## Facts

- Dickerson owned an enclosed parcel of land with no access to a public road.
- Coon owned an adjoining tract that provided the closest access point from Dickerson’s land to a public road.
- Dickerson sued Coon seeking a legal right of passage across Coon’s property to reach the public road.
- Dickerson proposed two possible access routes: (1) using an existing logging road, or (2) a route in the same general area that would be shorter.
- Coon did not contest that Dickerson was entitled to a right of passage, but asked the court to place the passage across a different part of Coon’s land near a property line.
- Coon’s proposed route would be substantially longer and more costly, but Coon argued Dickerson’s proposed routes would cut across Coon’s property, interfere with hunting activities, and run through a desirable potential home site.
- After a bench trial, the trial court fixed the passage along Dickerson’s shorter route and awarded no damages to Coon.
- Coon appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court erred in locating the legal servitude of passage along Dickerson’s proposed shortest route rather than along Coon’s longer, boundary-area route based on alleged harm to Coon’s property uses.
2. Whether the trial court erred by failing to award Coon indemnity for losses caused by establishing the passage, including damages associated with removing timber or otherwise clearing the route.

## Decision

- Affirmed the judgment granting Dickerson a legal servitude of passage and fixing its location along the shorter route.
- Reversed the portion of the judgment denying Coon compensation for damages caused by establishing the passage.
- Remanded for determination and award of appropriate indemnity.

## Legal Principles

- The owner of an enclosed estate is entitled to a legal servitude of passage to the nearest public road.
- The passage is generally fixed along the shortest route to the public road, but the court may select a different location when the shortest route would cause excessive damage to the servient estate.
- The owner who obtains the legal servitude must indemnify the servient-estate owner for the value of the property used and for damages caused by establishing and using the passage, which may include loss of timber and related clearing impacts.
- The selection of the route and the assessment of damages are fact-driven determinations reviewed on appeal under a deferential standard (manifest error/clearly wrong).

## Conclusion

Dickerson, as owner of enclosed land, was entitled to a legal right of passage across Coon’s adjoining tract, and the trial court did not commit reversible error by fixing the passage along the shorter route despite Coon’s request for a longer boundary route. However, because a legal servitude of passage requires indemnity for damages caused by establishing the access, the appellate court ordered the trial court to determine and award compensation to Coon on remand.


Dickerson v. Coon, 71 So.3d 1135 (2011)