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Apel v. Katz8/19/1998
Alice Robie Resnick, J.
This case first presents the issue of the correct interpretation to be given to the scope of the reservation of the right to keep and maintain a roadway over the easement on appellees' property. Second, the case raises various issues regarding the damage awards in appellees' favor on their trespass counterclaim against appellant Zeev Apel. For the reasons which follow, after a thorough review of the record, we determine that the trial court erred in ruling against appellants on their request for a declaratory judgment interpreting the scope of the easement across appellees' property. We also determine that the damages awarded to appellees on their trespass counterclaim were properly assessed against appellant. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals, enter final judgment for appellants on the roadway issue, and enter final judgment for appellees on the compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees awarded on the trespass counterclaim.
In the initial ruling interpreting the scope of the reservation by Goodman in the deed to the Saporitos allowing Goodman to "keep and maintain a roadway" on the easement over the property now owned by appellees, the trial court granted appellees' motion for partial summary judgment. Since appellees had argued that the roadway provision was merely a personal reservation by Goodman, it seems logical to assume that the trial court must have accepted that argument in ruling the way that it did, and must have rejected appellants' argument that the roadway easement was an express easement that runs with the land for appellants' benefit. However, we share the concerns expressed by the court of appeals in this case that the trial court, in issuing what amounted to a declaratory judgment on the scope of the easement, should have included a determination of the rights of the parties involved. The failure of the trial court to issue an explanation of the consequences of its ruling was the first in a series of misunderstandings and missteps involving this case that have compounded as the case has progressed to place it in the confusing posture we now encounter.
The complaint in this case was filed in 1989. Thus far, this case has gone through the trial court two times, and has also gone through the court of appealstwo times, and it seems that the case is no closer to resolution now than it was prior to the issuance of any rulings by the trial court in its early stages. In the opinion now being appealed from, the court of appeals has ordered yet another remand to the trial court, apparently for the trial court to readdress the scope of the roadway easement - the key question raised in appellants' request for a declaratory judgment almost ten years ago. There still has been no appellate review of the ultimate propriety of the trial court's determination on this question, a question of law that in our view was ripe for decision at the time the trial court rendered its initial judgment on June 11, 1991.
Our review of the record convinces us that this issue is capable of resolution from an examination of the materials before us. We disagree with the determination reached by the court of appeals that "a genuine issue of material fact remains pending for litigation relative to whether the grantor intended to reserve for herself an express easement with the right to maintain a roadway." We see no reason to remand this cause to the trial court, and therefore we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals ordering that result. We proceed to an examination of the terms of the roadway provision of the reservation, to review what we understand to be the trial court's co
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