Tate v. Water Works & Sewer Board of Oxford

217 So. 3d 906, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 200
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 12, 2016
Docket2150190
StatusPublished

This text of 217 So. 3d 906 (Tate v. Water Works & Sewer Board of Oxford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tate v. Water Works & Sewer Board of Oxford, 217 So. 3d 906, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 200 (Ala. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MOORE, Judge.

Robert Lanier Tate III, Deborah Ann Tate Lewis, and Mary Denise Tate Spires (hereinafter referred to collectively as “the heirs”) appeal from a summary judgment entered by the Calhoun Circuit Court (“the trial court”) in favor of the Water Works and Sewer Board of the City of Oxford (“the Board”) on the heirs’ claims against the Board, and on some of the Board’s claims against the heirs, regarding a parcel of real property in Calhoun County (“the disputed property”). We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Facts and Procedural History

The following facts are undisputed. Robert L. Tate, Jr. (“Robert”), died intestate on December 24, 1972, and he was survived by his wife, Mary Bernice Ginn Tate (“the widow”), and the hems, who were minors at the time of Robert’s death. [909]*909Before Robert’s death, Robert and the widow owned, as joint tenants with a right of survivorship, a parcel of property on Ingram Street in Oxford, where the family resided (“the home property”). The widow claimed the home property as her homestead following Robert’s death. Robert also owned, at the time of his death and in his name alone, property located west of Stephens Avenue in Oxford (“the Stephens Avenue property”); the Stephens Avenue property had been conveyed to Robert under three separate deeds. The disputed property is an approximately 2.3-acre portion of the Stephens Avenue property. The widow never sought to administer Robert’s estate, and she never claimed or asserted her dower rights or any other rights of a widow with regard to the Stephens Avenue property.

In 1987, the Board began making plans to acquire a site upon which to build a water tower to service the water needs of the citizens of Oxford, and, having determined that the disputed property was an appropriate location, the Board filed a condemnation proceeding in the Calhoun Probate Court against the widow, seeking to condemn the disputed property. The probate court entered an order of condemnation of the disputed property in favor of the Board on December 4, 1987. The Board filed a notice of appeal from that order, disputing the amount it had been ordered to pay for the property; however, after the notice of appeal was filed, the Board entered into a settlement with the widow, and, on June 23, 1988, the widow executed a deed purporting to convey the disputed property to the Board. Construction of the water tower was completed in approximately February 1989, at which time the Board erected a fence along the boundaries of the disputed property; the fence remains in the same location where it was originally erected. The widow died in October 2012.

The heirs filed a complaint against the Board on July 15, 2014, seeking to quiet title to the disputed property; they also sought injunctive relief and a judgment declaring that they own the disputed property in fee simple and that the Board has no interest in the property. The heirs also asserted claims of ejectment and trespass against the Board. The Board filed an answer, which included a number of affirmative defenses, and it counterclaimed against the heirs. The Board contended, among other things, that it owned the disputed property by virtue of statutory adverse possession and/or adverse possession by prescription, and it sought to quiet title to the disputed property and a judgment declaring that the Board owns the disputed property. The heirs filed a reply to the Board’s counterclaim and later amended their complaint, asserting additional claims of inverse condemnation and unjust enrichment against the Board. The heirs and the Board filed competing summary-judgment motions, and, on October 2, 2015, the trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of the Board on the heirs’ claims; quieted title to the disputed property “in the exclusive fee simple ownership of the Board”; enjoined the heirs from obstructing and/or interfering with the Board’s quiet enjoyment and property rights in the disputed property; and dismissed without prejudice the remainder of the Board’s claims against the heirs. The heirs timely appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court; that court transferred the appeal to this court, pursuant to Ala. Code 1975, § 12-2-7(6).

Standard of Review

[1-4] “Our standard of review is straightforward when, as here, the facts are undisputed:

“‘An order granting or denying a summary judgment is reviewed de novo, applying the same standard as the trial [910]*910court applied. American Gen. Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Underwood, 886 So.2d 807, 811 (Ala.2004). In addition, “[t]his court reviews de novo a trial court’s interpretation of a statute, because only a question of law is presented.” Scott Bridge Co. v. Wright, 883 So.2d 1221, 1223 (Ala.2003). Where, as here, the facts of a case are essentially undisputed, this Court must determine whether the trial court misapplied the law to the undisputed facts, applying a de novo standard of review. Carter v. City of Haleyville, 669 So.2d 812, 816 (Ala.1995). Here, in reviewing the [entry] of a summary judgment when the facts are undisputed, we review de novo the trial court’s interpretation of statutory language and our previous caselaw on a controlling question of law.’ ”

McKinney v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 33 So.3d 1203, 1206-07 (Ala.2009) (quoting Continental Nat’l Indem. Co. v. Fields, 926 So.2d 1033, 1034-35 (Ala.2005)).

Discussion

The trial court issued a 37-page judgment in this case, in which it determined, among other things, that the Board had acquired title to the disputed property by statutory adverse possession and/or adverse possession by prescription; that the rights of dower, quarantine, and homestead with regard to the widow’s purported interest in the disputed property were inapplicable; and that the heirs had failed to prove the elements of their claims of inverse condemnation and unjust enrichment. The heirs dispute each of those findings on appeal.

The heirs first argue that the Board, as a governmental entity, could not have acquired the disputed property by adverse possession after having secured a deed from the widow.

“Alabama recognizes two types of adverse possession: (1) statutory adverse possession pursuant to § 6-5-200, Ala. Code 1975, and (2) adverse possession by prescription. Sparks v. Byrd, 562 So.2d 211 (Ala.1990). Specifically,
“ ‘ “[a]dverse possession by prescription requires actual, exclusive, open, notorious and hostile possession under a claim of right for a period of twenty years. See, Fitts v. Alexander, 277 Ala. 372, 170 So.2d 808 (1965). Statutory adverse possession requires the same elements, but the statute provides further that if the adverse possessor holds under color of title, has paid taxes for ten years, or derives his title by descent cast or devise from a possessor, he may acquire title in ten years, as opposed to the twenty years required for adverse possession by prescription. [Ala.] Code 1975, § 6-5-200. See, Long v. Ladd, 273 Ala. 410, 142 So.2d 660 (1962).” ’
“562 So.2d at 214 (quoting Kerlin v. Tensaw Land & Timber Co., 390 So.2d 616, 618 (Ala.1980) (emphasis omitted)).”

Henderson v. Dunn, 871 So.2d 807, 810 (Ala.Civ.App.2001).

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Bluebook (online)
217 So. 3d 906, 2016 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tate-v-water-works-sewer-board-of-oxford-alacivapp-2016.