Warehousing Management, LLC v. Haywood Properties, LP

978 So. 2d 684, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 192, 2008 WL 852617
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 1, 2008
DocketNo. 2007-CA-00438-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 978 So. 2d 684 (Warehousing Management, LLC v. Haywood Properties, 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
Warehousing Management, LLC v. Haywood Properties, LP, 978 So. 2d 684, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 192, 2008 WL 852617 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

CHANDLER, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. The Chancery Court of Rankin County entered a judgment finding R. Charles Haywood to be the owner by adverse possession of a twenty-eight-foot parcel of disputed property located on the border of his property and that of R.W. Castens. Aggrieved, Castens appeals and argues that the chancery court erred in finding that Haywood proved his claim of adverse possession by clear and convincing evidence.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. This case stems from a dispute over a twenty-eight-foot parcel of land located in Pearl, Mississippi. Haywood was the owner of Haywood Properties, LP and Haywood Trucking, Inc., which were located on his property. Castens was the owner of Warehousing Management, LLC, which was located on his property to the south.

¶ 4. Haywood owned two acres of real property in Pearl, Mississippi, which was adjacent to Castens’s property to the south. The properties of Haywood and Castens shared a property fine that ran [686]*686east and west. The property line formed the southern border of Haywood’s property, and it formed the northern border of Castens’s property.

¶ 5. Haywood acquired his two acres in 1971. Castens acquired his property in 1998, via a warranty deed from Kenneth Bush and Jay Bush. The Bushes had previously acquired the property in 1986, via a warranty deed from Erbie Moore and Ger-tie Blackmon.1 The Moores acquired the property in 1970.

¶ 6. This dispute arose in 2008 when Castens hired Charles Craft to survey the property to determine the boundary lines. Castens originally became suspicious that the boundary lines were incorrect in 2000. According to Craft’s survey, Castens’s boundary line was actually twenty-eight feet north of the line that Castens and Haywood had treated as the boundary. Until that time, Haywood had treated a utility pole as the southwest corner of his property, but the survey showed the pole was actually twenty-eight feet into Cas-tens’s property. In addition, Craft’s survey showed that Castens’s building obstructed the property of his southerly neighbors. Those neighbors, Mary Nell and Bill Barnett, agreed to convey approximately thirty feet of their property to Castens for no monetary consideration.

¶ 7. Haywood filed suit seeking to establish the boundary line at the utility pole. Upon agreement of the parties, the chancery court appointed a surveyor to determine the boundary line. T.E. McDonald conducted the survey for the court, and his findings matched those of Craft. Thereafter, Haywood filed an amended complaint, which sought the chancery court to declare him to be the owner of the disputed parcel by adverse possession.

¶ 8. Since acquiring his property in 1971, Haywood made a number of improvements. He filled the disputed area with sand and gravel and maintained it by grading the gravel. Haywood built a fence along the western border of the property, and he granted an easement over the disputed parcel to the City of Pearl. He installed lights along the boundary and kept the area lit at night. Haywood kept the area cleared and parked his company’s trucks and trailers there. He also paid the ad valorem taxes for the disputed property.

¶ 9. Castens’s predecessors-in-title testified at trial concerning the disputed property. First, Blackmon testified that she and Haywood treated everything north of the utility pole as Haywood’s property. She agreed that Haywood had “exclusive right” to the disputed portion, and she and her husband only used the property with Haywood’s permission.

¶ 10. Next, Kenny Bush testified that he treated the same utility pole as the boundary between his property and that of Haywood. He also thought that Haywood was the exclusive owner of the disputed property. Bush only used the disputed property when he needed to back trucks up to his loading docks, but he used the property with Haywood’s permission.

¶ 11. Neither Bush nor Blackmon ever had any arguments with Haywood over the property. There was not a dispute between Haywood and Castens either until Haywood’s wife prevented Castens from using the gate to get through the fence on the west side of the disputed property. Allegedly, Castens’s truck drivers had been operating their trucks in a manner [687]*687that damaged the disputed area. Haywood then alleged- that Castens pierced one of his trailers with a forklift and that Castens damaged Haywood’s trailers when he removed some of Haywood’s fence posts and placed them on the trailers.

¶ 12. In the chancellor’s opinion, he found that Haywood actually possessed the disputed parcel consecutively for thirty-two years, twenty-seven of those coming before Castens acquired ownership of the southerly property. The chancellor -found that Haywood’s control of the property was undisputedly obvious to his neighbors for all of those thirty-two years, and his acts in maintaining and improving the disputed parcel were reflective of one claiming possession of the property. The chancellor also concluded that Haywood’s use of the property was exclusive and that his ownership of the property was never challenged until 2003.

¶ 13. Accordingly, the chancellor adjudicated Haywood to be the owner of the disputed parcel. He ordered that the property line should run east to west along on the south side of the previously mentioned utility pole.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 14. This court applies a limited standard of review in regard to decisions of a chancellor. Nichols v. Funderburk, 883 So.2d 554, 556(¶ 7) (Miss.2004). We will not reverse a chancellor’s decision unless it was manifestly wrong, it was clearly erroneous, or the chancellor applied an incorrect legal standard. Id. If there is substantial evidence to support the chancellor’s finding, we must affirm. Id.

ANALYSIS OF ISSUES

¶ 15. Castens asserts only one issue: whether the chancellor erred in finding that Haywood proved his claim of adverse possession by clear and convincing evidence. However, with the exception of the peacefulness requirement, Castens argues the chancellor erred in finding each element of adverse possession in Haywood’s favor.

¶ 16. There are six elements a claimant must prove to establish a claim of adverse possession. Rice v. Pritchard, 611 So.2d 869, 871 (Miss.1992) (citing Thornhill v. Caroline Hunt Trust Estate, 594 So.2d 1150, 1152-1153 (Miss.1992)). Possession must be “(1) under claim of ownership; (2) actual or hostile; (3) open, notorious, and visible; (4) continuous and uninterrupted for a period of ten years; (5) exclusive; and (6) peaceful.” Id. The party alleging adverse possession must prove each of these elements by clear and convincing evidence. Id.

A. Open, notorious, and visible

¶ 17. A “landowner must have notice, actual or imputable, of an adverse claim to his property in order for it to ripen against him, and the mere possession of land is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement of open and notorious.” Scrivener v. Johnson, 861 So.2d 1057, 1059(¶ 6) (Miss.Ct.App.2003) (quoting People’s Realty & Dev. Corp. v. Sullivan, 336 So.2d 1304, 1305 (Miss.1976)). An adverse possessor “must unfurl his flag on the land, and keep it flying, so that the (actual) owner may see, and if he will, that an enemy has invaded his domains, and planted the standard of conquest.” Wicker v. Harvey,

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Bluebook (online)
978 So. 2d 684, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 192, 2008 WL 852617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warehousing-management-llc-v-haywood-properties-lp-missctapp-2008.