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Roth v. Garner12/9/1998
95-0554-E-1
Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County. Mitchell Karaman, Judge.
Argued and submitted October 8, 1998.
On appeal, reversed and remanded with instructions to enter judgment for defendants; affirmed on cross-appeal.
DESIGNATION OF PREVAILING PARTY AND AWARD OF COSTS
Prevailing party: Appellants on appeal; cross-respondents on cross-appeal
[ ] No costs allowed.
Costs allowed, payable by: Respondents on appeal; cross-appellants on
cross-appeal
[ ] Costs allowed, to abide the outcome on remand, payable by:
DEITS, C. J.
Plaintiffs Roth brought this declaratory judgment action against defendants Garner seeking a declaration that the ingress and egress easement, that the Garners agreed to develop and grant to the Roths' predecessors (the Pierces) in a 1965 land sale contract, is 70 feet wide. The Roths also sought to enjoin the Garners from fencing or otherwise obstructing "any portion of the easement." The Garners interposed affirmative defenses of claim and issue preclusion, asserting that the width of the easement was established at 20 feet in one or both of two earlier litigations and that the alleged obstructions were outside the easement area. The trial court found that the judgments in the earlier litigations had "established a 20 foot wide, non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress[.]" However, the court nevertheless ordered that, in addition to the 20-foot wide "finished grade of the roadway," 10 feet should be added for shoulders and ditches on both sides and that the "total [easement] * * * is 40 feet." The court enjoined each party from interfering with the other party's use and enjoyment of the [easement]," and from placing "obstructions, fences or barriers" within the 40-foot area.
The Garners appeal, contending that the trial court erred in rejecting their preclusion defenses and by adding the two 10-foot sides to the previously adjudicated 20-foot width of the easement. The Roths cross-appeal, arguing that the court erred by failing to hold that the easement required by the 1965 contract was 70 feet in width. We reverse on the appeal and affirm on the cross-appeal.
We state the facts only in the detail necessary to an understanding of what we regard as the decisive issues before us. The Garners agreed to establish the roadway easement in the 1965 contract, through which they sold the benefitted real property to the Pierces. The Roths later purchased the property. In 1973, the Pierces brought an action against the Garners, seeking to require them to complete the easement pursuant to the contract. The litigation resulted in a stipulated decree that required the Garners to complete the roadway and provided that "the finished grade of the roadway be * * * twenty feet in width[.]" In 1991, the Garners sued the Roths after a number of reciprocal grievances between the parties arose. The Roths made counterclaims in that action, seeking relief against the Garners for various infractions and interferences with the easement and alleging the existence of a "dispute between the parties as to the nature of the road that provides access to [the Roths'] property." The 1991 litigation culminated in a mutual "release of all claims" by the parties and a stipulated final judgment by the court. That judgment provides, in material part, that the Roths
"have the right to use the road known as Garner Road, which provides access to their property, which easement was established as 20 feet wide in the proceeding known as Pierce v. Garner, Jackson County Circuit Court Case No. 73-709-E."
The Roths broug
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