Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I live on a private road. The private road was made up by 6 different private properties with each property delineated 20� wide of its property as a road easement. I am one of the property owners and I live at the end of this private road. This private road easement, according to the property map dated 1926 in our title, was circular and a through street that included at least 6 more properties. But because a portion of this private road was vacated over 20 years ago, this road is no longer a through street and it ended at my house on one end and ended at my neighbor�s (John Doe) house on the other end. John Doe�s portion of the road easement was the portion that was vacated, and his garage and access was on his side of the road. John Doe and I now have a dispute. Since we have an adjoining property line, he had a gate (installed before I moved in 3 years ago) open to my side of the road (my property to be exact), and claiming that he has easement rights to his property through his gate because the old property map showed the easement to his house. I have many reasons to believe that he doesn�t have the access easement, but let me first provide some history to this whole dispute.

When I bought the house 3 years ago, John Doe already had the gate installed, and even had a sign on it that said �fire access gate, do not block.� I didn�t doubt its legitimacy until John Doe started parking a car inside the gate. How can he block a fire access gate from the inside? In addition, because the space for parking is small, he would have the gate half closed, blocking a portion of my property/road, making it very difficult for me to get in and out of my garage. At that time, I didn�t know any better and didn�t complain. About a year ago, the six owners of the homes using our side of the road drafted a road maintenance agreement to have the road reconstructed due to its bad condition. We asked John Doe to participate. He refused through email, and even claimed that he had never used our portion of the road in his last 27 years living at his house. We went ahead and reconstructed the road without his participation. However, I started questioning the legitimacy of the gate and the sign. I found out from the local fire department that the sign on John Doe�s gate was not legitimate. I then emailed John Doe that he had no access easement through our road, and that he cannot part his car inside his gate and encroach into my property. The dispute, as you can imagine, got started. John Doe started his act of intimidation by not only continuing to park his car inside the gate, once he even park a car on the portion of the road that I own, right in front of my driveway. We got police involved, but the police determined that this was a private road, it is a civil matter, and the court had to resolve the issue. The fire department came to John Doe�s property and took away the fire access sign as it was not legitimate. For many months I had been warning John Doe that he didn�t have access rights. About 3 weeks ago, I emailed John Doe again and asked him to remove the car that was parked inside the gate as I would be installing a bollard. The car didn�t moved, I subsequently installed a bollard in front of John Doe�s gate. Today, I was served court papers from John Doe claiming that I denied his easement access, that he was the owner of an easement and has the right of way over a public street.

Below are the reasons why I believe John Doe doesn�t has access rights:

1. I asked him to produce proof of access rights. His only document was the 1926 map in the title that all of our titles referenced to. He would have the easement to his property if his portion of easement was not vacated. But since the vacation happened, the map showing the easement was no longer accurate. His access is from the other side of the road, just as my access is from my side of the road.

2. He claimed that he would have prescriptive easement because he had installed the gate years ago. However, I learned from the neighbors that the previous owner of my property also never gave John Doe vehicular access. They had the same dispute. Since the 3 years that I moved in, I certainly didn�t allow access during the last year and emphasized that through emails with John Doe.

3. John Doe admitted through email that he never used my side of the road during his 27 years of ownership when he denied to pay for road construction cost. Wouldn�t that be proof that he doesn�t have or need any access from my side of the road?

4. Even if he had easement rights, his gate opens out to my road, and would have blocked a large portion of my property whenever he opens his gate. That would not have been a legitimate use of the road easement, am I correct?

I need to find a lawyer to help me fight the case, and at the same time, I would like to counter suit for harassment, potentially even restraining order against John Doe as I have proof that John Doe has threatened us before, harassed us, and I have video recording of John Doe trespassing into my property.

Given the information that I provided above, please let me know how you feel about my case. And if you were to represent me, what is my chance of winning? Thanks.


Asked on 3/18/14, 10:57 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

I have handled dozens of similar cases before. I spent the better part of a decade as a Vice President and Associate General Counsel with Fidelity National Financial - parent to Chicago Title, Fidelity National Title and a handful of smaller regional title companies. The first thing I can tell you is that it is impossible to evaluate a land title case, and especially an easement case, without sitting down and reviewing all the relevant documents, starting with the complaint. And also seeing, in photographs and maps at least, if not in person, the actual location of things like the gate, the roadbed, etc. Even with the detailed description you provide, this is just not the kind of case that can be evaluated from a written description of the situation.

I note you are in Castro Valley. If you would like to set up an initial consultation in my San Francisco office or Oakland conference facility, please let me know.

Read more
Answered on 3/19/14, 8:53 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Real Estate and Real Property questions and answers in California