Claiming that he lacks any other reasonable means of access to his property, Larry Pierce filed a petition in the Superior Court of Forsyth County for condemnation of a private way of necessity over the adjacent lands of John Kenneth Wise and Hopeful, LLC. Pierce also sought damages on various theories, including intentional infliction of emotional distress. After the trial court denied the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment on the issue of Pierce’s necessity for the private way, the case proceeded to a jury trial. After the court granted Wise’s motion for directed verdict on Pierce’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the jury found that Pierce has a means of access to his property. Accordingly, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Wise and Hopeful on Pierce’s petition. Pierce appeals. For reasons which follow, we affirm the grant of Wise’s motion for directed verdict on Pierce’s tort claim but reverse the entry of judgment against Pierce on his petition for condemnation of a private way of necessity. Pierce owns a triangular 0.40-acre parcel of property located in Lot 31 of Lawson Manor Subdivision. He bought the property for $10,000 in 2000. The adjacent Lots 30 and 32 are owned by Wise and Hopeful, respectively. According to Pierce, the tip of his triangular parcel touches the adjacent public roadway, Lawson Drive, at a point so narrow that it does not permit him to access the roadway without traversing either Wise’s property on the one side or Hopeful’s property on the other. According to Pierce, the base of the triangle gives him approximately “100 foot coverage of waterfront on Lake Lanier.”
Following his purchase, the United States Army Corps of Engineers allowed Pierce to build a boat dock in Lake Lanier, thereby giving Pierce access to his property via the waterway. In addition, Wise orally gave Pierce permission to cross over Wise’s Lot 30 to gain access to Pierce’s Lot 31 via Lawson Drive. Subsequently, however, Wise and Hopeful sent Pierce letters instructing him to cease and desist from gaining access to his property from Lawson Drive over their properties.
