Wells v. Rouleau

2008 VT 57, 955 A.2d 518, 184 Vt. 536, 2008 Vt. LEXIS 59
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedMay 1, 2008
DocketNo. 06-498
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2008 VT 57 (Wells v. Rouleau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wells v. Rouleau, 2008 VT 57, 955 A.2d 518, 184 Vt. 536, 2008 Vt. LEXIS 59 (Vt. 2008).

Opinion

¶ 1. Defendant Marlynn Rouleau appeals the superior court’s order concluding that three neighbors, the Wellses, the Aimis, and Joanne Davis (neighbors), established a prescriptive easement across her property. Rouleau argues that the trial court erroneously: (1) relied on incomplete, unsupported, and contradictory findings; (2) admitted unauthenticated hearsay; (3) found two prescriptive time periods; (4) declined to conclude that one neighbor’s joint ownership of all three properties resulted in merger and dissolved any acquired easement; (5) concluded that, when the Davises acquired their land, this additional easement did not additionally burden Rouleau’s land; (6) granted neighbors an unlimited easement, even though their prescriptive use was seasonal; and (7) issued a judgment order that contradicts the findings and conclusions. We affirm.

[537]*537¶2. The following facts are uncontroverted. The parties own four separate parcels of land in Cabot, bordered on the east by Joe’s Pond and on the west by West Shore Road. There is a private horseshoe-shaped driveway that runs east from West Shore Road onto Rouleau’s land. The driveway then passes across all of neighbors’ properties, proceeding south and then west to join West Shore Road again. Rouleau contends that neighbors have no legal right to drive across the northern portion of the driveway that runs across her land. Neighbors claim that they have acquired an unlimited easement across the northern part of the driveway through prescription.

¶ 3. Each party’s chain of title begins with a single person, Bartlett, who in 1946 owned the parcels currently possessed by Rouleau and neighbors. In 1947, Bartlett deeded parcels to neighbors’ predecessors-in-interest. None of the deeds contained a right-of-way across the northern part of the driveway, although Bartlett reserved an easement for himself across the portion of the driveway crossing neighbors’ land. Rouleau’s predecessors-in-interest obtained title from Bartlett in 1953.

¶ 4. The court found the following concerning neighbors’ historic use of the driveway. By 1956, the horseshoe drive now in place was complete, and all parties or their predeeessors-in-interest began to use it. For example, one current neighbor, Charles Aimi, began using the entire driveway after his father bought his property in 1956, and has used it continuously ever since. Charles Aimi also has performed maintenance on the driveway. Many of the Aimis’ Mends have used the entire driveway.

¶ 5. In the summer of 1975 and again in September 1976, Rouleau’s immediate predeeessor-in-interest put a chain across the horseshoe drive for a couple of days. Neighbors’ predecessors-in-interest were upset, and in November 1976, they — Felice Aimi and Wendell Emslie — filed a lawsuit seeking to establish by prescription a right-of-way across the northern part of the driveway.

¶ 6. While the lawsuit was still ongoing, in 1977, Rouleau and her husband purchased the property Felice Aimi had since purchased the Emslie property and thus owned all three parcels now owned by neighbors. Around the time the Rouleaus purchased the property, Felice Aimi asked if they would sign a document acknowledging his legal right to use the northern part of the driveway. The Rouleaus refused to sign. Although Rouleau testified at trial that she granted Felice Aimi oral permission to use the driveway, the court did not find this testimony credible. In June 1978, Felice Aimi agreed to the dismissal of the lawsuit without prejudice. All subsequent deeds transferring neighbors’ parcels contained a clause granting a right to use the entire horseshoe driveway.

¶ 7. Neighbors continued to use the full driveway, without permission and without protest, until 2004, when Rouleau decided to build a new camp on her property. Because the proposed new building would block the driveway, Rouleau informed neighbors that they no longer had permission to use the driveway. To protect their interest in the driveway, neighbors filed suit in November 2004. The court held a three-day bench trial. From the bench, the court issued oral findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court concluded that neighbors had established a prescriptive easement across the northern part of the driveway The court also found that neighbors’ predeeessors-in-interest openly and notoriously used the driveway beginning in 1956 and did so continuously for twenty years. The court held that this use was adverse, because they had neither asked for nor received permission. Thus, the court held that, by 1976, the owners of all three parcels had perfected a prescriptive claim to use the [538]*538driveway. The court held that the right was not limited to certain times of the year, even though the use was primarily seasonal. In addition, the court concluded that a second period of prescriptive use elapsed between 1978 and before Rouleau blocked the driveway in 2004 in which all neighbors made full use of the driveway without permission from Rouleau. Rouleau appealed.

¶ 8. To successfully claim an easement through prescription, there must be open, notorious, continuous and hostile use of a right-of-way for fifteen years. Guibord v. Scholtz, 2006 VT 22, ¶ 5, 179 Vt. 623, 895 A.2d 202 (mem.); see 12 V.S.A. § 501 (establishing statutory time period of fifteen years). “The general rule is that open and notorious use will be presumed to be adverse and under claim of right, unless there is found an exception which rebuts that presumption, such as evidence of permission of the owner of the land to use the right-of-way.” Buttolph v. Erikkson, 160 Vt. 618, 618, 648 A.2d 824, 825 (1993) (mem.). On appeal, Rouleau essentially argues that neighbors failed to establish that their use of the driveway was hostile, because neighbors had permission to use the driveway during all relevant periods.

¶ 9. Rouleau first contends that several of the court’s findings are without evidentiary support. Specifically, Rouleau argues that the court erroneously found that: (1) Rouleau and her husband received a title opinion, giving them notice of the ongoing lawsuit prior to purchasing the property; (2) neighbors or their predeeessors-in-interest spoke with the Rouleaus several times between 1976 and 1978 about signing a deeded right-of-way but that Rouleau did not grant them permission to use the driveway; (3) Rouleau’s testimony that she gave neighbor Aimi and neighbor Davis verbal permission to use the driveway in 1978 and 1979, respectively, was not credible; and (4) the 1978 dismissal of the lawsuit did not create an inference as to whether the right was permissive.

¶ 10. Fundamentally, Rouleau asks us to reweigh the evidence on appeal, and we decline to do so. We review the trial court’s findings for clear error and will affirm unless “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, there is no credible evidence to support the findings.” Guibord, 2006 VT 22, ¶ 4 (citation omitted).

¶ 11. The court found that Rouleau and her husband had notice of the claim of an easement by prescription when they purchased the property. This finding is based in part on evidence that, in the approximately six weeks between the time Rouleau started occupying her property (by special permission of the previous owner) and the date on which title passed, the other summer residents used the northern part of the driveway.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2008 VT 57, 955 A.2d 518, 184 Vt. 536, 2008 Vt. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-v-rouleau-vt-2008.