vif/valentine Farms Building One, LLC v. J. B. Wright

798 S.E.2d 376, 341 Ga. App. 17, 2017 WL 1025299, 2017 Ga. App. LEXIS 145
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 16, 2017
DocketA16A1692
StatusPublished

This text of 798 S.E.2d 376 (vif/valentine Farms Building One, LLC v. J. B. Wright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
vif/valentine Farms Building One, LLC v. J. B. Wright, 798 S.E.2d 376, 341 Ga. App. 17, 2017 WL 1025299, 2017 Ga. App. LEXIS 145 (Ga. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinions

McMILLIAN, Judge.

This case arises out of a boundary dispute involving a 60.85-acre tract of land (the “Tract”) with alleged boundaries once marked by hog [18]*18wire fencing. This is the third appearance of this case in this Court, and the facts underlying the dispute are fully summarized in this Court’s opinion in the first appeal. Wright v. VIF/Valentine Farms Bldg. One, LLC, 308 Ga. App. 436, 436-37 (1) (708 SE2d 41) (2011) (“ Wright I”).1 We give a brief background here to identify the parties and the issues on appeal.

Prior to 1992, Dr. Herbert E. Valentine, Jr., and the family of J. B. Wright owned large contiguous tracts of rural property in Jackson County. Wright I, 308 Ga. App. at 436 (1). This litigation arises out of a dispute regarding the proper boundary between these two properties, which we described in Wright I:

In dispute is the position of the boundary running from [a] beech tree stump to an agreed southern endpoint. The appellees contend the boundary continues on a precisely straight line for 717.10 feet from the beech tree stump to the southern endpoint, and that, as late as the 1990s, a hog wire fence existed along this line. Wright alleges that errors in the Valentine chain of title and associated surveys fail to reflect that beginning at the beech tree stump, the property line runs along or parallel to a different hog wire fence built by his father in the 1950s that curved to the west, carving out a 0.86-acre, crescent-shaped area ending at the southern endpoint [the “Disputed Property”], and that this fence existed until the defendants destroyed it, which precipitated this litigation.

Id.

In 1992, Valentine sold all of his property to Possum Creek Properties, L.P (“PCP”), a Valentine family-controlled limited partnership. Wright I, 308 Ga. App. at 437 (1). PCP decided to use this property to create an industrial park, and to that end, it entered into an agreement to sell a portion of the land, i.e., the Tract, which encompasses the Disputed Property,2 to Grove Street Partners, LLC (“GSP”). GSP later assigned its interest in the sales agreement to [19]*19Valentine Farms Land, LLC (“VFL”), and PCP conveyed the Tract to VFL in 2005. Id. VFL, in turn, conveyed its interest in the Tract to VIF/Valentine Farms Building One, Inc. (“VIF”). Id.3

In October 2007, after development of the Tract began and a warehouse was constructed on the property, Wright filed the complaint4 in this case against the Valentine Interests and WDI, alleging, inter alia, that the warehouse encroached on his property Wright I, 308 Ga.App. at 438 (1). After the suitwas filed, on December 28, 2007, VIF transferred its interest in the Tract to First Industrial Investment, Inc. (“FI, Inc.”), and Wright subsequently added FI, Inc. as a defendant in the lawsuit. Id.

In Wright I, Wright appealed the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to the Valentine Interests. The trial court found that because the Valentine Interests had relinquished title and control of the Tract, they could not be liable for any trespass on Wright’s land by their successors in title. 308 Ga. App. at 438 (1). This Court reversed the grant of summary judgment, however, finding that because there was some evidence that the Valentine Interests had sold land they did not own, a jury issue existed as to whether they could be liable in trespass. Id. at 441 (1).

Wright also contended that the trial court erred in issuing two orders imposing sanctions on him for spoliation of evidence. The record showed that Wright had admitted performing work on the Disputed Property, including digging in the area with a backhoe and removing some hog wire fencing into a nearby debris pile, in contravention of an order of the trial court, even though he knew that the hog wire fence and natural features and contours of the property were important evidence in the boundary line dispute. Wright I, 308 Ga. App. at 442 (2) (a). This Court affirmed the trial court’s finding of spoliation, concluding that it was supported by some evidence and thus was not clearly erroneous. Id. at 443 (2) (a).

As sanctions for this spoliation, the trial court dismissed Wright’s claims, including a claim for ejectment, against FI, Inc. Wright I, 308 Ga. App. at 443 (2) (b). The trial court also ordered that “the jury be [20]*20instructed as to a rebuttable presumption that the existence of the underbrush, vegetation and hog wire fence would have been harmful to Wright in connection with the Warehouse Development Interests’ defenses.” Id. This Court upheld the trial court’s imposition of these sanctions, finding that the trial court “properly considered the relevant requirements for applying sanctions and weighed the prejudice to the defendants against Wright’s culpability” Id. at 444 (2) (b).

In this appeal, the Valentine Interests and WDI appeal the trial court’s denial of their joint motion to limit Wright’s claims for damages. Defendants assert that the dismissal of Wright’s claims against FI, Inc. should also limit his claims for damages against them, asserting that (1) Wright’s damages for trespass5 should be limited to the date the trial court dismissed his ejectment claim against FI, Inc.; (2) Wright should be precluded from recovering the cost of restoring trees on the Disputed Property “post-ejectment”; and (3) he should also be precluded from recovering mesne profits, or in the alternative, that the recovery of such profits should be capped as of the date his ejectment claim against FI, Inc. was dismissed. The trial court construed this portion of the Defendant’s Joint Motion as a motion for partial summary judgment6 and denied the motion on those grounds without explanation.

Our standard of review of the denial of summary judgment is well established.

Summary judgments enjoy no presumption of correctness on appeal, and an appellate court must satisfy itself de novo that the requirements of OCGA § 9-11-56 (c) have been met. In our de novo review of the grant [or denial] of a motion for summary judgment, we must view the evidence, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Cowart v. Widener, 287 Ga. 622, 624 (1) (a) (697 SE2d 779) (2010).

[21]*21Defendants describe the gist of their motion to limit Wright’s damages as asserting that

the Spoliation Order judicially established the boundary line between the properties by denying [Wright’s] right to challenge it as to the party that he identified in [this case] as the Disputed [Property] ’s current owner, and because that is true, no trespass could have possibly occurred after the claim to eject that defendant was dismissed.

The trial court entered the Spoliation Order, dismissing “all counts and claims for relief” against FI, Inc. based on Wright’s willful spoliation of evidence on March 27, 2009, and on May 14, 2009, it entered a final order and judgment dismissing all claims against FI, Inc. with prejudice. This Court later affirmed those orders in Wright I, 308 Ga. App. at 444 (2) (b).

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Brantley v. Sparks
305 S.E.2d 337 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Cowart v. Widener
697 S.E.2d 779 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2010)
Wright v. VIF/Valentine Farms Building One, LLC
708 S.E.2d 41 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2011)
Mathews v. Cloud, Exr.
754 S.E.2d 70 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2014)
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721 S.E.2d 847 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2012)
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Bluebook (online)
798 S.E.2d 376, 341 Ga. App. 17, 2017 WL 1025299, 2017 Ga. App. LEXIS 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vifvalentine-farms-building-one-llc-v-j-b-wright-gactapp-2017.