Williams v. Double S Ranch, LLC

2016 Ark. App. 609, 509 S.W.3d 680, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 642
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 14, 2016
DocketCV-15-1019
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2016 Ark. App. 609 (Williams v. Double S Ranch, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Double S Ranch, LLC, 2016 Ark. App. 609, 509 S.W.3d 680, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 642 (Ark. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

RITA W. GRUBER, Judge

hThe parties in this case are adjoining property owners of unenclosed, unimproved land in Bradley County who share a common boundary line. The dispute between them involves a road that runs east and west along the entire length of that boundary line on the northern boundary of appellee’s land and just south of the southern boundary of appellants’ property. Appellants, Helen Williams, Barbara Primm, and Allen Primm, appeal from an order of the Bradley County Circuit Court denying their claims of prescriptive easement, adverse possession, and boundary by acquiescence. On appeal, appellants argue that the circuit court’s findings are clearly erroneous. We affirm the circuit court’s order.

Appellee, Double S Ranch, LLC, is owned by Stan and Linda Sweeney. The Sweeneys purchased their property — described as the Northwest Quarter of Section 27, Township 16 South, Range 12 West — in 1998 and settled record title of the property in appellee in 2000. Helen Williams and her (now deceased) husband, Earnest, acquired a partial interest in what | gis now her tract in 1954 and full ownership in 1978. Ms. Williams’s tract is described as the Southeast Quarter of Section 22, Township 16 South, Range 12 West. Ms. Williams is Linda Sweeney’s aunt; Barbara Primm is Ms. Williams’s daughter and Linda Sweeney’s first cousin; and Allen and Barbara are married. Surveys introduced by both parties indicate that the road in dispute is located entirely on appellee’s property.

In 2009 or 2010, Mr. Sweeney erected a gate across the road. Several years later, Ms. Primm called Mr. Sweeney to express her disapproval of the gate, and they arranged a meeting to discuss the issue. In July 2012, Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Primm met at the site of the gate in an attempt to work out their differences but were unable to come to an agreement. A year later, in July or August of 2013, the Primms removed the gate and placed it on the side of the road approximately 1/4 mile east of its previous location, prompting appellee to initiate this lawsuit.

On August 29, 2013, appellee filed a complaint against appellants, alleging that the road was located entirely within the boundaries of its property, that appellants had removed a gate appellee had installed on the road, and that appellants may claim some interest in property owned by appel-lee. Appellee asked the court to quiet title in it to its legally described property, including the road, and to enjoin appellants from entering its property other than for access to Ms. Williams’s property near the sign indicating the end of public road maintenance.

Appellants responded, claiming that Ms. Williams had acquired a prescriptive easement over the road for ingress and egress to her property; that she had adversely possessed property |3north of a wire fence that runs parallel to the road; and that a boundary by acquiescence existed on ap-pellee’s property. Appellants then filed an amended counterclaim, clarifying that they had established a prescriptive easement in the road and claiming that the public had also established a public easement in the road due to county maintenance of the road and public passage over the road for more than fifty years.

• On August 25, 2015, after a hearing, the court entered an order quieting title to all lands located in the Northwest Quarter of Section 27, Township 16 South, Range 12 West in appellee, subject to the public’s right to use a certain portion of the road ending at a sign erected by Bradley County marking the end of public maintenance. The court permanently enjoined appellants from entering appellee’s land except for the portion of the road maintained by Bradley County. Finally, the court specifically found that the boundary line between the parties was as set forth on both surveys. Appellants filed this appeal.

We review quiet-title and boundary-line actions de novo, but we will not reverse findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Lafferty v. Everett, 2014 Ark. App. 332, at 3, 436 S.W.3d 479, 481. In reviewing a trial court’s findings of fact, the appellate courts give due deference to the trial court’s superior position to determine witness credibility and the weight to be accorded their testimony. Steele v. Blankenship, 2010 Ark. App. 86, at 10, 377 S.W.3d 293, 298.

I. Prescriptive Easement

We turn first to appellants’ argument regarding a prescriptive easement. They contend that the circuit court clearly erred in refusing to, find either a public or private easement. In | ¿Arkansas, one asserting an easement by prescription must show by a preponderance of the evidence that one’s use has been adverse to the true owner and under a claim of right for the statutory period — that is, seven years. Owners Ass’n of Foxcroft Woods, Inc. v. Foxglen Assocs., 346 Ark. 354, 363, 57 S.W.3d 187, 193 (2001).

In support of their argument, appellants point to the following evidence. Ms. Williams testified that she was born in 1921; lived on property that abutted the subject road, to the east of her present parcel; and rode -in wagons over the road coming and going to and from her homestead. Ms. Williams also testified that she had farmed and pastured the forty acres that she and her husband acquired in 1954, had traveled the road “maybe” two or three times a year, and had never asked for permission to do so.

Her daughter, Ms. Primm, testified that she was born in 1949 and remembered traveling the road with her parents to the lakes at the end of the road. She said no one had ever stopped them and they had never asked for permission. She also testified that she remembered loggers and drilling rigs using the road when she was young. She testified that she considered the road a public road and that she wanted to use the road to have free access to her mother’s property.

Two other witnesses testified for appellants: Kent Measel and Johnny Water-field. Mr. Measel testified that he was 62 years old and had traveled the road “probably 15 times” in the “ ’80s and ’90s” to fish in the lakes at the end of the road. He said he had also seen others there. He said that no one had ever tried to stop him and that he had never sought permission to be there. Mr. Waterfield testified that he also was 62 years old and had used the road “101 Bor 12 times” when he was a kid with friends to “shoot turtles and snakes and that kind of stuff.” He said no one had told them that they needed permission and he had also seen other people traveling the road.

In contrast, in denying appellants’ claim to either a public or private prescriptive easement, the circuit court credited the following testimony. Lavern Rice testified that he had been the Bradley County Road Supervisor for 18 years, from 1977 through 1994, and the Bradley County Judge for 12 years thereafter. He said that during his 30-year history with the subject road, Bradley County had never maintained the road, except for the small portion that ended where the sign was placed, which states “End of County Maintenance.” That sign is generally located at the northwest corner of appellee’s property and the southwest corner of Ms. Williams’s property. Keith Neeley, the county judge who replaced Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rodriguez v. Lopez
540 S.W.3d 761 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2016 Ark. App. 609, 509 S.W.3d 680, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-double-s-ranch-llc-arkctapp-2016.