Opinion ID: 2266043
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Procedural Questions

Text: This case was reached for trial in July 1992. A Superior Court trial justice sitting without a jury heard testimony from witnesses who included Anthony, whose testimony is synopsized above, Searle's father and mother, who had taken up residence at their son's 109 Bay View Drive address, as well as from experts in land surveying, landscaping, and photogrammetry. [4] Upon completion of the presentation of that trial testimony and the admission of maps and other documentary exhibits, the trial justice found that Anthony had shown by a preponderance of clear and convincing evidence that he was entitled to the land to which he had tended since March of 1981, as he had acted as the true owner to the visible boundary line. In addition to his finding that Anthony had established title by adverse possession, the trial justice further found that a surveyor was to be engaged by Anthony in order to establish a line along the northerly line of his property adjacent to the defendant's property. This line was ordered to be in conformance with the lawn texture transition line as depicted on Searle's exhibit R, which had been prepared by a registered land surveyor. [5] The trial justice further ordered that said line shall run in a westerly direction from Bay View Drive to a marker designating the southwest corner of the defendant's property and the northwest corner of the plaintiffs property. This disputed area, being an elongated wedge of land, is to be determined by metes and bounds by the registered land surveyor. With regard to Anthony's request for damages, the trial justice declined to make any award, determining that there were insufficient facts upon which to base a finding and an award. Searle's counterclaim was denied and dismissed. The trial justice's findings and decision, however, did not bring about an armistice. The litigation had not yet come to an end. The travel of the posttrial procedures in the case reveals why the trial justice referred to them as constituting a procedural nightmare. Searle filed a notice of appeal on August 13, 1992, and on November 12, 1992, the case was certified to this Court. The case file contains a judgment that was stamped by a Superior Court clerk, but the judgment was in fact never actually entered. Then, on February 23, 1993, plaintiff Anthony filed a motion for a new trial, pursuant to Rule 59 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure, requesting that the trial justice amend his findings of fact and conclusions of law contained in his decision. Anthony specifically alleged that although the trial justice had correctly determined that a portion of the Searle land had been acquired by him through adverse possession, he incorrectly ordered that the lawn transition texture line be used as the demarcator between the two properties. Anthony hungered for, and believed he was entitled to, a bigger slice of the Searle property pie. This Court, on April 22, 1993, remanded the case to the Superior Court for proper entry of final judgment. We further ordered that the prematurely filed appeal would be treated as having been taken from the final judgment when entered. The parties then filed a stipulation in the Superior Court on June 30, 1993, which stated that the entry of judgment would be treated as having been entered on June 30, 1993. There was no signed judgment bearing that date. It was not until July 9, 1993, that the trial justice was presented with, and signed, the proper final judgment, which was entered on July 12, 1993. That judgment, incorporating the trial justice's July 31, 1992 decision, described the adversely possessed land as follows: BEGINNING at a point in the westerly line of Bay View [D]rive, which said point is marked by a stake in the ground and which point marks the northeasterly corner of land of Quentin Anthony, known as Lot no. 739 on Jamestown Tax Assessor's Plat No. 8; thence running in a general westerly direction along the northerly boundary line of said land of Quentin Anthony for a distance of two hundred and two and forty-two one-hundredths (202.42) feet, to a point marked by a pipe in the ground and which said point marks the northwesterly corner of said land of Anthony; thence turning and running in a general northerly direction for a distance of ten and sixty-three-hundredths (10.63) feet to a point in the westerly boundary line of land now or formerly of Donald Searle, being Lot No. 583 on said Jamestown Tax Assessor's Plat No. 8; thence turning and running in a general southeasterly direction for a distance of two hundred one and thirty-three-hundredths (201.33) feet to the point or place of beginning in said westerly line of Bay View Drive, said last-mentioned forming an anterior angle with said first-mentioned course of 3 00' 00. Anthony then filed a second motion for a new trial on July 19, 1993, which necessitated yet another motion by the plaintiff requesting this Court to again remand the papers of this case to the Superior Court so that the plaintiffs new trial motion could be assigned and heard. We ordered remand on the same day that the motion was filed, and Anthony subsequently filed a third new trial motion on July 22, 1993. [6] That motion alleged that the trial justice's decision contains a misstatement, which has been picked up in the judgment prepared by the defendant, and that an evidentiary hearing should be held in order to determine how much of the Searle land Anthony was actually entitled to based upon the plaintiff's trial testimony, which had been accepted as credible by the trial justice. Finally having the opportunity to end what he termed the procedural nightmare, the trial justice on March 3, 1994, rendered a decision denying Anthony's third new trial motion. Relying upon our opinion, American Federation of Teachers v. Rhode Island Board of Regents for Education, 477 A.2d 104 (R.I.1984), the trial justice properly determined that Anthony was not entitled to a new trial since the plaintiff made no allegation of newly discovered evidence, nor that the trial justice had committed a manifest error of law. We next address defendant's appeal from the trial justice's ruling on the adverse possession issue.