Buck v. Steele

1

ROSALIE V. BUCK v. MARK W. STEELE, ET AL.

No. 976-2023

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

July 5, 2024

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF MARYLAND ^[*]

Circuit Court for Charles County Case No. C-08-CV-21-000125

Graeff, Arthur, Woodward, Patrick L. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.

OPINION

GRAEFF, J.

This appeal arises from a dispute between neighbors in a waterfront community. Mark W. Steele and Marilyn H. Weimer, appellees, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Charles County against Rosalie V. Buck, appellant, seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. The request for declaratory judgment related to the parties' rights to easements to access the water and the request for an injunction related to the construction of two fences by Ms. Buck, a privacy fence that obstructed appellees' view of Port Tobacco Creek (the "Creek"), and a split-rail fence on Megan Lane that interfered with an easement on that road providing access to the Creek. Ms. Buck filed a counterclaim, seeking a declaratory judgment and to quiet title, alleging that appellees had no right to access her property and no right to a view of the water.

On April 10, 2023, after a two-day bench trial, the court issued a written opinion. The court ordered Ms. Buck to remove the split-rail fence constructed on Megan Lane, which impeded appellees' easement to access the Creek, and denied appellees' request for an order requiring Ms. Buck to remove the privacy fence built on her property, which obstructed appellees' view of the water. It found that appellees had an easement to access and use a portion of the roadway and shoreline on Ms. Buck's property, with the exception of a 120-foot parcel that Ms. Buck acquired through the doctrine of adverse possession.

Appellees filed a motion to alter and amend the judgment regarding the privacy fence, alleging that the court erroneously found that water rights and privileges granted to them did not include a right to a water view. Appellees requested that the court order an equitable apportionment of the parties' riparian rights.

A judge, different from the one who issued the initial order, granted appellees' motion without a hearing. The court ordered, inter alia, that Ms. Buck remove the privacy fence blocking appellees' view of the Creek within 30 days of the order.

On appeal, Ms. Buck presents the following questions for this Court's review, which we have rephrased slightly, as follows:

1. Did the circuit court err in granting appellees' motion to alter or amend without a hearing?

2. Did the circuit court err in concluding that water rights and privileges expressly reserved for all lot owners in the deed to appellees' property included a right to a view of the Creek?

3. Did the circuit court err in concluding that appellees hold an express easement to use an unnamed road originally depicted on the 1921 Waveland Plat?

4. Did the circuit court err in finding that only a portion of the easement to use the roads and shoreline on Ms. Buck's property to access appellees' water rights and privileges was relinquished by abandonment or adverse possession?

On cross-appeal, appellees raise the following additional question:

Did the circuit court err in concluding that appellees' easement to access a 120-foot parcel of shoreline property was relinquished by adverse possession?

For the reasons set forth below, we shall affirm, in part, reverse, in part, and vacate, in part, the judgments of the circuit court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. The Waveland Subdivision

Ms Buck and appellees are neighbors in the Waveland subdivision ("Waveland") located in Port Tobacco, Maryland. The plat establishing Waveland (the "1921 Plat") was recorded in the Charles County land records on July 8, 1921. The subdivision originally contained 31 lots.

As shown in the following illustration, the 1921 Plat shows three named roads, a Public Landing, and an unnamed road running along the water. For ease of understanding, we have attached an illustration below of the plat:

(Image Omitted)

Beufield Avenue, now known as Megan Lane, which runs from the shoreline of the Creek through the subdivision to Chapel Point Road, abuts lots 1, 9-15, and 26-27.^[1] Park Street, which runs parallel to a portion of the Creek, fronts lots 15-20, as well as the Public

Landing. Washington Street fronts lots 6-8, 10-11, and 21-31.^[2] An unnamed road (the "Unnamed Road"), running along the shorefront from Megan Lane to Washington Street, fronts lots 1-6. The 1921 Plat shows a strip of land lying between the bed of the Unnamed Road and the water ("the shoreline property"). The 1921 Plat did not expressly designate easements or rights-of-way for any property in the Waveland subdivision.

