Court Opinion

ID: 9856555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:50:23.482217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:13.170401
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice
(dissenting).
The trial court in this case found the existence of a substantial enclosure of the *347property in issue and concluded that this satisfied the enclosure requirement of I.C. § 5-210. The majority on appeal finds error in that conclusion. The trial court found against the plaintiffs in their assertion of adverse possession by its conclusion that the claimants had failed to prove their payment of taxes thereon. The majority does not discuss nor dispose of that finding and conclusion by the trial court nor appellants’ assertion that Scott v. Gubler, supra, and Standall v. Teater, supra, support appellants’ position. In effect then the majority affirms the judgment of the trial court on the basis that the trial court reached the correct result but for the wrong reason.
Conversely, I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and hold that the trial court was correct in its finding and conclusion regarding the substantial enclosure requirement of the statute but erred in its finding and conclusion regarding the tax payment requirement of the statute.
In 1913, the railroad fenced its right-of-way and thereby excluded therefrom the 1.08 acres here in dispute. Using that fence erected by the railroad, the appellants enclosed that 1.08 acres with their remaining and abutting lands. There is no question but that the 1.08 acres along with the remainder of appellants’ lands was protected by a substantial enclosure (fence) and that appellants thereafter and continuously for 57 years occupied, used and improved that land. Following condemnation of the property by the United States in 1941, they remained on the property as tenants of the government and at a later time secured a return deed. The condemnation order excluded the then “existing right-of-way for railroad.” Since the railroad had fenced out the 1.08 acres from its right-of-way, I would hold that the 1.08 acre parcel was not part of its then “existing right-of-way for railroad” exempted from condemnation.. At the time of the return deed the disputed tract was still fenced out of the railroad right-of-way and therefore I would hold that it was not reserved to the railroad as “presently used right-of-way.” They platted, subdivided and sold part of the tract disputed herein. It was not until 1970 when the creation of Cascade reservoir made the disputed property a lakeside lot and thereby greatly enhanced its value that the railroad asserted a claim to the property and erected a fence along what it claimed to be its western property line. Appellants promptly brought suit in U.S. District Court to resolve the dispute created by the 1970 erection of the fence and when said suit was later dismissed without prejudice, appellants promptly brought the instant action in state court.
I point out that I.C. § 5-210 provides “for the purpose of constituting an adverse possession, by a person claiming title not founded upon a written instrument, judgment or decree, land is deemed to have been possessed and occupied in the following case only: 1. Where it has been protected by a substantial enclosure. 2. Where it has been usually cultivated or improved. * * * [the additional requirement that claimants have paid the taxes].” Here there is no question but appellants cultivated, improved, occupied, used and farmed the disputed property for the requisite time. There is likewise no question but that the property was protected by a substantial enclosure. In my opinion the majority then expands the requirements gained from a literal meaning of the statute by adding the requirement that the subtantial enclosure be erected by the adverse claimant. The majority opinion does not discuss any policy reason nor rationale for broadening the statutory requirements. I see no policy to be served nor any rationale for such a decision. On the contrary, it would appear that the only way in which claimants herein could have satisfied the newly created requirement was to erect their own fence which would serve no purpose since it would necessarily have to duplicate and parallel a then existing fence.
I would find error in the finding and conclusion of the trial court that appellants had failed to satisfy the taxpaying require*348ment of the statute. This Court has for many years and most recently in Scott v. Gubler, supra, and Standall v. Teater, supra, enunciated a liberal view with respect to the tax requirements for adverse possession in cases involving boundary disputes between contiguous landowners. See White v. Boydstun, 91 Idaho 615, 428 P.2d 747 (1967); Beneficial Life v. Wakamatsu, 75 Idaho 232, 270 P.2d 830 (1954); Calkins v. Kousouros, 72 Idaho 150, 237 P.2d 1053 (1951) ; Bayhouse v. Uriquides, 17 Idaho 286, 105 P.2d 1066 (1909). I do not perceive any evidence in the record that the railroad paid taxes on the disputed tract of land during the time it was occupied, utilized and improved by appellants. Railroad companies, as public utilities, pay their taxes in an entirely different fashion than do ordinary landowners. See I.C. §§ 63-704, 63-705, 63-707, 63-711. Railroads are taxed on their gross assets divided by miles of railroad track and here the Valley County assessor taxed the railroad on the basis of dollar value per mile of track in Valley County. There is no indication that any particular real property was taxed to the railroad or that the railroad paid any amount of taxes on any particular piece of real property. On the other hand, I believe the cases here and before cited and particularly White v. Boydstun, supra, point out that continuous adverse possession will extend a true boundary line beyond the occupier’s expressed deed limits, so that payment of taxes assessed on the deeded property is deemed payment of taxes on the lands in the claimants’ possession.
I must further disagree with the majority wherein it affirms the trial court’s dismissal of appellants’ first cause of action under the forcible detainer statute. I.C. § 6-314 dealing with forcible entry provides “the defendant may show in his defense that he or his ancestors, or those whose interest in such premises he claims, have been in the quiet possession thereof for the space of one whole year together next before the commencement of the proceedings, and that his interest therein is not then ended or determined; and such showing is a bar to the proceedings.” (Emphasis supplied.) The majority states that the record discloses the respondent had been in quiet possession of the disputed property for well over a year, and in fact closer to three years prior to the commencement of this proceeding. I cannot agree that the record so demonstrates when during all that period of time the appellants here were vigorously litigating in federal or state court the ownership of the disputed tract and seeking to oust the railroad from that land. See New Zion Baptist Church v. Strain, 39 So.2d 185 (La.1949).
I would reverse and remand.