Opinion ID: 1711020
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: overview of real estate transfers

Text: An overview of the pertinent real estate transfers is necessary to an understanding of this action. Kay Omaha Livestock Market, Inc. (Kay Omaha), formerly known as Union Stockyards Company, continually owned parcels A, B, and C from 1918 until 1975. Harold Norman, retired secretary and treasurer of the former Union Stockyards, testified that the railroad tracks were built by Union Stockyards in 1952 and were used by the company to haul grain to its warehouses. On February 28, 1975, Kay Omaha sold parcel A to U.S. Cold. On April 21, 1976, Kay Omaha sold parcel C to Stewart Seed Company. In October 1976, the chain of title of parcel B went from Kay Omaha to Omaha Holdings, Inc., then passed to William Chapman in May 1977, and finally to U.S. Cold in November 1977. In 1988, Stewart Seed Company deeded parcel C to Leora Fuller, one of the principals of Stewart Seed. In 1992, James Krueger formed Hillary and purchased parcel C from Fuller. When Kay Omaha sold parcel A to U.S. Cold in 1975, it expressly reserved for itself, its successors, and its assigns a permanent easement to run with the land across the 20-foot-wide strip along the southern boundary of parcel A. This easement was for the express benefit of parcels B and C, which were still owned by Kay Omaha at that time. Accordingly, there is no dispute that U.S. Cold took parcel A subject to an express easement for the benefit of the owners of parcels B and C. However, no express easement for railway access across parcel B, for the benefit of parcel C, was ever reserved throughout the chain of title of parcel B. Bill Kratvill, the current vice president of Autoliner Corporation, testified that he personally operated railroad cars over the tracks on parcels B and C from 1971 through 1976. Dan Reeder, listing agent for Kay Omaha, testified that when he listed parcel C for sale in 1976, he advertised the property as having rail access. Fuller testified that the existence of the tracks, and the right to bring railroad cars in and out over those tracks, were of prime importance in Stewart Seed's decision to acquire parcel C. The deed and the bill of sale for parcel C, conveyed to Stewart Seed from Kay Omaha, contained an express conveyance of the rail tracks on the property from the south line of G Street. These documents do not mention an easement for rail access across parcel B. The district court found that U.S. Cold was aware of the possibility of an easement in favor of Stewart [Seed] when it entered into an agreement with Chapman in 1977 for the purchase of parcel B. U.S. Cold had the choice to elect between receiving one of two types of deeds. It could choose to receive a deed that was expressly subject to the Stewart Seed implied easement, or could choose to receive a deed that did not mention the implied easement, but only if U.S. Cold gave Chapman an indemnity for any claims made by Stewart Seed. U.S. Cold elected to receive a deed that did not mention the Stewart Seed implied easement. After acquiring parcel B in 1977, U.S. Cold rebuilt the tracks on its property from double spur tracks into a single spur track. U.S. Cold then installed a switch to connect the single spur track to the double spur tracks running across G Street to parcel C.