The original deed (the "1921 Deed") to appellees' lot, Number 14, contained the following language:

Together with the right of usership in common with said grantors and other Lot owners of the Public Landing designated upon the aforesaid plat and the abutting shore leading from Benfield Avenue to the end of the "Waveland" sub-division, as well also as the right to use in common with said grantors and other Lot owners a twenty-foot right of way leading from "Waveland" across the abutting lands of said grantors to the County Public Road leading from Port Tobacco to Chapel Point. The water rights and privileges adjacent to said "Waveland" sub-division being specifically reserved to the use of said grantors in common with all the Lot owners at "Waveland" or any additions thereto.

Ms. Buck owns lots 1, 2, and part of lot 3, as depicted on the 1921 Plat, as well as the portion of the Unnamed Road abutting her property.^[3] The property is described in two plats. The first, a 1985 plat titled "Land of Gertrude Mitchell" (the "1985 Plat"), depicts the lots, as well as Megan Lane and Park Street as shown on the original 1921 Plat, but it also depicts a gravel driveway inside the boundaries of the Unnamed Road.

The second plat was recorded in the Charles County Land Records on October 18, 1996, after Gertrude Mitchell conveyed her property (lots 1-3) to Thomas E. Hutchins (the "1996 Crowder Plat"). This Plat consolidated Lots 1-3 into a single building lot. The 1996 Crowder Plat included other land labeled Parcel B, which appellees state consisted of the Unnamed Road abutting Ms. Buck's property and Ms. Buck contends included the road and the shoreline property. The plat included several notes, including that the property was "SUBJECT TO COVENANTS[,] RESTRICTIONS, EASEMENTS, RIGHTS-OF-WAY, AND ROADS OF RECORD OR THROUGH USE," and that the property was "SUBJECT TO THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS TO THE USE OF THE "PUBLIC LANDING" AND "PARK STREET."

In 1997, Mr. Hutchins expanded the property by purchasing Parcel B from A.B.M. Limited Partnership ("ABM Partnership"), the successor in interest to the original developers who owned the unconveyed property within Waveland.

The deed to Parcel B was recorded on January 6, 1997, conveying to Mr. Hutchins Parcel B "TOGETHER with all improvements . . . waters, easements, privileges . . . belonging or appertaining thereto." Mr. Hutchins undertook significant erosion control measures on the shorefront while he owned the property.

On February 27, 2015, Mr. Hutchins conveyed his Waveland property to William and Andrea Tart (the "Tarts"). The deed conveyed two parcels of property to the Tarts.

The deed described the first parcel, "Parcel One (1)," as the "Land of Gertrude W. Mitchell":

TOGETHER with the concurrent use of that 20 foot right of way with other lot owners of Waveland Subdivision from Waveland Subdivision to Public Road leading from Port Tobacco to Chapel Point, as per plat recorded at Plat Book 38, folio 127, now called Megan Lane, formerly Beaufield Avenue.

TOGETHER with the concurrent use of water rights and privileges with other lot owners of Waveland Subdivision.

The deed described the second parcel conveyed, "Parcel Two (2)," as Parcel B and stated that:

THE LAND and premises above described and hereby intended to be conveyed being all of the same acquired by Grantors by deed from Thomas E. Hutchins, dated April 28, 2003 and duly recorded among the Land Records of Charles County, Maryland in Liber 4040, folio 530.

(Emphasis added). On May 27, 2016, the Tarts sold their Waveland property to Ms. Buck. The deed conveying the property to Ms. Buck included substantially the same language and property descriptions as the Tarts' earlier deed. During their ownership of the property, the Tarts had considered planting a living fence along the property line.^[4] Ms. Buck testified that the Tarts left the plans for the living fence behind when they moved, and she contacted a fencing company for a quote in 2018, before appellees had purchased their lot.

In April 2019, appellees purchased Lot 14 of the original Waveland subdivision.^[5] Lot 14 is located behind Ms. Buck's property and abuts Megan Lane. Ms. Buck's property is situated between appellees' property and the Creek, but there is no house between appellees' property and the water. Appellees' house was in foreclosure when they purchased it, and it had not been occupied for at least 10 years. Ms. Weimer testified that the house was in serious disrepair when she and her husband purchased it, and they spent months restoring the property prior to moving in. Prior to beginning repairs on the property, appellees "went around to every neighbor" to introduce themselves and let them know as a courtesy that they would be fixing up the property. When appellees went to Ms. Buck's property, she "stayed on her porch, would not come near [them], would not shake [their] hands or anything." Ms. Buck was "a little bit standoffish" and not very friendly,...