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Court of Appeal:
Duty to Maintain Easement Does Not Include Stabilizing Riverbank 30 to 50 Feet Away
Opinion Says Statute Does Not Obligate Holder to Expensive Construction Project to Protect River-Adjacent Route, Despite Relocations Mandated by Past Flooding
By a MetNews Staff Writer
An easement holder’s statutory duty to “maintain” an easement “in repair” required her to keep it in sound condition but did not compel efforts to stabilize a nearby riverbank to prevent continued erosion despite the servient landowners having to suffer multiple relocations of the route across their land due to recurring flooding, the Third District Court of Appeal held yesterday.
At issue is Civil Code §845, which provides that “[t]he owner of any easement in the nature of a private right-of-way, or of any land to which any such easement is attached, shall maintain it in repair.” The court noted that “[n]o published California case” addresses the meaning of the phrase in the context presented and declared that the “commonsense meaning” of preserving the easement in good and sound condition applies.
The dispute arose after flooding caused significant riverbank erosion and destroyed portions of an appurtenant easement held by Karla Lane which runs across property abutting the Trinity River in Northern California owned by Eberhard and Ursula Scheider. All parties trace their title back to a common grantor who conveyed the properties with the easement.
Lane’s single-family home would be landlocked without the easement, which grants her access from the public road through the Scheider’s horse pasture on the property that also hosts the couple’s veterinary clinic and home.
Easement Inaccessible
Litigation between the parties first erupted in 2011 after heavy rainfall left the easement inaccessible due to flooding and the Schneiders were ordered to allow Lane access via another route through their property.
After flooding in 2018 caused significant damage to the new route, the Schneiders filed a complaint seeking quiet title foreclosing the easement and declaratory relief, asserting that Lane violated §845 by failing to protect the 2011 route from the known risk of future erosion and alleging that she increased the harm by allowing trucks carrying heavy equipment to drive across the property. Lane cross-complained for declaratory relief.
Trinity Superior Court Judge Eric L. Heryford found that the issues raised by the Schneiders were barred by collateral estoppel due to the 2011 court orders finding that they were obligated to provide alternative routes to Lane in the event of flooding. Heryford ordered the relocation of the easement further inland but ruled that Lane was obligated to stabilize the riverbank from further erosion at her exclusive cost.
Acting Presiding Justice Harry E. Hull Jr. authored the opinion reversing the judgment only “to the extent it obligated Lane to stabilize the riverbank under section 845.” Justices Peter A. Krause and Shama Hakim Mesiwala joined in the opinion.
Commonsense Meaning
Hull said “[w]e begin with the text, giving it a plain and commonsense meaning, construing words in their broader statutory context and, where possible, harmonizing provisions concerning the same subject.”
Applying those principles, he wrote:
“We first define the statutory phrase ‘maintain it in repair.’ To us, the phrase’s commonsense meaning is to keep up and preserve the easement in good and sound condition. To ‘maintain’ the easement in good and sound condition expresses the same meaning. Dictionaries…define the verb ‘maintain’ as ‘to keep in a state of repair, efficiency, or validity: preserve from failure or decline’….
“Dictionaries define the word ‘repair’ when used as a noun, such as ‘in repair’ in section 845, as a ‘relative condition with respect to soundness or need of repairing…the state of being in good or sound condition….’ Our interpretation of ‘maintain it in repair’ as meaning to maintain or keep up and preserve the easement in good and sound condition accords with these definitions.”
The jurist said “[t]his interpretation of the phrase is also consistent with section 845’s broader statutory context,” pointing out that the surrounding sections distinguish between construction and maintenance. He added:
“Because our commonsense and contextual reading of the phrase ‘maintain it in repair’ is not ambiguous, we need not refer to other interpretative aids. Nor does this interpretation lead to absurd or unintended results.”
The case is Schneider v. Lane, C097818.
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