Stiles v. Godsey

310 P.3d 682, 258 Or. App. 145, 2013 WL 4173785, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 972
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 14, 2013
Docket02CV0357; A150614
StatusPublished

This text of 310 P.3d 682 (Stiles v. Godsey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stiles v. Godsey, 310 P.3d 682, 258 Or. App. 145, 2013 WL 4173785, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 972 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

EGAN, J.

In Stiles v. Godsey, 233 Or App 119, 225 P3d 81 (2009) (Stiles I), we concluded that plaintiffs had acquired title to a portion of their neighbor’s property — over which an easement ran — through adverse possession. Following our remand to the trial court, a dispute arose between the parties regarding whether our opinion in Stiles I awarded plaintiffs the entire easement area or less than the entire easement area. The trial court concluded that our opinion in Stiles I intended to exclude two separate portions of the easement and, accordingly, entered an amended general judgment that quieted title to the majority of the easement in plaintiffs’ favor, but excluded those two separate portions. Plaintiffs timely appeal from that amended judgment and contend that our opinion in Stiles I required the trial court to enter a judgment quieting title to the entire easement in their favor. They also argue that the trial court erred by including a provision in the amended judgment that “preserved” defendant Stoner’s rights to reconstruct his carport. For the following reasons, we reverse and remand with respect to the southern portion of the deeded easement.

Plaintiffs’ lot lies to the west of, and adjacent to, defendant Stoner’s lot. Stoner’s lot was created as part of a subdivision known as Mesman Manor. In Stiles I, plaintiffs brought an action for adverse possession over a portion of defendant Stoner’s land. On de novo review, we first noted that “[t]he disputed area has three sections, each distinct in character and use.” 233 Or App at 123. Two of those sections — referred to as the “accreted easement” and the “riverfront triangle” — are not at issue in the present appeal. The other section was referred to as the “deeded easement” and was originally created to allow the owners of the other Mesman Manor subdivision lots to access the Rogue River. In the factual background portion of Stiles I, we described the deeded easement section as follows:

“The first section of the area in question is the original Mesman Manor easement strip, which runs between the residences on the Stiles and Stoner lots, along the westerly border of the Stoner lot. The parties refer to this piece of property as the ‘deeded easement’ because it is referenced [148]*148and described in the Mesman Manor deeds. The area is fenced by a stake fence that runs along its eastern side, within the Stoner lot, a wire fence placed by plaintiffs against the stake fence to contain their pets, and a board fence across the easement that joins with plaintiffs’ driveway gate, effectively blocking the mouth of the easement from a southern entry. Those fences separate the first section of the disputed area from the rest of the Stoner lot and the other subdivision lots. Plaintiffs’ patio and driveway encroach into this first section of the disputed area. Plaintiffs have made other improvements to that area.”

223 Or App at 123.

After describing the other two sections of property at issue in Stiles I, we included a diagram in our opinion, reproduced below, which we prefaced by stating that “[t]he properties are configured as follows”:

[[Image here]]

Id.1 That diagram — which was created by this court — was based on a surveyor’s map that was submitted by plaintiffs as [149]*149an exhibit at the trial underlying Stiles I. The diagram in the opinion was a vastly simplified version of the surveyor’s map, which was extensively referred to by the parties throughout the underlying proceedings and in the appeal in Stiles I.

After setting out both the description and the diagram, we proceeded to address plaintiffs’ statutory adverse possession claim by first laying out the applicable legal standard under ORS 105.620: “[P]laintiffs must show by ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that they have ‘maintained actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile and continuous possession’ of the disputed area for a period of 10 years.” Id. at 126. We also noted that ORS 105.620 requires that the would-be adverse possessors maintain an honest and reasonable belief that they were the owners of the property for the statutory period. Id. at 127-28. After an amplification of those legal criteria, we concluded that plaintiffs had met their burden of demonstrating adverse possession with respect to a portion of Stoner’s property:

“Applying the statutory criteria to the disputed area, we conclude that plaintiffs presented clear and convincing evidence of adverse possession of the first section — the deeded easement portion — of the disputed area against all defendants, but that such proof was lacking as to the accreted easement and riverfront triangle portions of that area. With respect to the deeded easement portion, the record shows that the covered patio to plaintiffs’ house encroaches into the easement area. It is not clear if the patio was originally constructed as part of the house in 1956, but the record shows that the patio was covered and improved sometime after the easement was created in 1966.”

Id. at 128.

We then analyzed the statutory criteria as applied to the physical features of the disputed property:

“As noted above, a wooden stake fence exists on the eastern border of the deeded easement and 10 feet into the Stoner lot. It is not clear when that fence was built. The description of the Mesman Manor subdivision in the 1959 plat refers to a fence along the border of the subdivision in [150]*150this area. The fence was obscured by a blackberry thicket that existed in the southern part of the deeded easement area until that area was cleared by plaintiff Roger Stiles sometime in 1988 or 1989. Defendant Stoner’s predecessor in interest was aware of plaintiffs’ activities in the deeded easement area and, at times, requested plaintiffs to make repairs to the wooden stake fence.
“Plaintiffs’ driveway cuts across the deeded easement at the southern end of the easement. The driveway has been in place since plaintiffs’ house was constructed. The driveway is gated. A 1979 Josephine County Tax Assessor’s diagram of the property includes both the patio and driveway, and there is no evidence in the record that plaintiffs’ possession of either patio or driveway has been interrupted since then. A cross fence connects the driveway gate with the wooden stake fence and blocks access to the deeded easement area. The driveway gate displays a sign that reads, ‘POSTED, KEEP OUT, NO TRESPASSING.’ The cross fence has been in place since at least 1979. It is unclear when the sign was placed on the gate. In 1988 and 1989, after his purchase of Tax Lot 2300, plaintiff Roger Stiles removed the blackberries from the deeded easement area, reinforced the fence with hog wire to contain the family pets, constructed and placed planter boxes in the easement area, planted the area with additional bushes, and installed a sprinkler system. The patio was enclosed in 1990.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
310 P.3d 682, 258 Or. App. 145, 2013 WL 4173785, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 972, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stiles-v-godsey-orctapp-2013.