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NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, One Charles Doe Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Errors may be reported by E-mail at the following address: reporter@courts.state.nh.us. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ___________________________ Rockingham No. 2009-075 BRENTWOOD VOLUNTEER FIREMAN'S ASSOCIATION v. DANIEL E. MUSSO, SR. Submitted: November 17, 2009 Opinion Issued: December 4, 2009 Craig N. Salomon, of North Hampton, by brief, for the petitioner. Michael E. Chubrich, of Portsmouth, by brief, for the respondent. DALIANIS, J. The respondent, Daniel E. Musso, Sr., appeals an order of the Superior Court (Nadeau, J.) granting the petition to quiet title and for temporary and permanent injunctions filed by the petitioner, Brentwood Volunteer Fireman's Association. We affirm. The record supports the following facts. Since 1992, the respondent has operated a motor vehicle repair business on a parcel of land in Brentwood, approximately one acre in size, which he eventually purchased in 1995. The deed to him described the parcel as lying on the Easterly side of [Crawley Falls Road] . . . and bounded . . . Westerly by said road and Easterly by land of G. Russell Rowe,

the same being the mill yard and mill privilege situated on the Exeter River at Crawley's Falls, so-called, being the middle dam or privilege at said Falls, together with all the mills and machinery situated thereon, and also the mill dam and the right of the flowage connected therewith, and all land connected with said privilege on both sides of said River. Also since 1992, the respondent has, with the petitioner's permission, used land located across Crawley Falls Road for additional customer parking and storage. This land is the subject of the instant litigation. The disputed parcel is located within a larger parcel owned by the petitioner. A deed to the disputed parcel describes it as a triangular tract of land "on the westerly side of . . . Crawley Falls Road[ ] and on the southerly side of the Exeter River," bounded "Easterly by [Crawley Falls Road], Southwesterly by land of the heirs of Joseph Sandborn and Northerly by said Exeter River together with the Mill Privileges and all right in the dam across the river." The petitioner brought the present petition to defend against the respondent's claim that he owned the disputed parcel and to enjoin him from using it to store firewood, various pieces of equipment and registered and unregistered motor vehicles. The respondent argued that because his deed included a mill privilege, he owned the disputed property. The trial court rejected this claim, ruling that any mill privilege the respondent may have possessed was lost by adverse possession or abandonment. On appeal, the respondent contends that this ruling was error. He also argues that the trial court erred when it found, based upon a certain exhibit, that the petitioner owned the disputed property. We address these arguments in turn. We do not address the respondent's assertion that the trial court's decision deprived him of his property without due process in violation of Part I, Article 15 of the State Constitution because he has failed to brief this argument sufficiently and demonstrate that he preserved it for our review. See Appeal of Omega Entm't, 156 N.H. 282, 287 (2007); Bean v. Red Oak Prop. Mgmt., 151 N.H. 248, 250 (2004). In an action to quiet title, the burden is on each party to prove good title as against all other parties whose rights may be affected by the court's decree. Hersh v. Plonski, 156 N.H. 511, 514 (2007). A trial court may not render judgment quieting title to disputed property in the absence of parties with a duly recorded interest in the property, unless those parties claimed no interest and the petition so alleged. Id. We will uphold the trial court's determination unless it is erroneous as a matter of law or unsupported by the evidence. Id.

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The respondent first argues that the trial court erred when it ruled that any mill privilege he may have had was lost by abandonment or adverse possession. He contends that "[m]ill rights and mill privileges can be lost or extinguished only by adverse possession or by adverse use that makes it impossible to exercise [those] . . . rights or . . . privileges," and that the petitioner's "desultory occasional use of the Disputed Area" and its construction of "two `little sheds'" was insufficient to constitute the requisite adverse use. The term "mill privilege" means "the land and water used with the mill, and on which it and its appendages stand." Moore v. Fletcher, 16 Me. 63, 65 (1839). When a mill privilege is conveyed without any exact bounds set forth in the deed, "such deeds have been held to convey so much land as was necessary, and customarily used with the mill." Maddox v. Goddard, 15 Me. 218, 224 (1839). We need not address whether the mill privilege granted to the respondent included the right to the disputed property because, as the trial court aptly found, any mill privilege he could have possessed was abandoned long ago. Contrary to the respondent's assertions, a mill privilege may be lost through abandonment. See J. Angell, A Treatise on the Law of Watercourses

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