Home/Supreme Court of Rhode Island/Robidoux v. Pelletier

Robidoux v. Pelletier

391 A.2d 1150, 120 R.I. 425, 1978 R.I. LEXIS 737
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedJuly 10, 1978
Docket76-332A
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 391 A.2d 1150 (Robidoux v. Pelletier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme 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
Robidoux v. Pelletier, 391 A.2d 1150, 120 R.I. 425, 1978 R.I. LEXIS 737 (R.I. 1978).

Opinion

*427 Kelleher, J.

In this civil action the plaintiffs (the Robidouxes) seek injunctive relief and damages because the defendants (the Pelletiers) have obstructed a paved strip of land that leads to the Robidouxes’ waterfront home. A non-jury trial was held before a justice of the Superior Court. The trial justice ruled against the Robidouxes, and they have appealed.

In dispute is the Robidouxes’ right to travel across the Pelletiers’ property over a paved area known as Hey Road. The Robidouxes and Pelletiers own adjoining parcels which are situated in Rurrillville along the southeasterly shore of Spring Lake. Spring Lake is a freshwater lake located in a pastoral setting in the northern part of the state. Dotting its shore are summer cottages to which scores of eager vacationers flock to enjoy Spring Lake’s refreshing waters as well as to participate in a variety of summertime recreational activities.

This dispute had its genesis in March 1967, when a plat of “cottage lots” was recorded by Spring Lake Beach, Inc., at the office of Burrillville’s town clerk. The plat is further identified as

“Section 7 Spring Lake Beach Inc. Burrillville, R.I. Scale 1" =40' February 1967 A Replat Of Cottage Lots A Portion Of Survey Of Arnold Seagrave, C.E. Dated January, 1938 At Spring Lake, Glendale Town of Burrillville, R.I.”

*428 The recorded plat portrays several streets running in and around a large tract of land that has been divided into 30 numbered lots. The main thoroughfare, Black Hut Road, which runs east to west, bisects the entire tract so that about 10 lots lie to the south of the road and the remaining lots to its north. Most of the lots to the north of Black Hut Road have the roadway as their southern border and the shore of Spring Lake as their northern boundary.

The plat shows an unnumbered lot north of the road. This particular parcel is identified as “Land Now or Formerly Walsh.” The lot is the only waterfront parcel that does not have Black Hut Road as it southern boundary. The lot is bounded on three sides by numbered lots and on the fourth by Spring Lake. Abutting the Walsh property to the east and west, repectively, are lots numbered 208 and 209; to the north is Spring Lake; and to the south, separating the Walsh lot from Black Hut Road, is lot 208A. At the time Section 7 was recorded, the Walsh lot was owned by Raymond F. Walsh and his wife, Lila. Sometime prior to 1967 the Walsh lot, so called, had been owned jointly by Henry Lapan and his wife, Eva. Henry predeceased Eva, and after she died, her will was probated. In her will Eva gave the Spring Lake property to Mr. Walsh.

In 1967 the plat depicted the Walsh lot and its neighbors in the following fashion:

*429

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Bluebook (online)
391 A.2d 1150, 120 R.I. 425, 1978 R.I. LEXIS 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robidoux-v-pelletier-ri-1978.