Zeimens v. City of Torrington

2012 WY 97, 280 P.3d 1181, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 104, 2012 WL 2913797
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 18, 2012
DocketNo. S-11-0266
StatusPublished

This text of 2012 WY 97 (Zeimens v. City of Torrington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zeimens v. City of Torrington, 2012 WY 97, 280 P.3d 1181, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 104, 2012 WL 2913797 (Wyo. 2012).

Opinion

BURKE, Justice.

[T1] Appellants, George and Geraldine Zeimens, contend that the right-of-way for Sheep Creek Road is sixty-six feet wide. If they are correct, an electric power line built by the City of Torrington is located, in part, outside of the right-of-way and on the Zei-mens' property. Torrington and Goshen [1182]*1182County contend that the right-of-way is eighty feet wide, and that the electric power line is located entirely within the right-of-way. , Unable to resolve their differences, the Zeimens filed suit against the City and the County. After a bench trial, the district court ruled that the right-of-way is eighty feet wide, and entered judgment in favor of Torrington and the County. The Zeimens appealed that judgment. We will affirm.

ISSUES

[12] The Zeimens present these two issues:

1. Whether the board of county commissioners failed to make certain and definite the width ascribed to Goshen County Road 72.
2. Whether the width of the right-of-way for Goshen County Road 72 is limited to that width as actually laid out and opened to public travel, or sixty-six feet.

The City and the County disagree with this statement of the issues, and assert that the only issue on appeal is whether the district court correctly ruled that Sheep Creek Road is eighty feet wide, thereby precluding the Zeimens' claims for taking and trespass.

FACTS

[138] In 1908, the Board of Commissioners for Laramie County, Wyoming, began the process of establishing Sheep Creek Road as Laramie County Road 32, running generally east from Torrington to the Nebraska border. The County Surveyor was instructed to survey and plat the road. The plat he prepared and filed with the Laramie County Clerk designates the center line of Sheep Creek Road, but fails to indicate its width. In 1911, Goshen County was established from a portion of Laramie County. 1911 Wyo. Sess. Laws Ch. 10. The new Goshen County included Sheep Creek Road, which became Goshen County Road 72.

[T4] The Zeimens own and live on property north of, and adjacent to, Sheep Creek Road. In 2008, the City of Torrington received permission from Goshen County to build an electric power line in the right-of-way of Sheep Creek Road. One wooden utility pole and one steel utility pole were erected on the Zeimens' property. The parties agree that these poles extend beyond the right-of-way if it is only sixty-six feet wide, as the Zeimens contend, but are within the right-of-way if it is eighty feet wide, as the City and County contend. The Zeimens sued the City and the County, seeking damages resulting from trespass and taking of their property. After a bench trial, the district court ruled that the Sheep Creek Road right-of-way is eighty feet wide, and entered judgment against the Zeimens. They have appealed that ruling.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[15] We review a district court's decision after a bench trial using this standard of review:

The factual findings of a judge are not entitled to the limited review afforded a jury verdict. While the findings are presumptively correct, the appellate court may examine all of the properly admissible evidence in the record. Due regard is given to the opportunity of the trial judge to assess the credibility of the witnesses, and our review does not entail weighing disputed evidence. Findings of fact will not be set aside unless the findings are clearly erroneous. A finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. We review a district court's conclusions of law de novo on appeal.

Springer v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield, 944 P.2d 1173, 1175-76 (Wyo.1997) (internal citations omitted).

DISCUSSION

[16] The district court relied on this guidance for interpreting or construing an easement:

When construing an easement, we seek to determine the intent of the parties to the easement ... and begin by attempting to glean the meaning of the easement from its language. R.C.R., Inc. v. Rainbow Canyon, Inc., 978 P.2d 581, 586 (Wyo. [1183]*11831999); see also Restatement (Third) Property (Servitudes) § 4.1 (2000). If the language of the easement is clear and unambiguous, we interpret the easement as a matter of law, without resorting to the use of extrinsic evidence to determine the parties' intent. RCR, 978 P.2d at 586. If, however, the language is ambiguous, then the court looks to extrinsic evidence to ascertain the parties' intent. Hasvold [v. Park County School District No. 6, 2002 WY 65, ¶ 13, 45 P.3d 635, 638 (Wyo.2002) ]; R.C.R., Inc., 978 P.2d at 586; Edgcomb v. Lower Valley Power & Light, Inc., 922 P.2d 850, 855 (Wyo.1996).

Lozier v. Blattland Investments, LLC, 2004 WY 132, 19, 100 P.3d 380, 383 (Wyo.2004) (quotation marks omitted). With even more specific reference to plats, we have explained that "we interpret the language used in a plat in accordance with contract interpretation principles.... As with all contracts, our goal in interpreting covenants and plats is to determine and effectuate the intentions of the parties, especially the grantor." Brumbough v. Mikelson Land Co., 2008 WY 66, ¶ 13, 185 P.3d 695, 701 (Wyo.2008).

[17] The plat of Sheep Creek Road on file in the office of the Laramie County Clerk does not specify the width of the road. This led the district court to determine that "the plat map is clear and unambiguous, with one exception: the width of Sheep Creek Road." The court admitted extrinsic evidence to assist in resolving the ambiguity and determining the intended width of the road.

[18] The district court considered the original field notes of the County Surveyor who surveyed and platted Sheep Creek Road, which are preserved in the Laramie County Road Field Book. These, too, fail to specify the width of the road. However, Laramie County's archived records also included a handwritten transcription of these field notes, signed and dated one day after the original. The transcribed notes are nearly identical to the original field notes, with the significant exception that the transcription includes the information that Sheep Creek Road is "80 feet wide." In addition, Laramie County's Road Index records the various actions taken by the county commissioners to establish Sheep Creek Road. In the "Remarks" section of the index card for the road is the notation "Road 80° wide." The district court concluded that these extrinsic documents provided "dispositive evidence" that Sheep Creek Road was intended to be eighty feet wide.

[19] The Zeimens assert that, when county commissioners utilize the statutory processes to establish a county road, their actions must be made of public record so as to make it "certain and definite as to what were public roads." Rocky Mountain Sheep Co. v. Board of County Commissioners of Carbon County, 73 Wyo. 11, 22, 269 P.2d 314, 318 (1954), quoting Nizon v. Edwards, 72 Wyo. 274, 291, 264 P.2d 287

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Bluebook (online)
2012 WY 97, 280 P.3d 1181, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 104, 2012 WL 2913797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zeimens-v-city-of-torrington-wyo-2012.