Opinion ID: 2390586
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Lawsuit to Establish a Prescriptive Easement

Text: In 2008, numerous disagreements arose between plaintiff O'Dell and the defendant Stegalls. Essentially, the plaintiff claimed that he had the right to use the gravel lane to access a horseshoe-shaped driveway on the northern edge of his land. This horseshoe-shaped driveway appears to have been partially constructed and connected to the gravel lane sometime after 1999. The defendants objected to the plaintiff's use of the gravel lane to access the horseshoe-shaped driveway, called the police two times, and threatened to have the plaintiff prosecuted for trespassing. The defendants also took several photographs of the plaintiff driving on the gravel lane, and tape-recorded a conversation that they had with the plaintiff about his use of the lane, while the plaintiff and one of the defendants were standing on the lane. In response to the defendants' objections, plaintiff Michael O'Dell filed the instant lawsuit in September 2008 against all of his neighbors who border the gravel lane. In counter-clockwise fashion as their properties related to the plaintiff's home, the plaintiff brought suit: (1) against the defendants, Robert and Virginia Stegall, who own the landlocked parcel behind plaintiff O'Dell's home; (2) against Donald and Patricia Walker, the owners of what appears to be the remainder of Isaac Strider's 23-acre tract that is at the end of the gravel lane; (3) against Sidney Seibert, the owner of the 1898 outparcel that is landlocked behind the Starlipers' lot, and the only person who has an express easement to use the gravel lane; and (4) against Clifford and Mary Belle Starliper, the owners of the 1893 outparcel that borders the Leetown Pike. The primary count in the plaintiff's complaint sought to quiet title by way of a prescriptive easement allowing the plaintiff to use the gravel lane. The plaintiff claimed that the gravel lane had, by its nature and duration of its open, continuous, notorious and adverse use, as to any owner of the parcel become a community driveway servicing as an ingress and egress easement to the plaintiff's property. However, the plaintiff's complaint also sought damages from defendants Donald and Virginia Stegall for intentionally, deliberately and maliciously interfering with the plaintiff's alleged prescriptive easement. Two other counts in the complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages for abuse of process and the tort of outrage, largely because the defendants had called the police on two occasions and alleged that the plaintiff was trespassing by using the gravel lane. Finally, an amended complaint by the plaintiff alleged that the defendant Stegalls should be liable for compensatory and punitive damages because they had civilly conspired to take pictures of the plaintiff when he used the gravel lane, and to tape record a conversation between one of the defendants and the plaintiff while standing on the gravel lane. Before trial, the plaintiff settled his claims against the Walkers, Ms. Seibert, and the Starlipers. The Walkers entered into a settlement agreement on April 23, 2009 with the plaintiff, in which the Walkers claimed that they had no interest in the unnamed lane referred to in Plaintiff's Complaint. [5] Ms. Seibert settled and gave the plaintiff a purported quitclaim deed of easement in which she waived any objection to the plaintiff's use of the gravel lane, and agreed that the plaintiff would have an easement and right-of-way over and across the portion of the gravel lane that bordered the plaintiff's property, for purposes of ingress to and egress from [plaintiff's] real estate and the public road[.] [6] Ms. Seibert's quitclaim deed did not convey title to any land or to the lane, or convey her express easement. Finally, the Starlipers said that they had no interest whatsoever in the lane, and the plaintiff consented to their dismissal from the lawsuit. The circuit court dismissed all of the plaintiff's claims against the Walkers, Ms. Seibert, and the Starlipers with prejudice, and those parties are not part of the instant appeal. A jury trial against the defendant Stegalls was held in June 2009, wherein the plaintiff asserted that he had a prescriptive easement to use the gravel lane. To support this assertion, he introduced the testimony of several individuals who stated that there used to be a parking lot behind the church that now serves as the plaintiff's home. These individuals said that, for several decades prior to 1999, visitors to the church had continuously used the gravel lane to access the parking lot. The plaintiff also offered the expert testimony of Fred Gates, a land surveyor, to help establish the plaintiff's legal right to use the gravel lane. When asked about what facts established a prescriptive easement, Mr. Gates said, I am not sure this is a prescriptive easement. Instead, Mr. Gates speculated that the plaintiff had a right to use the gravel lane merely because [i]t appears that back in the 1890s Mr. Strider created a series of lots around a right of way that [was] intended to serve them. After a three-day trial, on June 11, 2009, the jury concluded that the plaintiff had established a prescriptive easement to use the gravel lane as an ordinary access to his residence. The jury also awarded the plaintiff $5,300.00 in compensatory damages and $4,700.00 in punitive damages against the defendant Stegalls for: (1) intentionally interfering with the plaintiff's right of ingress and egress; (2) committing the intentional tort of outrage by virtue of threats of trespass prosecution and calls to law enforcement... and/or recording [plaintiff] O'Dell's conversations; (3) civil conspiracy; and (4) invasion of privacy. The jury ruled in favor of the defendants on one count, finding that they had not engaged in abuse of process. The circuit court denied the defendants' numerous motions for post-trial relief. The defendants now appeal the circuit court's judgment entered on the jury's verdict, and refusal to set aside the judgment.