Court Opinion

ID: 9706375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:41:57.459847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:21.308756
License: Public Domain

Josephine Linker Hart, Judge, dissenting. Res est misera ubi jus est vagum et uncertum. I submit that the common law concerning real property remained for more than a century and a half much the same as it existed in England on March 24, 1606, the date specified in our reception statute. See Ark. Code Ann. 1-2-119 (Repl. 1996). However, in the last decade, particularly where the common law regarding acquiescence is concerned, it has morphed into an unrecognizable state, courtesy of the Arkansas Court of Appeals. To arrive at its current low-water mark, I believe the majority has made mistakes of both fact and law. While I do not usually recount facts when I write a dissent, I believe that I must do so in this case to correct what I believe is an overly simplistic understanding of the nature and situation of the parties’ real-estate. This case involves a disputed trapezoid-shaped piece of rugged, unimproved land. One side of the trapezoid measures 234.5 feet along the Boysters’ western boundary and the parallel side measures 69.6 feet along their eastern boundary. A gravel road bounded on the south by the remnants of a fence cuts across the Boysters’ property at approximately a thirty-degree angle. The disputed property lies within the legal description in the deed to ten acres of land that the Boysters acquired from Bryan Tatum in June 2004. Tatum had been the owner of record since 2000 when his ten-acre plot was subdivided from what had been a 400 acre dairy farm owned by the Shockley family. Not surprisingly, much of the land comprising the dairy farm was open pasture land. However, the disputed land lies in the far southwest corner of the dairy farm, and it was apparently too rugged and tree-covered to use as pasture. It was variously described by Shoemake and her witnesses as “bobcat country,” “a cliff,” and “pretty much nature.” The rugged character of the land was confirmed by ground-level and aerial photographs that were entered into evidence. Significantly, there was not a shred of disagreement among the witnesses, including Shoemake herself, that the fence was constructed to “hold cattle.” I do not believe it requires a great leap of logic to surmise that the fence was constructed for no other purpose than to keep the dairy cows from the “cliff.” It is true that Shoemake presented testimony from herself, relatives, a family friend, and a neighbor who occasionally walked on the property, that Shoemake and her grandfather regarded the fence as the boundary. Also true, as the majority notes, not one of Shoemake’s witnesses testified that they saw any activity — not even cows grazing — on the part of any owners of record of the disputed property, on either side of the fence. However, I simply cannot offend common sense by assigning this fact any legal significance whatsoever. When one has a 400 acre dairy farm, how much time would any one be expected to spend on the few acres of land that was unsuited for grazing cows? The majority is correct when it acknowledges that the only evidence of mutual recognition of the fence as a boundary came from Shoemake’s testimony that Tatum “knew” that the disputed tract was her property. However, even crediting this testimony as we must under the standard of review, it establishes acquiescence for less than seven years. It is therefore less than the seven-year limitation period required for adverse possession, and presumably much less than the “many years” that the parties must treat a fence line to establish a boundary by acquiescence. Summers v. Dietsch, 41 Ark. App. 52, 849 S.W.2d 3 (1993). Our supreme court has repeatedly held that the mere existence of a fence without evidence of mutual recognition is insufficient to establish a boundary by acquiescence. Warren v. Collier, 262 Ark. 656, 559 S.W.2d 927 (1978); Fish v. Bush, 253 Ark. 27, 484 S.W.2d 525 (1972); Carney v. Barnes, 235 Ark. 887, 363 S.W.2d 417 (1962). However, today the majority has overruled this clear precedent to hold that proof of the mere existence of an old fence is sufficient evidence to establish a boundary by acquiescence. Finally, I believe it is worth noting that the majority’s decision today represents, at best, a pyrrhic victory for Shoemake. As noted previously, the disputed tract of land is trapezoid-shaped because the fence cuts across the Boysters’ land at an angle. All of the Boysters’ land lies north of a portion of just one of Shoemake’s four forty-acre parcels. The remainder of that forty and three others border the almost 400 acres that comprised the old dairy farm. While the fence line favors Shoemake where her property borders the Boysters, farther to the east, it dips significantly into the surveyed description of her property. I submit that because of judicial estoppel, Shoemake will not be able to assert that the fence line is not the property line if Shockley or his successors choose to assert title to the property on their side of the fence. I respectfully dissent.