Opinion ID: 1800410
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Without Right or Justifiable Cause.

Text: ¶ 30. Mr. Biglane, or corporations of which he has substantial control, owns much of the property surrounding the Under the Hill Saloon, including multiple parking areas around the Saloon. After the tensions escalated between the Biglanes and the Saloon, Mr. Biglane caused the two parking areas in his control to be blocked, one with a cable gate after 6:00 p.m. and the other by an iron gate. It is undisputed that Mr. Biglane controls the former lot outright, but the ownership of the second lotthe so-called Water Street areais more complicated. ¶ 31. Ownership of the property is important because it speaks to the third factor of the tortthat the allegedly tortious acts must be performed without right or justifiable cause. It is a basic tenet of property law that a landowner or tenant may use the premises they control in whatever fashion they desire, so long as the law is obeyed. See generally Ewing v. Adams, 573 So.2d 1364, 1367-68 (Miss. 1990). This leads to the logical conclusion that a landowner or valid tenant may forbid any other persons from using their property. This ideal is protected in our law to the point that there are both civil and criminal prohibitions against trespassing. See Alexander v. Brown, 793 So.2d 601, 605 (Miss.2001) (definition of civil trespass); Miss.Code Ann. § 97-17-87 (Rev.2006) (criminal trespass). ¶ 32. Generally speaking, it cannot be malicious for a person to refuse access to others to their private property. Accordingly, blocking off the parking lot he owned in whole was not tortious conduct by Mr. Biglane. ¶ 33. The property comprising the area called Water Street is a different matter. There was extensive testimony by multiple witnesses regarding the property, its history, nature, and various owners whether Mr. Biglane, the City of Natchez, or others. The Water Street property is not a paved street per se, but an area that has been built up on the western bank of the Mississippi River by placement of rock and soil. ¶ 34. Part of Water Street is a parking lot, and the city engineer testified that roughly two parking spaces, or portions of the spaces, were owned by the city. Another portion of Water Street is a boat ramp owned by Mr. Biglane. The city has a permanent easement to use the ramp, but of late it is basically only used by riverboat traffic. Previously the only access to the city's portions of Water Street were through Mr. Biglane's parcel, and the city engineer testified that blocking the city's right of way was impermissible, as the city no longer had use and access to the property they owned or had access to its easement because of the gate. There was also testimony that there had been a city-owned sign advertising the area as parking for the public that was later taken down. The city ultimately acquiesced to the placement of the gate and the blocking of its own property. ¶ 35. It is undisputed that Mr. Biglane erected an iron gate blocking Water Street. The chancellor found that part of the property blocked by the iron gate was owned by the city; that the gate itself partially rested upon city property; and that two of the parking spaces blocked by Mr. Biglane were city property. In light of this evidence, the trial court found that the third factor required for tortious interference with business was presentthat Mr. Biglane did not have the right to block property which he did not own from public access. ¶ 36. Substantial evidence provided at trial and in the record supported the detailed and extensive findings of fact provided by the trial court. Accordingly, we defer to the chancellor's findings and conclude that the Biglanes acted without right in blocking the Water Street property. Yet our inquiry does not end there.