Court Opinion

ID: 9856670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:54:59.540144+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:20.772021
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice,
dissenting:
I would hold as a matter of law, that the instrument in question here is so deficient as to convey no interest in the property. It is a fundamental precept of real property conveyancing that the interest sought to be conveyed must be described with some amount of certainty to be drawn from within the four corners of the conveyancing instrument, or by reference to some exteri- or material. White v. Rehn, Idaho, 644 P.2d 323 (1982); Matheson v. Harris, 96 Idaho 759, 536 P.2d 754 (1975); Luke v. Conrad, 96 Idaho 221, 526 P.2d 181 (1974); Allen v. Kitchen, 16 Idaho 133, 100 P. 1052 (1909). Here there is absolutely no description of any kind or type except as to the grantors’ entire property. Clearly the instrument does not contemplate a transfer of the entire property. In the usual conveyance of a right-of-way easement, at least the termini and the direction of the easement are described. See Quinn v. Stone, 75 Idaho 243, 270 P.2d 825 (1954). Here there is no method of determining from the instrument or any exterior reference, where the right-of-way will be placed.
As to the original pipeline, it is in place and appellants make no complaint regarding that original line. In any event, estoppel and part performance would undoubtedly bar any such claim if made. As to the second pipeline in question here or any subsequent pipelines, it is implied by the majority that such will parallel the first; however, there is nothing in the document or any external reference to require such. Here there is absolutely no restriction on the width of the easements purportedly granted. In the ordinary situation, if the location of an easement could be generally ascertained, a grantee might be restricted to a reasonable width. However, in the instant case, with no restriction on the number of pipelines which might be placed upon the property and with no width restriction contained therein, the entire property of the purported grantors could be swallowed up — a result obviously not contemplated by the minimal amount of compensation at issue here.
Further, since the instrument contains absolutely no time limitations within which the grantee is required to exercise its “right” to place additional unlimited pipelines across the property, under the majority’s literal interpretation and language, the property is perpetually burdened, not with a clearly existing easement use, but also with the “right” amounting to an option to place additional pipelines at any place on the property at any time in the future with absolutely no limitations thereon. This “right” is not personal to the grantee, but may be assigned or conveyed to any other person. Such a result could preclude any effective utilization by the grantor of its property, since, by the document terms, it cannot “build, create or construct any obstruction” which might interfere with Northwest’s right to lay future lines. Such a result is hardly consistent with the philosophy against restraints on alienation. Neither can such a result be deemed to have been in the contemplation of the grantors in view of the minimal consideration.
In the event that the document has any efficacy whatsoever, I would agree with the view of Bistline, J., that at best it amounted to some type of option.