Pleasure Bluff Dock Club Inc. v. Poston

Evidence showed that an easement across the disputed road was only 9.2 feet wide, since testimony showed that the dirt road, which had developed through use for over 40 years was adequate to provide ingress and egress to a river in the subdivision in question.

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This appeal involves easement rights to property within the Pleasure Bluff subdivision in McIntosh County. Several subdivision homeowners, as well as the homeowners’ association collectively, “the homeowners”, sued Robert and Linda Poston for declaratory and injunctive relief to establish the parties’ rights in the disputed property. A special master determined that the homeowners had limited easement rights, but rejected their claim to broader rights. The trial court adopted the special master’s ruling, and the homeowners appeal. For reasons that follow, we affirm. 1. When reviewing a trial court order adopting a special master’s report, we construe the evidence favorably to the trial court’s judgment and affirm if any evidence supports it.1 So viewed, the evidence shows that the Pleasure Bluff subdivision was developed in 1948 along the Julington River. Subdivision developers acquired numerous lots, as well as a 100-foot-wide strip of land running between several lots and the river’s low water mark. A subdivision plat filed by the developers designated the strip along the river as a private road to be known as St. Julington Boulevard.

Although the developers retained ownership of St. Julington Boulevard, they sold the subdivision lots and granted purchasers the right of ingress and egress along the private road. That road, however, was never paved. Instead, a narrow dirt road measuring slightly over 9 feet wide developed within St. Julington Boulevard’s original 100-foot expanse. At the time of the litigation, subdivision residents still walked and drove vehicles along the small dirt road to reach the river.

Pleasure Bluff Dock Club Inc. v. Poston

Evidence showed that an easement across the disputed road was only 9.2 feet wide, since testimony showed that the dirt road, which had developed through use for over 40 years was adequate to provide ingress and egress to a river in the subdivision in question.

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