## Facts

- Neighboring landowners on Vashon Island disputed access and boundary-related rights involving a recorded, nonexclusive easement corridor used as a gravel driveway.
- The Maiers’ deed granted an easement over an approximately 15-foot-wide strip across neighboring land.
- Giske built a fence and planted shrubs that the Maiers alleged obstructed their easement access and prevented construction of a vehicle turnaround.
- Giske challenged the easement as void under the statute of frauds, asserting the servient estate description was insufficient.
- Giske counterclaimed that the Maiers damaged vegetation and caused a bluff collapse, and sought to quiet title to portions of disputed land by adverse possession.
- The trial court granted summary judgment dismissing the Maiers’ easement-based tort claims as barred by the statute of frauds.
- After a bench trial on counterclaims, the trial court quieted title to some disputed areas in Giske by adverse possession, awarded $21,130 for plant damage, and rejected additional adverse-possession and lateral-support claims.

## Issues

1. Whether the easement description in the Maiers’ deed satisfied the statute of frauds by enabling location of the easement without resort to oral testimony.
2. Whether damages for vegetation injury were proper where some plants were not located on property owned by Giske.
3. Whether the trial court correctly resolved adverse possession and loss-of-lateral-support claims after the bench trial.

## Decision

- Reversed the summary-judgment dismissal of the Maiers’ claims; the deed’s written description was sufficient to locate the easement without oral testimony and therefore satisfied the statute of frauds.
- Reversed the plant-damage award to the extent it compensated for plants not located on Giske’s property.
- Affirmed all other rulings, including the trial court’s adverse-possession determinations and denial of the lateral-support claim.
- Remanded for further proceedings consistent with recognition of a valid easement and correction of the damages award.

## Legal Principles

- A conveyance of an easement must be in writing and include a legal description sufficient to identify and locate the affected property with reasonable certainty, without reliance on oral testimony.
- A description may be sufficient when, using the instrument and objective, readily available public records (such as recorded surveys, plats, or government references), the easement can be located on the ground.
- Damages for injury to real property or vegetation require proof that the claimant owned, or had a legally protected possessory interest in, the property on which the injury occurred.
- Adverse possession requires proof of actual and uninterrupted possession that is open and notorious, exclusive, and hostile for the statutory period; appellate review defers to supported trial-court fact findings.

## Conclusion

The court held the recorded easement description satisfied the statute of frauds because it allowed the easement to be located without oral testimony, reinstated the easement-based claims, and required correction of plant-damage damages awarded for vegetation outside the claimant’s ownership, while leaving the remaining adverse-possession and lateral-support rulings intact.


Maier v. Giske, 154 Wash. App. 6, 223 P.3d 1265 (Wash. Ct. App. 2010)