10-23-1989 - Agenda Packet City Council - regular meeting

Home Browse Search

WURST, PEARSON, L.ARSON, UNDERWOOD & MERTZ Mr. Thomas J. Barrett September 20, 1989 Page 2 Pursuant to the resolution for preliminary plat approval, your office was provided with a Title Insurance Company of Minnesota ALTA Commitment (Application No. H596450E-Supplemental U ). That Commitment shows Mr. Lauer as the proposed insured. Your office has called my attention to Hennepin County Document No. 3028744 (Book 203 of Deeds, Page 252). By that document, 13 various parties grant to one another, their heirs, their successors and assigns, an easement for road purposes over the north 16 1/2 feet of the subject premises. The Wayzata Country Club and the occurants of Fairway Vie-.: appear to be among the present beneficiaries of that easement agreement. Your office has advised me that the plat of Hauser/Lauer/WCC Addition will not be released unless the successors of all of the original parties to Document No. 3028744 (and their mortgagees) sign written consents to the conveyance of a public road and utility easement over Outlots B and C, Hauser/Lauer/WCC Addition. On behalf of Mr. Lauer, I ask that the city delete this requirement as unnecessary for two reasons. First, Ioc--iment No. 3028744, while it does not specifically utiliz• the word "exclusive" or the word "nonexclusive" appears t-) create a nonexclusive easement for road easement for road purposes. Each of the parties to that 1956 agreement was granted the right to convey road easement rights to subsequent owners. (A spot check of the conveyances of tracts in Fairway View, seems to indicate that the subsequent owners have referred to their easement rights over the subject premises as being a "nonexclusive" easement.) Second, while I did not have access to an abstract of title covering the subject premises, a review of the tract index indicates that Mr. Lauer, the Wayzata Country Club, and Mr. & Mrs. Hauser all ultimately derive their title interests from the Samuel h. Bowman, Jr., Trust Under Will (and the Northwestern National Bank, acting as trustee). That trust was one of the parties to the 1956 agreement. Thus, it would appear that Mr. Lauer, the Wayzata 2ountry Club, and Mr. & Mrs. Hauser would have a right to grant a roadway easement to the City of Orono independent of any concerns regarding whether the 1956 easement was "exclusive" or "nonexclusive". I conclude that the City would not be jeopardized by b- lack of consent forms signed by any successors to toe interests created by Document No. 3028744. To obtain these consent forms would place an onerous burden on both the Country Club and Mr. Lauer. A large amount of work would be involved in identifying those successors, identifying their mortgagees. Nei -her the Country Club nor Mr. Lauer nor Mr. S Mrs. Hauser ha,re any control over those parties and it is highly speculative whether the successors under that document could be even convinced to sign the forms.