Shettel v. Bamesberger

938 P.2d 1255, 130 Idaho 217, 1997 Ida. App. LEXIS 41
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 26, 1997
DocketNo. 22725
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 938 P.2d 1255 (Shettel v. Bamesberger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shettel v. Bamesberger, 938 P.2d 1255, 130 Idaho 217, 1997 Ida. App. LEXIS 41 (Idaho Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

PERRY, Judge.

In this case we are asked to review the district court’s order affirming the magistrate’s decision quieting title and awarding attorney fees. We affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

This case involves a dispute over the boundary line between two farms in Twin Falls County. Ralph and Madonna Shettel [219]*219own an 80-acre farm to the north of the 160-acre farm owned by Herbert and Helen Bamesberger. The Bamesbergers bought their property in 1961. The Shettels purchased their farm in 1984. At the point where the two properties meet there are two ditches which run parallel to each other approximately four feet apart. One is an irrigation ditch, also called a live water ditch, which serves the Shettels’ property. The other is a drainage ditch constructed by Herbert Bamesberger (Bamesberger). Ralph Shettel (Shettel) annually erected an electric fence between the two ditches to enclose his farm for grazing cattle. In the fall of 1992, Shettel suggested that the parties erect a permanent fence between the properties. Bamesberger was opposed to the idea, contending a permanent fence may encourage weed growth. Shettel pursued the idea and hired a surveyor.

The surveyor marked the surveyed boundary line with surveying stakes, which were removed by Bamesberger. The stakes were replaced, apparently without being properly aligned. Shettel started constructing a barbed wire fence along the surveyed boundary line. Bamesberger destroyed part of the permanent fence. The Shettels filed a civil complaint seeking to quiet title at the ditch bank up to the survey line, monetary relief for damage done to the fence and an injunction against further interference with the erection of a fence. The Bamesbergers answered the complaint and filed a counterclaim, alleging that they had a right to title in the disputed property up to the ditch.

The case proceeded to trial. Bamesberger claimed on the first day of trial that the boundary line should be one foot south of the irrigation ditch’s bank. Bamesberger admitted at trial that Shettel ran an electric fence approximately two feet south of the irrigation ditch each year for eight years. Bamesber-ger also indicated that Shettel sometimes left the electric fence up all year. Shettel testified that he had been on the property since 1984, approximately ten years prior to the date of trial, and that he had left the electric fence up year-round for six of those years. Shettel also stated that he grazed his cattle up to the electric fence. According to Shet-tel, the current fence line is located in approximately the same place that he had previously run the electric fence. On the second day of trial, Bamesberger stipulated that the terminal points of the boundary line as provided in the parties’ deeds were properly determined by the Shettels’ surveyor. Bam-esberger continued to allege, however, that the proper boundary line was not that described in the deeds, but rather one established by an equitable means. Bamesberger returned to the stand late in the trial. At that time he discussed some fence posts which he unearthed while digging in the irrigation ditch and claimed that these posts had some relation to the correct boundary line.

The magistrate determined that title should be quieted in the Shettels and granted them an injunction against further interference by Bamesberger, so long as the Shet-tels’ fence was constructed in a straight line between the terminal points established by the survey. The magistrate also determined that the Shettels were entitled to $456 in damages, as well as attorney fees and costs. The Bamesbergers’ counterclaims were denied.

The Bamesbergers appealed the magistrate’s decision. The district court, on intermediate review, affirmed the merits of magistrate’s decision, but remanded for further findings of fact regarding the attorney fee award. The magistrate issued an amended order with additional findings and awarded the Shettels attorney fees incurred during the appeal to the district court. The district court then affirmed the magistrate’s decision in its entirety. The Bamesbergers now appeal.

II.

ANALYSIS

A. Boundary Line

The Bamesbergers argue that the magistrate erred in concluding that the Shettels [220]*220were entitled to quiet title and that the district court erred in affirming the magistrate’s decision in that regard. On appeal, the Bam-esbergers do not assert that the magistrate misapplied the applicable law, but instead question the factual findings of the magistrate.

On review of a decision of the district court, rendered in its appellate capacity, we examine the record of the trial court independently of, but with due regard for, the district court’s intermediate appellate decision. Hentges v. Hentges, 115 Idaho 192, 194, 765 P.2d 1094, 1096 (Ct.App.1988). An appellate court will defer to findings of fact based upon substantial evidence, but will review freely the conclusions of law reached by stating legal rules or principles and applying them to the facts found. Staggie v. Idaho Falls Consol. Hosps., Inc., 110 Idaho 349, 351, 715 P.2d 1019, 1021 (Ct.App.1986). Credibility of witnesses is a question for the trier of fact. Rasmussen v. Martin, 104 Idaho 401, 404, 659 P.2d 155, 158 (Ct.App.1983).

The Shettels provided copies of the deeds to both parcels, which contained the legal descriptions of the properties, and the results of a survey to establish legal title. Bamesberger stipulated on the second day of trial to the accuracy of the surveyor’s identification of the terminal points of the boundary. Although there was some dispute as to the accuracy of the line staked between those points, Bamesberger agreed that a straight line between those points would constitute the legal boundary. Hence, there is substantial evidence in the record to support the magistrate’s finding that the Shettels had “succeeded in establishing the legal boundary between the parties according to their respective deeds”.

The magistrate went on to examine the Bamesbergers’ claims that the actions of the parties had established a different boundary under an equitable doctrine. The magistrate found that the Bamesbergers’ references to the ditch as the boundary were so inconsistent and unspecific that they failed to establish any identifiable boundary line. The magistrate also determined that the evidence did not support a finding that a boundary had been established by agreement of the parties or their predecessors. See Morrissey v. Haley, 124 Idaho 870, 873, 865 P.2d 961, 964 (1993); Wells v. Williamson, 118 Idaho 37, 41, 794 P.2d 626, 630 (1990). The magistrate further found that the Bamesbergers had not satisfied the requirements of adverse possession or prescriptive easement. See I.C. § 5-210; Rice v. Hill City Stock Yards Co., 121 Idaho 576, 580, 826 P.2d 1288, 1292 (1992); Oakley Valley Stone, Inc. v. Alastra, 110 Idaho 265, 268,

Related

Nelson v. Anderson Lumber Co.
99 P.3d 1092 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
938 P.2d 1255, 130 Idaho 217, 1997 Ida. App. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shettel-v-bamesberger-idahoctapp-1997.