Rosier v. Othen

221 S.W.2d 594, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1979
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 13, 1949
DocketNo. 14005
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 221 S.W.2d 594 (Rosier v. Othen) 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
Rosier v. Othen, 221 S.W.2d 594, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1979 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinions

BOND, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff (appellee) instituted this suit for injunction to restrain defendants (appellants) from interfering with his use of an easement on and 'across the defendants’ land as a way of necessity to and from his home; for mandatory order commanding defendants to remove a dike or levee constructed adjacent to and alongside the roadway, which prevents him and his family from using the roadway or easement; and for damages resulting from such interference and obstruction.

The cause was being submitted to a jury and, at the conclusion of the testimony adduced, all parties agreed that there was no •controversial issue of fact to be submitted, and each filed motion for instructed verdict;' whereupon, the court discharged the jury, sustained plaintiff’s motion, overruled that of the defendants, and entered judgment in favor of plaintiff establishing the easement by way of necessity, permanently enjoining and restraining the defendants from further interference with plaintiff’s use of the easement, and mandatorily enjoined, commanded and directed defendants “to take such action as is necessary to put said easement and roadway, as described, m as usable a condition as same was prior to the erection of the levee and dike.” The court made no determination of damages, or order for the removal of the levee or dike.

Plaintiff alleged in his petition that he ■and his family have resided on a 53.5-acre tract of land owned by him, lying immediately east and adjacent to defendants’ land, since 1913; that since said time he has openly, continuously and uninterruptedly claimed and used the roadway .or easement as an outlet to the public highway mentioned in the record as “Belt Line Road,” and that prior thereto his predecessors in title had so claimed and used said roadway or easement for more than 40 years. Plaintiff further alleged, in effect, that Thomas J. Tone is the common source of title (owner) of the entire Thomas J. Tone Survey, in whom rests the unity of title to the respective tracts of land here involved; and that plaintiff’s land does not adjoin any other public or private road, or any other survey, and is entirely surrounded by lands out of said Thomas J. Tone Survey; hence the roadway and easement has constituted a way of necessity for plaintiff and his predecessors, in that it has been and is now the •only means. by which he can reach any public -road from his farm and place of residence, and the way has been so established for more than 40 years.

The defendants in answer, by general and special denial, joined issue with plaintiff, claiming that the easement right in question has never been and is not now a way of necessity, either by implication or otherwise ; that plaintiff’s use, and that of those under whom he claims title, was merely permissive use, not in anyway ádverse to defendants’ right; and has never been a way. of necessity as to deprive defendants [596]*596of the full use of their land over which the easement is sought to be .established; and, further, that the levee or dike erected by-defendants was the exercise of ownership of their land, to protect -it from erosion and deterioration.

A “way of necessity” does not arise merely because of necessity. There must be a privity of ownership between the dominant and the servient estates. A long continued use of a roadway or easement right does not, in itself, raise a presumptive “way of necessity” across a stranger’s land. The use by permission in such cases, in absence of proof to the contrary, may be presumed. There is no evidence in this record that there has ever been any unity of ownership in respect to the two. tracts of land at the time and since plaintiff and defendants acquired their lands as to establish the easement as a way of necessity. The plaintiff is not the defendants’ grantor; and the defendants are not the grantors of plaintiff.

In considering appellants’ assignments or points of error, it is well to note that the Thomas J. Tone Survey consists of 2,439 acres of land patented to Tone by the State of Texas; subsequently the acreage was acquired by W. M. C. Hill. In 1924, Bud Rosier, deceased, predecessor of defendants’ title, acquired - from W. M. C. Hill, by mesne conveyance dating back to 1896, the land over which the roadway is claimed to be located. In 1904, the plaintiff Albert Othen acquired 60 acres of his land from W. M. C. Hill, dating back to 1897. After the sale of the aforesaid tracts of land, W. M. C. Hill owned all the remainder of the Tone Survey' abutting on the lands theretofore conveyed by him; and in 1899 Hill conveyed 1,350 ■ acres to the American National Bank. In 1902 the American National Bank conveyed the 1,350 acres -to. J, B. Wilson and John H. Vencill; in 1906 Wilson and Vencill conveyed. 100 acres of the; 1,350 acres to a Mr. Lumas (this land adjoins the plaintiff’s land), and in 1913 Wilson and Vencill conveyed to the plaintiff the 53½ acres which plaintiff now owns and which is involved in this suit.

The statement of facts discloses that two or more maps or plats were used in the interrogation of. witnesses. Neither of the maps or plats is found in the record, — in the absence of which much of the testimony is vague, inclusive, and some of it unintelligible. To establish the relative position of the land over which the easement is sought to be established, its location, length, and width, is difficult; however, in the light of the judgment of the trial court we must presume that the location of the tracts of land involved and the course and distance of the roadway are correctly stated in the trial court’s judgment. Briefly, we gather that plaintiff’s land is wholly surrounded by lands of others; that defendants’ land is in two tracts, — 16.3 acres in pasture, situated to the west and adjacent to plaintiff’s 53.5 acres; and 100 acres in cultivation, lying north and adjacent to the 16.3 acres and west of plaintiff’s 60-acre tract, its western boundary fronting on the Belt Line Road. On the north side of plaintiff’s land a Mr. Lowe owns a part of the Tone Survey once belonging to W. M. C. Hill, and the American National Bank; to the east and south a Mr. Woolsey also owns a part of the Tone Survey, adjacent'to plaintiff’s land,— this land once owned by Hill and the Bank. The Lowe arid Woolsey lands each have outlets to public roads, — the Lowe land to the north has an outlet to Fishcreek Road about a mile north from plaintiff’s land; and the Woolsey land to the south has an outlet about a mile to the Duncanville Road. The roadway or easement here involved, over defendants’ land, goes into the defendants’ 16.3-acre tract through a gate; thence traverses the 16.3 acres near to its north line, extending into a lane at the south line of the defendants’ 100-acre tract; thence in a western direction, where it opens through a gate into the Belt Line Road.

There is no evidence of any express grant, and -we think there is no implied grant, as a “way'of necessity,” as that term is usually applied between dominant and servient -owners, over defendants’ land; and there is no positive evidence that the use of the roadway by the public or adjacent landowners was ever adverse to the defendants; only inference, arising from circumstances of its long uninterrupted use and the topography of the adjoining lands: — To the north, east and south, across and on the [597]

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Related

Othen v. Rosier
226 S.W.2d 622 (Texas Supreme Court, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
221 S.W.2d 594, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosier-v-othen-texapp-1949.