Threlkeld v. Sisk

992 So. 2d 1232, 2008 WL 4308228
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedSeptember 23, 2008
Docket2007-CA-00944-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 992 So. 2d 1232 (Threlkeld v. Sisk) 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
Threlkeld v. Sisk, 992 So. 2d 1232, 2008 WL 4308228 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

992 So.2d 1232 (2008)

William Marian THRELKELD, Randy Kem Whitten, Iva Nell Whitten, Edward L. Maynard, Mary Ruth Whitten and Sandra K. Farley, Appellants,
v.
Mitchell L. SISK, Grace Sisk, James Bruce Sisk, Sr. and Phyllis Sisk Goggans, Appellees.

No. 2007-CA-00944-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

September 23, 2008.

*1235 B. Sean Akins, Ripley, attorney for appellants.

Thomas Melvin McElroy, Tupelo, attorney for appellees.

Before LEE, P.J., CHANDLER and GRIFFIS, JJ.

CHANDLER, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. A chancellor granted Mitchell L. Sisk, Grace Sisk, and James Bruce Sisk, Sr., (collectively, the Sisks) a prescriptive easement across a private, gravel road to access their landlocked farmland in the Chiwapa Creek bottom, located in Lee County, Mississippi. The chancellor also found that Mitchell and Grace had an easement by necessity across the gravel road. William Marian Threlkeld, Randy Kem Whitten, Edward L. Maynard, Mary Ruth Whitten, and Sandra Kay Farley (collectively, the Whittens), the owners of the gravel road, appeal from the chancellor's decision.

¶ 2. We find that the chancellor's findings of fact were not manifestly erroneous and that the chancellor properly applied the controlling law to the facts. Therefore, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3. The gravel road at issue runs south from Lee County Road 530. The property of Randy Kem Whitten (Kem) is located on the east side of the gravel road; on the west side, extending south from Lee County Road 530, are the respective properties of Threlkeld, Farley, and Maynard. Abutting the Whitten and Maynard properties to the south is a 120-acre parcel of land which is traversed by the gravel road. A split in the gravel road occurs on the 120-acre parcel. At the split, one portion of the gravel road continues south to a fifty-seven-acre parcel of farmland owned by James Bruce Sisk, Sr. (Bruce). The other portion of the gravel road travels west along a ridge to the farmland of Mitchell and Grace. The Sisks' farmland, bounded on the south by the Chiwapa Creek, does not abut a public road, and it is landlocked.

¶ 4. In 1998, the Sisks, along with Phyllis Sisk Goggans (Phyllis), commenced the instant litigation asserting their right to use the gravel road to access their landlocked farmland. They filed a fourth amended complaint in 2004, claiming that they had an easement by prescription and that Mitchell and Grace had an easement by necessity across the gravel road. The Sisks also claimed that the gravel road was public; however, they abandoned this claim at the hearing. In their answer, the Whittens claimed that the Sisks were trespassers. They requested damages and a permanent injunction restricting the Sisks from using the gravel road.

¶ 5. At the hearing in March 2007, it was established that the gravel road, the Whittens' property, the 120-acre parcel, and the farmland owned by Mitchell and Grace were once parts of a single tract purchased by F.G. Thomas from the Bank of Holly Springs in 1936. In 1941, Thomas conveyed forty acres west of the gravel road to R.M. Priest. At the same time, Thomas also conveyed nine acres east of the gravel road to Donald Priest (Donald). After these conveyances, Thomas retained title to the 120-acre parcel and to the gravel road.

¶ 6. Following the death of R.M. Priest, his widow, Willie Priest, became the owner *1236 of the forty-acre tract as well as a twenty-seven-acre tract west of the 120-acre parcel. In 1965, Mitchell and his brother, Frank, bought the twenty-seven-acre tract and also an adjacent ten-acre tract from Willie Priest. Donald Priest handled the sale. Mitchell testified that at the time of the sale, Donald told him that the gravel road was a public road and that no one could prevent Mitchell and Frank from using it. However, Mitchell testified that he never believed the gravel road was public, but he thought that Thomas owned it.

¶ 7. In 1968, J.H. Washburn and others obtained title to land originally owned by Thomas, including the 120-acre parcel. Washburn testified that he did not believe he had obtained title to the gravel road, and he assumed the gravel road was a county road. In 1970, Mitchell and Frank bought two parcels of farmland from Washburn and others. This purchase included an easement across the 120-acre parcel to the two parcels of farmland.

¶ 8. Mitchell and Frank used their four parcels for farming beans.[1] Phyllis's husband, Otis David Goggans (David), also farmed with them, beginning in the early nineteen-seventies. Mitchell and his son, Paul, testified that beginning in 1965, Mitchell and Frank used the gravel road to transport farm equipment to their farmland. Paul testified that he began driving farm equipment down the gravel road in the late sixties. Paul testified that from that time until the time of the hearing, Mitchell, Frank, and Paul moved the following farm equipment down the gravel road:

1973 half-ton Chevrolet pickup truck
1967 half-ton Chevrolet pickup truck
1983 half-ton Chevrolet pickup truck
1966 Chevrolet C-60 bean truck
1977 GMC 6000 bean truck
1976 Chevrolet C-60 bean truck
1985 Ford F-250 truck with spray rig: twelve feet wide, folded
Eight-foot-wide trailer
John Deere 8630 tractor: twelve feet wide
John Deere 4630 tractor: twelve feet, six inches wide
International 1466 tractor: twelve feet, six inches wide
International 1486 tractor: twelve feet, six inches wide
930 Case tractor
John Deere 7700 combine: eleven feet, six inches wide
John Deere 1010 field cultivator: sixteen feet wide, folded
White Model 272 disk: eighteen feet wide, folded
Case disk: fifteen feet wide, folded
Thirty-foot Great Plain drill: fifteen feet, six inches wide, folded
John Deere 7100 planter: twenty-one feet wide
Twenty-foot-wide chisel plow

¶ 9. According to the testimony, Mitchell and Paul used the gravel road exclusively for access to their farmland until 1983 when Phyllis and David acquired an eighteen-acre parcel lying west of the gravel road between Lee County Road 530 and the Sisks' farmland (the Gogganses' property). The Sisks, along with David, began *1237 farming the Gogganses' property as well as their own. After approximately 1983, the Sisks routinely brought farm equipment from Lee County Road 530 south through the Gogganses' property to their farmland and then exited their farmland by traveling north up the gravel road. However, three or four years before the hearing, David planted pine trees on the Gogganses' property, which denied the Sisks access to their farmland except by the gravel road.

¶ 10. Mitchell's nephew, Bruce, testified that in 1981 he inherited his fifty-seven-acre parcel of farmland from his father, Allen. This property, located south of the 120-acre parcel and adjacent to the farmland of Mitchell and Paul, was not a part of the original Thomas tract. Bruce testified that Allen acquired the property in 1959, kept cattle on part of it, and rented the other part out as farmland. Bruce testified that Allen used the gravel road to feed the cattle and check on the property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
992 So. 2d 1232, 2008 WL 4308228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/threlkeld-v-sisk-missctapp-2008.