Opinion ID: 1169241
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the harper case

Text: On October 1, 1899, the Improvement Company conveyed to the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad (the B.C. Railroad) a railroad easement over a 30-foot-wide strip of land in Bellingham. Roeder claims title to this right of way through the same chain of title related above. Appellants Harper and Davis claim an interest in the right of way based on their ownership of abutting property. Harper's predecessor obtained land abutting the right of way by a 1904 deed that described the Harper property as lying Southeast of the right-of-way of the Bellingham Bay and Eastern Railroad Company ... [and] being bounded ... by the Southeast line of the right-of-way of the Bellingham Bay and Eastern Railroad Company ... The Davises' claim is based solely on their ownership of abutting property. Neither the location of the Davises' property nor the deeds through which they acquired their property are included in the record before us. Roeder filed suit against the appellants Harper and Davis on October 4, 1983. The trial court ruled that neither Harper nor Davis acquired any interest in the right of way by virtue of their status as adjoining property owners and quieted title to the 30-foot right of way in Roeder. This appeal presents three issues.