Pike Secures Judgment Obtaining Injunctive Relief and Quieting Title in San Leandro Boundry Dispute Case
Knox Ricksen’s Gregory D. Pike, on behalf of the plaintiffs, successfully represented two San Leandro homeowners in boundary dispute case involving issues including prescriptive easement, injunctive relief and declaratory relief. The case arose out of a property dispute involving the use of a paved area between the side of plaintiffs’ house and the back of defendants’ house that since 1954, had been used by the owners of plaintiffs’ house as a driveway leading to the detached garage belonging to plaintiffs’ house. From June 1998 until 2003, defendants did not use any portion of the driveway for any purpose other than for maintenance or repair to the back of their house. It was not until late in 2003 that defendants began to use the driveway area to store their refuse bins on the back of their house in part of the space that plaintiffs had used. In February 2005 the defendants escalated their behavior and began blocking plaintiffs’ access to the entire driveway through various means culminating in defendants erecting a fence down the middle of the driveway that plaintiffs had always used.
After trial of the matter before Judge David Hunter in Alameda County Superior Court, a verdict was return in favor of Pike’s clients and on May 26, 2006 judgment was entered granting plaintiffs Quieting Title to a Prescriptive Easement for use of the disputed portions of the driveway. The court found that Pike quieted title to such prescriptive easement, and the easement could be recorded with the County Recorder’s Office.
Based on Pike’s arguments, the Court exercised its equitable jurisdiction and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting defendants from interfering with plaintiffs’ use of the driveway, including, prohibiting defendants from: placing or allowing the placement of traffic cones, garbage or recycle bins, or any objects or barriers at any location on the driveway; threatening to prevent or taking any actions to prevent plaintiffs or the passengers of plaintiffs' vehicles from entering or exiting within 24 inches of the property line separating the properties; and towing or threatening to tow any of plaintiffs' vehicles parked pursuant to the prescriptive easement.
