant an easement.

The vote to approve the easement was tallied as 9 in favor, 2 opposed." (Emphasis supplied.)

The 1983 documents do not specifically describe the location, course and size of the easement nor do they set out the obligations of the plaintiff with regard to the improvements in the right of way. The evidence, nevertheless, clearly shows that the easement was to be wide enough to carry an approved roadway intersecting with Hope Street on its easterly side north of the then current location of a traffic signal at the driveway to the defendant's medical building. The proposed roadway was to be laid out on a straight course easterly by the most direct and shortest route to the plaintiff's land. The first condition in the April 7, 1983 letter suggests that the parties understood that the location of the easement was subject to change.

After some fruitless discussion in 1985 that Mr. Nunes might purchase some part of the defendant's land, the plaintiff succeeded to Mr. Nunes' title to the land to the east of the plaintiff's property. In order to be assured that they still had an agreement from the defendant to grant them an easement representatives of the plaintiff met with representatives of the defendant on September 5, 1986. On September 8, 1986, James T. Quigley, Administrator and authorized agent of the defendant wrote and signed the following letter to Mr. Nunes one of the plaintiff's general partners:

"This is a follow up to my meeting with Arthur Beauregard on September 5, 1986, and is to confirm my meeting with our Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors agrees to confirm its commitment made in its letter to you on April 7, 1983. (copy attached)" (Emphasis supplied.)

Mr. Quigley insisted in his testimony that he expected, both in 1986 and in 1983, that a detailed written agreement, embodying the grant of the easement and including the stipulations set out in the April 7, 1983 letter, would be forthcoming. It was his understanding that the plaintiff in 1986 intended to go forward with the same proposal propounded by Mr. Nunes in 1983 and that the plaintiff's land would be developed for "assisted living" facilities. Mr. Quigley left his position as the defendant's administrator in January 1988. There was no further contact between him and anyone representing the plaintiff regarding the easement after September 8, 1986.

The evidence shows that the plaintiff had decided to develop its land as residential condominiums in mid-1986. Defendant's Exhibit C, a 1988 memorandum from Martin Adler to Arthur Beauregard, refers to ". . . the inception of our assignment in mid-1986 for the R.I. Five on the project now called Bristol Woods . . ." Also, Plaintiff's Exhibit 4, invoices from Garofalo Associates, Inc., refers to services "in accordance with our proposal of August 8, 1986." Mr. Nunes furthermore testified that the partnership had formed its plans to change the nature of the development before Mr. Beauregard spoke to Mr. Quigley in 1986. The Court is satisfied that Mr. Quigley is mistaken in his testimony that he assumed in September 1986 that the plaintiff was still planning to construct "assisted living" facilities. He was correct, however, in his understanding that the plaintiff still intended to construct a "straight-across" roadway from Hope Street to the Bristol Woods project.

In 1987, clearly in reliance on the assurance in the letter of September 8, 1986, the plaintiff authorized Garofalo Associates, Inc. to proceed with the engineering work preliminary to developing Bristol Woods. It also engaged the services of Katharine V. Stark to study the condominium housing market in Warren and Bristol, Rhode Island. Her study is dated March 1987. A diagram of the proposed Bristol Woods site, attached as Exhibit C to Technical Appendix Number Two to her study, shows a "New Access Road" running straight across the defendant's land from Hope Street to the Bristol Woods project. Between April 6, 1987 and November 3, 1988 the plaintiff paid Garofalo $65,510 for engineering and planning services. Katharine Stark was paid $5862.83 for her study.

Mr. Nunes testified that the partnership pursued its preliminary plans to develop a residential condominium project in reliance on the defendant's promise to grant the plaintiff the easement it needed to get to Hope Street. There are some other access routes to the site from other public highways. One is from Broad Common Road. The plaintiff did not regard Broad Common Road as desirable as Hope Street, esthetically or economically. A right of way across other land between Bristol Woods and Hope Street existed but was not useable because of wetlands constraints. On cross-examination Mr.

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Rhode Island Five v. Bristol County Medical Associates, 89-782 (1993), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhode-island-five-v-bristol-county-medical-associates-89-782-1993-risuperct-1993.