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Lachat v. Hinchliffe

The trial court erred in its finding of civil contempt against defendant because there was no showing that defendant violated a 12 year old court order and no showing that the order was definite, clear and specific; the court also erred in using the contempt proceeding as a forum to attempt the resolution of all the disputes between the parties.

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�1 This is an appeal from an order which found, inter alia, Appellant, Frank A. Hinchliffe (Hinchliffe), to be in contempt and directed him to pay counsel fees on behalf of Appellees, Robert and Mary Lachat (the Lachats), and one-half the costs of a land survey. We reverse.

�2 The dispute underlying the present appeal is of a long-standing nature. The certified record shows that in October of 1986, the Lachats commenced an action sounding in equity by filing a civil complaint requesting the trial court to direct Hinchliffe to cease all activities that interfered with their use of a thirty-foot wide tract of land subject to a right-of-way. The record further discloses that the right-of-way in dispute was created in 1957 by the predecessors in title to both the Lachats and Hinchliffe. On September 7, 1957, the Lachats’ predecessors in interest executed and caused to be recorded a “Right of Way Indenture” in favor of Hinchliffe’s predecessors in interest. The instrument in question contains the following pertinent language:

[The parties of the first part] by these presents do grant, bargain, and sell, unto the said second party, and to his heirs and assigns, the free uninterrupted use, liberty, and privilege of, and passage in and along, a certain street of thirty (30) feet in breadth, more or less, by five hundred and fifteen (515) feet in depth, extending out of and from the Mill Road which leads from Youngdale to McElhattan in Wayne Township Clinton County, Pennsylvania, which said street is proposed on a plan showing lots as laid out for C. C. Ricker by John R. Mundy, said plan being dated September 22, 1952, and which said street lies along the southeast side of the messuage, the lot of the said parties of the first part.

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