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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

JAMES E. HARRISON, MARILEE A. HARRISON and the JAMES E. HARRISON & MARILEE A. HARRISON REVOCABLE TRUST, Plaintiffs/CounterdefendantsAppellants, v RAYMOND KUDWA, Defendant/CounterplaintiffAppellee.

UNPUBLISHED June 28, 2011

No. 296532 Iron Circuit Court LC No. 09-004082-CH

Before: RONAYNE KRAUSE, P.J., and SERVITTO and GLEICHER, JJ. PER CURIAM. After a bench trial in this real property dispute, the court entered judgment in favor of defendant Raymond Kudwa. Plaintiffs, James Harrison, his wife Marilee Harrison, and the James E. Harrison and Marilee A. Harrison Revocable Trust, appeal as of right. We affirm. The nature of the parties' disagreement concerns the precise scope of a 1957 easement entered into by the parties' predecessors in interest. The easement granted "a right of way over and across" property currently owned by Kudwa, as a route "of ingress and egress" "to the lands . . . [currently owned by plaintiffs] as and for a private access road and for no other purpose." The easement also contained the following relevant terms and conditions: (2) That the said parties of the second part [plaintiffs' predecessors in interest] shall provide and put in place any additional fencing that may be found necessary to protect the live-stock of the said first parties [Kudwa's predecessors in interest] by reason of the building of said private road, including gate and such cattle guards as may be necessary, all in a manner that shall meet with the approval of said first parties. *** (5) That the parties hereto pledge each to the other to work together and stand together in alll [sic] matters affecting their mutual interest in said lands -1-

and that they will at all times use their best efforts to protect and preserve the private character of the road and the rights granted by this easement. Plaintiffs acquired their dominant parcel in August 2000. Following plaintiffs' acquisition of additional nearby acreage several years later, plaintiffs removed a gate that had stood close to one end of the private road. Kudwa subsequently erected a new, similarly sized gate across the easement on his property. Plaintiffs then filed a complaint seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. After a two-day bench trial, the court entered a written opinion containing the following pertinent factual findings: It is clear from the testimony that at one time, there were two gates on the road. One gate was just west of the end of McClaren Road and one gate approximately on the line between the NE

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