Department of Transportation v. Mountain Villages, LLC

Summary

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed an interlocutory order in a condemnation action determining that Mountain Villages, LLC failed to establish a prescriptive easement over a parking island owned by another party. The court held that the trial court’s findings were supported by competent evidence and that Mountain Villages did not prove adverse, hostile, or nonpermissive use for the required prescriptive period. The court also upheld the exclusion or limited consideration of additional evidence, including an affidavit from a prior property owner.

Holdings

1. An interlocutory order determining title or the area taken in a condemnation action affects a substantial right and is immediately appealable under N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 1-277(a) and 7A-27(b)(3)(a) and (b).
2. Mountain Villages failed to meet its burden of proving a prescriptive easement because it did not establish that its use was adverse, hostile, or under a claim of right; open and notorious such that the true owner had notice; and continuous and uninterrupted for at least twenty years.
3. The challenged findings of fact were supported by competent evidence and were binding on appeal; the trial court was not required to recite every item of evidence or make findings on evidence it did not credit.
4. The Department of Transportation's deposit of an estimated amount of just compensation was not evidence establishing Mountain Villages' title or interest in the Parking Island and did not bind the Department to the estimate.
5. The exclusion of the affidavit executed one day before the section 108 hearing was not an abuse of discretion, and Mountain Villages also failed to show prejudice.
6. Judicial estoppel did not apply because the Department's estimated compensation, which included the claimed easement under an extraordinary assumption, was not clearly inconsistent with its position that Mountain Villages did not own a prescriptive easement.

Questions Presented

1. Whether competent evidence supported the trial court's challenged findings of fact concerning Mountain Villages' notice of ownership, use of the Parking Island, and signage.
2. Whether the trial court erred by failing to consider the Department of Transportation's estimated compensation deposit, a late-filed affidavit, and other evidence.
3. Whether the findings of fact supported the conclusion that Mountain Villages failed to establish a prescriptive easement.
4. Whether the Department of Transportation was judicially estopped from denying that Mountain Villages possessed a prescriptive easement because its condemnation pleadings and compensation estimate included the easement under an extraordinary assumption.
5. Whether the interlocutory order was immediately appealable because it affected a substantial right concerning title or the area taken in the condemnation action.

Disposition

affirmed