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Pokorny v. Salas12/12/2003
This case concerns two easements in the Game Creek Plateau area of Teton County, Wyoming. Due to the area's topography, the easements provide the only viable access to various properties within the Game Creek Plateau. The original owners of a large portion of the land created the two easements to provide access to residential subdivisions in the area and to guarantee future access to the land they retained, which otherwise was inaccessible. Both appellants and appellees are successors in interest to the original owners, yet the former contend neither easement provides such access, while the latter argue both easements do just that. The district court held both easements provide access to all owners in the area. We affirm.
ISSUES
The issues presented are: (1) Whether appellants are estopped by the doctrines of collateral estoppel, res judicata and/or judicial estoppel from claiming that the 1972 right of way easement does not grant access rights to the appellees; and (2) Whether the 1978 reserved easement is appurtenant or in gross?
FACTS
The 1972 Easement
The original Game Creek Plateau landowners, Hugh and Donna Marie Soest (Soests), owned a large parcel of land contiguous to the only public access, the Game Creek Road. In 1972, the Soests granted a 60-foot wide right-of-way easement to Squaw Creek Ranches, Inc., a subdivision. Without the easement, the Squaw Creek Ranches property owners would have been landlocked. The easement also granted access to "any other person or persons, for his or their benefit and advantage, at all times freely to pass and repass... " over and across Squaw Creek Road from the terminus of the Game Creek Road through lands owned by the Soests. Their land was ultimately divided into four separate contiguous parcels which lie south of the Game Creek Road terminus: Segment One, adjoining the road, the Squaw Creek Draw 40, the Reardon 40 and the Hayfields (see attached map, Appendix A). The easement terminated at the south end of the Squaw Creek Draw 40 property, and did not continue south to the remainder of the Soests' property (the Reardon 40 and the Hayfields).
The 1978 Easement
After granting the 1972 easement, the Soests began selling parcels of their land. A portion of Segment One, now called "The Horse Palace," was one of the first parcels to be sold and was conveyed to James and Patty Scott (Scotts) in 1974. In a 1978 warranty deed, the Soests conveyed forty acres to the Reardon group (Reardon 40). In a 1979 warranty deed, the Soests conveyed another forty acres to a different buyer (Squaw Creek Draw 40). The Reardon 40 is located just south of the Squaw Creek Draw 40 and north of the large tract of land retained by the Soests (Hayfields).
In the Reardon 40 transaction, the Soests reserved for themselves an easement (the 1978 easement) to preserve access across the Reardon 40 to the Hayfields. This easement, together with the 1972 easement, provided access all the way from the Game Creek Road, through Segment One, through the Squaw Creek Draw 40, and through the Reardon 40 to the retained Hayfields. No other access to the Hayfields existed at the time the 1978 easement was created.
The 1981 Litigation
In 1981, litigation ensued concerning the 1972 easement ( Scott v. Squaw Creek Ranches, Inc.). The Scotts, owners of the only land contiguous to the Game Creek Road, which was the singular public access to the Game Creek Plateau, sought quiet title to their land against all individuals using the 1972 easement who did not own property in the Squaw Creek Ranch subdivision, a grantee of the easement which is south of the Scotts' property. In
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