Gancsos v. Israel

Syllabus

The defendant property owners appealed from the trial court's judgment for the plaintiff, an abutting property owner, in connection with the defendants' trespass and breach of contract involving a shared easement area. The defendants claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly found that they had trespassed on the plaintiff's property. Held: The trial court's conclusion that the defendants trespassed on the plaintiff's property was not clearly erroneous, as the court's finding that the plaintiff possessed the disputed area where he had installed a fence had support in the record and this court was not left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake had been committed. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering injunctive relief for the plaintiff, namely, that the defendants restore the easement area to its prior condition by removing certain curbing and stone walls they had installed, because the plaintiff, as an owner of the easement who had been disturbed in the exercise of his right of access to his property, was permitted to enforce his covenant by injunction without a showing that violation of the covenant will cause him harm, so long as such relief was not inequitable. Argued April 21—officially released July 8, 2025