WRT Realty, Inc. v. Boston Investment Group II, L.L.C.

2012 OK CIV APP 82, 287 P.3d 397, 2012 WL 3966467, 2012 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 67
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 31, 2012
DocketNo. 109,479
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2012 OK CIV APP 82 (WRT Realty, Inc. v. Boston Investment Group II, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
WRT Realty, Inc. v. Boston Investment Group II, L.L.C., 2012 OK CIV APP 82, 287 P.3d 397, 2012 WL 3966467, 2012 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 67 (Okla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

JOHN F. FISCHER, Chief Judge.

T1 WRT Realty, Inc. filed suit to determine the ownership of property between land it owned and land owned by Boston Investment Group II, LLC. Both parties sought summary adjudication of the issue. The district court found that WRT was the owner of the Disputed Property. Boston appeals the district court's order granting WRT"s motion for summary judgment and denying Boston's cross-motion for summary judgment. The appeal has been assigned to the accelerated docket pursuant to Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.86(b), 12 0.98.2011, ch. 15, app. 1, and the matter stands submitted without appellate briefing. Because it cannot be determined on the basis of this summary judgment record whether WRT acquired title to the Disputed Property by adverse possession, the judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and this case is remanded for further proceedings as directed in this Opinion.

BACKGROUND

T2 This dispute involves ownership of a portion of Lot 1, Block 6 of the Original Town of Tulsa, Oklahoma.1 At the time the town site was platted, the property was covered by a sixty-foot roadway easement designated as North 4th Street and later as Davenport Street. Boston and WRT owned property abutting at the centerline of Davenport. The specific dispute concerns a twenty-foot strip of land on the south end of Boston's property north of this centerline. In 1902, Tulsa vacated a portion of Davenport including the Disputed Property. The City took this action so that a railroad could be established. A railroad easement was acquired over the Disputed Property and used until the late 1970's or early 1980's. At least as early as 1984, someone, presumably one of WRT's predecessors in interest, erected a fence approximately twenty feet north of the legal boundary between the WRT and Boston properties. WRT acquired its interest in the property in 1992. Boston acquired its interest in the abutting property in 2001. Both parties sold their interest to the same buyer in 2008. WRT claims it acquired the Disputed Property by adverse possession, and is therefore entitled to the proceeds from the sale of that property.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

13 Title 12 0.98.2011 § 2056 governs the procedure for summary judgment; a motion for summary judgment "should be rendered if the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law."

When a motion for summary judgment is properly made and supported, an opposing party may not rely merely on allegations or denials in its own pleading; rather, its response must, by affidavits or as otherwise provided in this rule, set out specific facts showing a genuine issue for trial. If the opposing party does not so respond, summary judgment should, if appropriate, be entered against that party.

Id. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Carmichael v. Beller, 1996 OK 48, ¶ 2, 914 P.2d 1051, 1053.

ANALYSIS

14 WRT's motion for summary judgment asserts title to the Disputed Property by adverse possession, or in the alternative, pursuant to the doctrine of border by aequi-escence. Boston's response and cross-motion for summary judgment argues that WRT could not have acquired title to the Disputed Property by adverse possession because, according to Boston, Davenport was City property until 2008 when the City's right to reopen Davenport was foreclosed. The parties' motions are predicated on a Joint Stipulation of Uncontested Facts covering many of the material facts in this dispute. There are also [400]*400facts derived from the uncontroverted statements and points of agreement in the parties' pleadings, motions and summary judgment briefs. Factual admissions in a brief may supplement the record. Tyler v. Shelter Mut. Ins. Co., 2008 OK 9, n. 9, 184 P.3d 496; State ex rel. Macy v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 1999 OK 53, n. 8, 986 P.2d 1130.

I. Undisputed Facts

T5 The Disputed Property consists of a twenty foot strip of land north of the legal boundary between WRT's property (Lot 1, Block 20) and Boston's property (Lot 1, Block 6). The boundary was originally the centerline of Davenport as identified in the 1902 plat of the Town of Tulsa. The parties stipulated that pursuant to legislation enacted by Congress in 1899, 80 Stat. 990, for the acquisition of railroad rights of way through Indian reservations, lands and allotments, the Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad (MK & O) filed a map showing a proposed route for its railroad through a portion of Davenport. The Secretary of the Interior approved this proposal on August 15, 1902. On August 18, 1902, the Town passed Ordinance no. 35 for the purpose of securing a railroad right of way, and vacating a portion of Davenport that included the portion between the WRT and Boston properties. It appears that the proposed railroad approved by the Secretary was operated by MK & O and its successors until the late 1970's or early 1980's. The parties agree that at some point prior to the acquisition of their interests in the Disputed Property any railroad easement covering Davenport had been abandoned.2

T6 WRT acquired property immediately south of the Disputed Property in 1992, and claims it began adversely possessing the Disputed Property at that time. Boston acquired its interest in 2001.3 Prior to 1984, a six-foot tall metal chain link fence was erected on the Disputed Property.4 The fence extended from the east boundary of Lot 1, Block 6, property to which Boston acquired legal title in 2001, to approximately the west end of Lot 2, Block 6.5 The fence was removed after the parties sold their interest in 2008, but was originally located twenty feet north of the centerline of Davenport and the south border of Lot 1, Block 6. During the time WRT owned its property, it added a gate and extended the fence from the east end of the original fence on Lot 1, Block 6, south across the Disputed Property; it graded, leveled and added gravel to the Disputed Property, removed shrubs along the fence line and otherwise continuously maintained the Disputed Property without objection from any owner of Lot 1, Block 6, including Boston. In 1992, WRT erected a wire barrier from approximately the middle of the original fence, the west boundary of Lot 1, Block 6, south across the Disputed Property and then improved the area to the west in 1999 and leased that portion of Davenport to a trucking company in 2000.

T7 In 2007, the City of Tulsa enacted Ordinance no. 21698 again vacating a portion of Davenport, including the Disputed Property. Both parties sold their interest in the property in January 2008 to the same buyer. And, as part of those transactions, the parties agreed to hold the proceeds of the sale associated with the Disputed Property in es[401]*401crow pending the resolution of this litigation.6 In February 2008, Boston filed suit to foreclose the right of the City to reopen Davenport across the Disputed Property, The district court granted that relief in a judgment entered in April 2008.

II. Boston's Contentions

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Bluebook (online)
2012 OK CIV APP 82, 287 P.3d 397, 2012 WL 3966467, 2012 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wrt-realty-inc-v-boston-investment-group-ii-llc-oklacivapp-2012.