A five-metre-wide, 500-metre-long gravel road has divided two brothers and their spouses so decisively that a Supreme Court of B.C. intervention was required to solve the dispute.
A ruling from Justice G.P. Weatherill in Vernon court on Sept. 27 described the beginnings of the road-based brotherly dispute. It began with a city road that didn’t actually belong to the city, 30th Avenue SW, which runs between the men’s 40-acre adjacent farms and is entirely within two BC Hydro rights of way.
Launching the legal case were Danny Bland and Margaret Maria Bland, against Stanley Bland, Laura Bland and the City of Salmon Arm.
After a survey in 2012, it was discovered the city didn’t own the road – which it had been maintaining by grading and snowplowing for years – and about two-thirds of it encroached upon Stan’s property.
Beginning in June 2014, states the court document, Stan attempted to prevent Danny, Margaret and their customers from using the road. Concrete blocks restricted the ability of commercial trucks from entering the road, as well as a loader that was parked in the middle.
“Despite Stan’s statements to the contrary,” states the judge, “I am also satisfied that once he was made aware of the encroachment, he took deliberate and measured steps to disrupt the petitioners’ access… The parties have been estranged for many years and I am satisfied that Stan’s actions since June 2014 are directly related to and triggered by that estrangement.”
Danny and Margaret asked the court for a vesting order transferring ownership of, or an easement over, the encroachment.
“They say that without the ability to use the access road, their home and farm property would be landlocked,” states the document. They also claim damages against Stan and Laura for interfering with their use of the road in violation of an interim injunction made against them in July 2014.
They argued that, for as long as anyone can remember, and probably since at least 1906, the road has been considered a public roadway.
Stan opposed their requests on the basis that they can build a new road on property they own next to it. He also denied breaching the terms of the injunction.
The judge decided that Danny and Margaret’s petition would be allowed. He stated they have proven that the road is the only access to their property, given that an access road proposed by Stan could not be built without BC Hydro’s blessings, which are not forthcoming. “There is no other realistic option.”
He also said he accepts an appraisal which says the value of Danny and Margaret’s property would be reduced by half without the access road, a decrease of more than $680,000. Loss of the encroachment to Stan and Laura’s property would be a “mere $5,000,” he stated.
Once Danny and Margaret have paid Stan $5,000, title of the encroachment will go to them.