Stone v. LEA BRENT FAMILY INVESTMENTS, LP

998 So. 2d 448, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 771, 2008 WL 5220539
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 16, 2008
Docket2007-CA-01168-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 998 So. 2d 448 (Stone v. LEA BRENT FAMILY INVESTMENTS, LP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stone v. LEA BRENT FAMILY INVESTMENTS, LP, 998 So. 2d 448, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 771, 2008 WL 5220539 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

998 So.2d 448 (2008)

Mary Ann Griffin (STONE), Appellant
v.
LEA BRENT FAMILY INVESTMENTS, L.P., Appellee.

No. 2007-CA-01168-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 16, 2008.

*450 John J. Crow, Jr., Water Valley, attorney for appellant.

Athan P. Adams, Jr., Greenville, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., GRIFFIS and CARLTON, JJ.

CARLTON, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On February 17, 2006, Lea Brent Family Investors, L.P. (Trust) filed a complaint in the Washington County Circuit Court seeking a permanent injunction to enjoin Mary Ann Griffin Stone from blocking access to an easement granted to the Trust by a warranty deed. In response, Stone claimed she had extinguished any rights the Trust had in the easement through adverse possession. Additionally, Stone argued that the Trust had abandoned the easement. The case was tried in the Chancery Court of Washington County on June 14, 2007.

¶ 2. The chancellor entered a judgment for the Trust finding that the easement had neither been adversely possessed nor abandoned. As a result, the chancellor issued an injunction ordering Stone to grant the Trust access to its easement. Stone appeals the chancellor's judgment alleging that the chancellor erred in ruling that: (1) Stone had failed to adversely possess the easement for the required statutory period of ten years, and (2) the Trust had not abandoned the easement. We affirm the chancellor's judgment in favor of the Trust but do so on different grounds.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3. The subject of this appeal is whether the Trust still has an easement in the driveway on Stone's property in Washington County, Mississippi. The driveway runs from east to west across Stone's land. The entrance of the driveway is on the east side and the end of the driveway is on the west side. Edwin Lea Brent (Brent)[1]*451 owns about five to ten acres next to the west side of the driveway. Brent testified that the most accessible way to reach this land is by using Stone's driveway, which is where his easement is located. On June 26, 2007, the chancellor enjoined Stone from preventing Brent from using the easement in her driveway to get to his land. The chancellor found that the easement was neither adversely possessed by Stone nor abandoned by Brent.

¶ 4. Brent's chain of title to the easement consists of six instruments, all of which were properly recorded and entered into evidence at trial. The chain of title shows that beginning in late 1962 and up to the latest deed dated 1996, all six instruments have included the following provision: "Provided, however, their heirs and assigns, shall have the right of ingress and egress, over and across the [n]orth end of the above described lot [of 3.08 acres] for purpose of having access to other portions of Black Beauty Plantation as herein conveyed."

¶ 5. From 1962 until 1992, the easement, then more of an undeveloped crossing, was used by Brent to access the five to ten acres mentioned above. From 1987 to 1990, Brent, who at the time was an Arabian horse breeder, used the crossing to take oats from his barn to his bins and from his bins back to his horses. In 1990, Brent moved to Colorado, and by 1992, he had moved all of his Arabian horses there.

¶ 6. On February 28, 1991, Stone, as a joint tenant with her now deceased husband, Dr. Richard Griffin, acquired by a warranty deed the 3.08 acre lot subject to Brent's easement. In 1991, the Griffins posted a no trespassing sign at the entrance to the easement. In 1992, the Griffins upgraded the easement and turned it into a driveway using gravel and dirt. The dirt was purchased from Brent. Also in 1992, the Griffins put a gate at the east-side entrance of the driveway. They also installed an ornamental archway over the east-side gate on which the name "Black Beauty Plantation" is prominently displayed. An electric lock was installed on the gate in 1994. Before the Griffins acquired the 3.08 acre lot, a gate at the west end of the crossing had already been installed. In sum, the Griffins turned the crossing into a driveway in 1992, and they have maintained it ever since.

¶ 7. Stone testified that she and Dr. Griffin installed a gate at the east-side entrance when they moved in because they had "a lot of problems" with trespassing hunters. Stone said her husband had specifically told hunters from the Gilknocke Hunting Club not to trespass on their land. Stone also testified that one of their four-wheelers had been stolen before they had installed the east-side gate system. Similarly, Brent testified that Dr. Griffin, also Brent's veterinarian, had complained to Brent that hunters from the hunting club were trespassing onto the Griffins' property.

¶ 8. From 1990 until 2003, Brent traveled back and forth from Colorado to Greenville, Mississippi. By 1992, Brent knew that the Griffins had purchased the 3.08 acre lot which was subject to his easement. He was aware of the no trespassing sign, the east-side gate and the ornamental archway. In 2003, Brent moved back to Greenville. Black Beauty was flooded in late 2004/early 2005. Because of the flooded conditions, Brent wanted to go duck hunting on the portion of his land he could reach by his easement in Stone's driveway. However, when he got to the entrance gate to the driveway, it was locked. Brent then went through Stone's neighbor, Martha Huntley's property to get to his easement in Stone's driveway and to his land.

*452 ¶ 9. The second time Brent tried to access his land to go duck hunting, he again found the entrance gate on Stone's property locked. By this time, Huntley had also started locking her gate. Having trouble getting to his property, Brent then asked Stone "for the clicker to get through the gate" and was told that "[he]'d have to go around." In response, Brent testified that he told Stone, "You can't block the road." At this point, Stone advised Brent to contact her lawyer. Soon afterward, both Stone and Brent had retained counsel regarding Brent's easement.

¶ 10. In the meantime, Stone allowed Brent to go through her entrance gate upon the condition that he would call her first. However, this arrangement soon came to an end when Stone put up a chainlink fence along the length of the driveway and locked the west-side gate at the end of her driveway. At trial Stone testified, "He can use the lane that has been provided for him because that will secure my property and he would have easy access at his own bidding.... Now if he wants to use my driveway, then he would need to contact me."

¶ 11. However, Brent testified that because the land alongside the fence was not paved and was on lower ground, he could not consistently travel on it with a vehicle, especially when the land became flooded. Even Stone admitted as much when she testified: "If he has no way to get across because of a flood, because that field does flood, and he needed to get across, then I would let him get across."

¶ 12. Stone admitted at trial that Brent held an easement in her driveway. She testified that she did not want him using the driveway without her permission. When the chancellor asked Stone if there was any reason why she did not want to give a key to the east-side gate entrance to Brent, Stone replied that for safety purposes she did not want a lot of traffic on her property. She further testified that if Brent would call her before he wanted to use the easement, she would open the gates for him.

DISCUSSION

¶ 13.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
998 So. 2d 448, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 771, 2008 WL 5220539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stone-v-lea-brent-family-investments-lp-missctapp-2008.