Opinion ID: 2581353
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: denial of talbert's motion for summary judgment

Text: We turn next to Talbert's contention that the district court erred by denying her motion for summary judgment. The purpose of Talbert's motion was to seek a favorable ruling that there was no express easement. She asserted that a written easement must contain a description of the land sufficient to locate the easement with reasonable certainty, and that the trial court should have ascertained the parties' intent from the document evidencing the easement and considered extrinsic evidence only where the language of the writing is ambiguous. The pertinent portion of the easement recites: IN ACCORDANCE WITH EXHIBIT A ATTACHED; and their successor and assigns a 60 foot easement for road and utility purposes for ingress and egress, over and across all roads presently existing or heretofore reserved by the grantors herein in deeds executed and placed of record, or already of record within the above described property. Said easement to be for the benefit of and appurtenant to each and every part of the subject legal description. In support of her motion for summary judgment, Talbert argued that the writing that allegedly showed the easement requires the road to have physically existed at the time the easement was granted and be depicted on the map attached to the easement document. Talbert further argued that even if the road in fact existed, the road was not necessary for Harwood to access his property; therefore, there was no right to the easement. To support these arguments, Talbert claims the road in question was simply a logging trail that may have existed at the time the easement was granted, but was not depicted on the map as a road and was not necessary for ingress and egress to Harwood's property. The map on Exhibit A contains markings that Harwood contended shows the easement road in question. These markings are a series of segmented, unattached parallel lines (sometimes referred to herein as the dotted line). Talbert disputed that the lines showed a road because other roads on the map are shown by continuous, unsegmented parallel lines. Accordingly, she argued that the lines claimed by Harwood to evidence the easement road could only have been an unimproved logging trail. Talbert additionally asserts that the district court erred by using extrinsic evidence (affidavits and deposition testimony) to determine the easement when the written document describing the easement is unambiguous. The district court addressed whether the disputed markings on the map showed a road and held that the record indicated that a dirt road existed at the time the easement was created. The district court further determined there was no genuine issue of fact regarding the existence of the road because the easement, Exhibit A, and three affidavits all indicated the road existed. After having reviewed the written easement, the district court considered the extrinsic evidence (the affidavits and deposition testimony) to ascertain the intent of the developers of the land as to the road. This Court holds that the district court did not err in considering extrinsic evidence to determine the intent of the drafters of the written document evidencing the alleged easement. We uphold the district court's conclusion that an express easement existed in favor of Harwood, and therefore affirm the district court's order denying Talbert's motion for summary judgment.