Court Opinion

ID: 9844069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:57:06.486668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:27.237592
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting)—The majority errs when it concludes that cessation of the particular use of an easement *465constitutes abandonment with the right to possession reverting "to the original landowner or to that landowner's successor in interest." Majority, at 450. This is not and should not be the law in Washington. There are compelling policy reasons consistent with our past cases for treating railroad easements more, rather than less, liberally than other easements. For these reasons, I would look beyond the language to the purpose of the deed.
In analogous situations, the law has recognized that changes in the use of an easement do not necessarily take the enjoyment of the easement beyond its originally intended scope. We have long recognized the paramount importance of determining the "general purposes" for which an easement was granted. Evich v. Kovacevich, 33 Wn.2d 151, 160, 204 P.2d 839 (1949). Parties to a private easement are presumed to have considered "a normal development under conditions which may be different from those existing at the time of the grant." Logan v. Brodrick, 29 Wn. App. 796, 800, 631 P.2d 429 (1981). To determine that "normal development" we consider the parties' intentions at thie original creation of the easement, the nature and situation of the servient estates, and the history of the easement's use. Logan, 29 Wn. App. at 799 (citing Evich, 33 Wn.2d at 157).
By focusing only on the alleged language of the deed, a right of way for railroad purposes only, the majority too hastily confers a windfall on the abutting property owners. It is not disputed that the railroad could transfer its rights to another railroad which, in turn, could markedly increase the traffic over the servient estates. The legitimate burden presented by frequent, loud, and even dangerous, railroad use far outstrips any burden presented by foot or bicycle traffic.
While the burden on the servient estates, represented by the city's and county's plans, is far less onerous, the purpose for the easement remains unchanged. Referring to our decision in Zobrist v. Culp, 95 Wn.2d 556, 627 P.2d 1308 (1981), the majority rightly observes, "[w]e said the opera*466tion of a railroad is furnishing transportation, either freight or passenger, to the public." Majority, at 451. Contrary to the majority, however, I do not believe a hiking and biking trail "clearly" falls outside such a purpose, constituting abandonment of the easement.
In concluding that the railroad has abandoned its easement, the majority confuses a change in the kind of transportation medium using the easement with a change in the purpose for the transportation. Rail, foot, and bicycle traffic do represent different transportation media; that is, they represent different methods of transferring or conveying items or persons from one place to another. See Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2430 (1976). It cannot be disputed that all three media represent forms of transportation. A closer look at the various purposes giving rise to the need for transportation suggests that the differences between these various transportation forms are even less substantial.
As a "public highway, created for public purposes", majority, at 449 (citing Puget Sound Elec. Ry. v. Railroad Comm'n, 65 Wash. 75, 117 P. 739 (1911)), railroads have been used to haul freight and transport travelers bent on business or social purposes. Those purposes were often realized in the course of transit, as well as after passengers debarked. The meeting in the club car, the vacation spent sightseeing from a Domeliner, as well as local tourist and commuter trains evidence the diversity of legitimate "transportation purposes." Analogously, while many might travel the proposed trails for recreation purposes, others will use the right of way to commute to work, thus easing pressure on our other severely pressed transportation systems.
My point in this comparison is to underscore the insignificance of the difference in transportation media. Just as with a railroad line, the maintenance of a trail is to furnish transportation. In broad terms, the variety of purposes individuals may have for seeking transportation remains relatively constant regardless of the medium chosen. While *467the mix of purposes may change in time, that is consistent with the evolution of society and the related use of the easement itself.
In short, I believe the majority mischaracterizes the nature of the change it maintains justifies this reversion to the abutting owners. This is not, as the majority asserts, a conversion "from a public transportation system to a recreational system ..." Majority, at 451 (quoting Pollnow v. Department of Natural Resources, 88 Wis. 2d 350, 366-67, 276 N.W.2d 738 (1979)). The municipal bodies wish to preserve a public transportation system that uses a less burdensome mode of travel than is presently allowed. That the mix of human purposes, but not the purposes themselves, has changed, is not enough to justify declaring the easement abandoned and providing a windfall to the current property owners.
I agree with the Supreme Court of Minnesota, see State v. Department of Natural Resources, 329 N.W.2d 543 (Minn.), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1209 (1983), that long-recognized public interest in railroads as public highways, see Puget Sound Elec. Ry., 65 Wash, at 83-84, justifies protecting those rights of way for public transportation use. Like their close cousins, easements in gross, see Note, The Easement in Gross Revisited: Transferability and Divisibility Since 1945, 39 Vand. L. Rev. 109 (1986), these rights of way continue to play an important commercial and social role in linking various parts of the local community. These common policy concerns underline the well recognized need to treat more uniformly the various servitudes that have arisen in the long development of our property law. See, e.g., Reichman, Toward a Unified Concept of Servitudes, 55 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1177 (1982) (Symposium on the Law of Servitudes).
For the above reasons I dissent.