THE EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC COMPANY v. COVERDELL ENTERPRISES, INC., and CITY OF BRANSON ( 2019 )

THE EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC )
COMPANY, )
)
Respondent, )
)
v. ) No. SD 35236
) Filed: December 5, 2019
COVERDELL ENTERPRISES, INC., )
)
Appellant, )
)
and )
)
CITY OF BRANSON, ET AL., )
)
Respondents. )
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF TANEY COUNTY
Honorable Timothy W. Perigo, Special Judge
AFFIRMED
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of HCW Development Company,
LLC; HCW Private Development, LLC; and HCW North, LLC (collectively, HCW) and
against Douglas Coverdell (Coverdell) and Coverdell Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) on Coverdell’s
claim for adverse possession of approximately 27 acres of property, which includes portions
of the Branson Landing in Branson, Missouri. Following entry of summary judgment in
favor of HCW, a joint motion seeking to have the ruling on Coverdell’s adverse possession
claim reduced to a final judgment was filed by three other parties also involved in the
underlying dispute with Coverdell and CEI: the City of Branson (Branson), Empire District
Electric Company (Empire), and Central Bank of Branson (Central). The trial court granted
the joint motion, thereby disposing of all claims and terminating the litigation. Coverdell
and CEI filed separate appeals. This appeal concerns CEI only. We affirm.
Concurrently with this opinion, we are affirming the judgment in Coverdell’s appeal
via separate opinion. That is our third opinion in this case. See Empire Dist. Elec. Co. v.
Coverdell, --- S.W.3d ----, SD35226 (Mo. App. filed December 5, 2019) (Empire III).1 In
Empire III, this Court determined, inter alia, that as a matter of law, Coverdell cannot prove
adverse possession of the 27-acre tract at issue, which Coverdell described as Property A.
Id., slip op. at 16.
In CEI’s appeal, CEI essentially posits trial court error in ruling against CEI because
it owns Property B, which is a portion of Property A that Coverdell conveyed to CEI by
quitclaim deed. The trial court did not err by granting summary judgment against CEI. It is
well settled that a quitclaim deed conveys only that which is possessed by the grantor and
1
We note the mandate in our second opinion, Empire Dist. Elec. Co. v. Coverdell,
484 S.W.3d 1 (Mo. App. 2015) (Empire II), was limited to further proceedings concerning
the claim for adverse possession by Coverdell only. Id. at 34. To the extent Coverdell might
have prevailed, however, CEI continued to have an interest in the subsequent proceedings
and on appeal. Our mandate stated:
[T]he matter is remanded for further proceedings limited to the resolution of
Coverdell’s claim for adverse possession of Properties A and B as described
in [Coverdell and CEI’s] reasserted claims. If that claim is found to be
meritorious, the trial court will then declare the extent to which Coverdell’s
adverse possession precludes the quieting of title in favor of Branson and
Empire.
Id.
2
nothing more. Webster Oil Co., Inc. v. McLean Hotels, Inc., 878 S.W.2d 892, 894 (Mo.
App. 1994). “Even a good faith purchaser for value under a quitclaim deed obtains only the
rights, title, or interests his grantor possessed at the time he conveyed the deed.” Pankins v.
Jackson, 891 S.W.2d 845, 847 (Mo. App. 1995); see McAboy v. Packer, 187 S.W.2d 207,
209 (Mo. 1945); see also R & R Land Dev., L.L.C. v. Am. Freightways, Inc., 389 S.W.3d
234, 242 (Mo. App. 2012). Here, CEI’s claim of ownership to Property B is entirely
dependent on Coverdell’s claim of ownership of Property A by adverse possession, and that
claim has failed. Empire III, --- S.W.3d ----, slip op. at 16. Because Coverdell had no
ownership interest in Property B, Coverdell’s quitclaim deed “conveyed nothing” to CEI.
Webster, 878 S.W.2d at 894. CEI, therefore, has no ownership interest in Property B.2
2
The property description of Property B was included in both our previous opinions
in Empire II and Empire Dist. Elec. Co. v. Coverdell, 344 S.W.3d 842 (Mo. App. 2011)
(Empire I). To be very clear, because Property B is at issue in this appeal, we repeat its
description here:
A parcel of land situated in the NE¼ of the SW¼ and the SE¼ of the NW¼
of Section 33, Township 23 North, Range 21 West, [Branson], as per general
warranty deed and being described as follows:
Commencing at the Northeast corner of Park Addition to [Branson], thence
N 02º29’46” W along the established property line (as per survey of E.G.
Nightingale, Book 13, Page 16) 27.80 feet to a set rebar being the point of
beginning, thence continue N 02º29’46” W 749.81 feet to a reference point
on the top bank of the mouth of Roark Creek, thence continuing N 02º29’46”
W to the fluctuating waters edge of said Roark Creek, thence easterly and
southerly along the fluctuating waters edge of Roark Creek and Lake
Taneycomo to a point being S 89º41’34” E of the point of beginning, thence
N 89º41’34” W … to a set rebar being a reference point on the bank of said
Lake Taneycomo, thence N 89º41’34” W 242.06 feet to the point of
beginning.
Empire II, 484 S.W.3d at 34 (Appendix); see Empire I, 344 S.W.3d at 847 n.10 (reciting
the same property description when tracing the history of Coverdell’s deed).
3
Accordingly, the judgment against CEI and in favor of HCW, Branson, Empire, and Central
is affirmed.
JEFFREY W. BATES, J. – OPINION AUTHOR
WILLIAM W. FRANCIS, JR., P.J. – CONCUR
MARY W. SHEFFIELD, J. – CONCUR
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