Stickle v. Link

511 S.W.2d 848
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 10, 1974
Docket57436
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 511 S.W.2d 848 (Stickle v. Link) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stickle v. Link, 511 S.W.2d 848 (Mo. 1974).

Opinion

WELBORN, Commissioner.

Appeal by Mildred A. Link from adverse judgment in action against her to limit her use of a roadway.

The principal contested issue between the various plaintiffs and plaintiffs-inter-venors and the defendant Link was the nature and extent of the defendant’s right to use the roadway. Plaintiffs and interve-nors sought generally to limit defendant’s right to a private right for use of the road for residential and agricultural purposes. By her answers and various counterclaims defendant sought to establish that the road was a public road or, alternatively, that she had an unrestricted right to use the road *851 for any purpose incident to the use of her lands. The litigation was precipitated by defendant’s plans and preparations to lease a portion of the land owned by her for a quarry and to make use of the road for the transport of machinery and equipment to the quarry site and for the transport of the product of the quarry operation.

The southern terminus of the road is at Wild Horse Creek Road, a public road in St. Louis County. At that point, the road is on land owned by plaintiffs Dr. A. W. Stickle and his wife, Frances, and on land owned by plaintiffs-intervenors Dr. Albert D. Thomas and his wife, Colleen. The road runs northwesterly some 400 feet on both properties and then enters the Stickle property alone for some 400 feet, at which point it meanders into property owned by defendant Mildred Link, back into the Stickle property, then into property owned by plaintiff County Management Corporation, back into the Stickle property alone and then into the Link property. After running on the Link property, the road again meanders and enters the County Management property for a short distance before returning exclusively to the Link property. At a point some 1400 feet beyond the return to the Link property and slightly in excess of ½ mile from Wild Horse Creek Road, the road forks at a “Y” intersection. The branch to the right crosses the southeast corner of land owned by plaintiffs-intervenors Edmund Cowdry, Jr., Alice Cowdry Luten and Margaret Cowdry Park. That branch of the road then enters and serves property owned by persons not parties to this litigation.

The left branch of the road continues on the Link property a short distance and then crosses the northeast corner of the Thomas property for some 500 feet; there it again enters the Link property. The road proceeds west through the Link property for about ½ mile. At that point the road runs along the boundary between one tract owned by plaintiffs-intervenors Mary Frances Cutts Jones and Jane Watson Cutts Pieters and another tract owned by plaintiff-intervenor Jane W. Cutts. The parties disagree as to the existence and course of the road beyond the west boundary of the Cutts property.

The surface of the roadway is paved from the Wild Horse Creek Road intersection to the “Y”. The right fork at the “Y” continues to be paved. The left fork is a generally unimproved roadway with two tracks the width of the tread of an automobile, with grass and other vegetation between the tracks. The surface of the road was gravel. (At the trial, the paved portion of the disputed roadway was referred to as the “paved” road, and the unimproved portion as the “ridge” road. Similar references will be made here.)

USE OF ROAD AT TIME OF TRIAL

Doctor Stickle acquired some 52 acres fronting on Wild Horse Creek Road. Around 1968, he built a residence on a 3.-73-acre tract carved from the larger area and lived there at the time of trial. The paved road provided access to his residence. He conveyed the remainder of the tract to County Management Corporation, a Stickle family-owned corporation which raises horses on the land. Horses are hauled to and from the land over the paved road in two and four-horse trailers, pulled by cars or pickup trucks.

The Cowdrys acquired some property from Miss Link in 1966. There was an old house on the property at that time. The Cowdrys tore it down and erected a small house which is used as a weekend and summer residence. Access to it is by the paved portion of the roadway.

The two tracts owned by plaintiff-inter-venor Cutts and plaintiffs-intervenors Jones and Pieters appear to be 10 acres each. There is a house on the Cutts tract. That property was owned by the Cowdrys from about 1933 to 1935 or 1936, when the Cuttses acquired it. They used the house as a summer and weekend residence. The Cuttses made similar use of the house, at least until the death of Mr. Cutts in 1956. *852 Since that time it has been used by Mrs. Cutts’ daughters, Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Pie-ters, as a weekend and summer residence. There had been a house on the Jones-Pie-ters tract at the time the Cuttses acquired their property, but it had since been torn down. Access to the house on the Cutts property was over the paved road and the ridge road.

There were no other houses served by either the paved road or the ridge road at the time of trial. There were three houses beyond the point where the road forked to the right, in addition to the Cowdry house. Those houses, as well as a Jesuit retreat known as Green Hills, were served by that road and made use of the paved road from the “Y” to Wild Horse Creek Road.

Miss Link conducts farming operations on her land. She pastures cattle, makes hay and grows some other farm crops. About 2Y2 years prior to trial, she sold timber on some of her land to a man who took out around 15,000 feet of timber. The timber that was removed was trucked over the ridge and paved roads.

Doctor Thomas purchased his property in 1962. He used it for farming. He ordinarily did not use either the paved road or the ridge road for access to his property.

The roadway provides the sole access to some 400 acres of land in the vicinity owned by defendant Link. A greater part of the land has been in her family since 1800. The major portion of it lies to the north of the road. All of Miss Link’s holdings are contiguous except for a 42.25 acre tract on which the paved portion of the road runs in part. The contiguity of that tract with her remaining land was destroyed in 1965-1966 when she sold about five acres to the Cowdrys, parents of the plaintiff s-intervenors Cowdry-Luten-Park. In the sale of that property, Miss Link reserved a 15-foot easement across the southern boundary of the tract for roadway purposes “for the use and benefit of land owned by her adjoining the property herein conveyed on the West and North * * *.” Miss Link also reserved for herself an easement for roadway purposes on the portion of the paved road which ran across the land conveyed to the Cowdrys.

PRIOR USE OF ROADWAY

In 1907, Anton Leiweke was the owner of the Stickle-County Management-Thomas property. In that year he filed suit in the St. Louis County Circuit Court against Andrew J. Link, father of defendant Mildred Link. The petition alleged that Link was wrongfully using a way approximately ½ mile in length and 15 feet in width, across plaintiff’s property, and running from Wild Horse Creek Road to property occupied by defendant Link. The petition sought to enjoin the continued use of the way by Link. Defendant’s answer alleged a prescriptive right to use the way by virtue of a user of more than 20 years.

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Bluebook (online)
511 S.W.2d 848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stickle-v-link-mo-1974.