Plaintiff appeals an order of the trial court establishing the width and boundary line of her easement. Defendant cross appeals from the order determining the width and the court’s order refusing to issue findings of fact. For the purposes of appeal the cases have been consolidated.
At the outset we note this is the second appeal for this case. Our original opinion appears at Baum v. Glen Park Properties,
There is no need to state the facts which establish the background for this case, for they are adequately set forth in Baum v. Glen Park Properties, supra. Therefore, only those facts adduced upon remand and necessary to answer the questions posed below will be discussed.
On March 13, 1984, the cause was reheard by the trial court to make specific determinations on the aforestated questions. Plaintiff, Laura Baum, testified that she would need an easement of approximately twenty-five (25) feet or more in order to transport the farm equipment to and from her land. Furthermore, plaintiff stated that she wanted the easement located on the south side of the property. She testified that this was the most convenient area involving the least amount of manuev-ering of equipment.
Defendants Glen Park Properties, John David Cassilly and Joseph L. Mason presented evidence that an easement under twenty-five (25) feet would be sufficient for plaintiff to transport farm equipment. They demonstrated that the equipment that might be used on the farm did not exceed twenty (20) feet in most instances. Moreover, defendants indicated that the northern portion would be a preferable boundary. They demonstrated that neither trees, curbs, nor a sign would have to be removed if that part of the easement were used for ingress and egress by plaintiff and that it would be no more inconvenient for her. Based on this evidence, the trial court found that twenty (20) feet of the easement should be used for road purposes and the roadway should be located on the northern portion of the land. From this order and
Plaintiff asserts the trial court incorrectly applied our instructions in Baum v. Glen Park Properties, supra in determining the size of the roadway and its location. We disagree.
Our review of this case is controlled by the standard enunciated in Murphy v. Carron,
In our previous opinion we remanded the cause to the trial court so that the size necessary for a roadway could be determined. Baum v. Glen Park Properties,
The trial court is in a better position than we are to evaluate the credibility of the witnesses. Thornbrugh v. Poulin,
We find there was evidence to support the court’s finding that twenty feet would be sufficient for plaintiff to use as a roadway. Moreover, even though plaintiff specified her wishes regarding location of the road, her desires were subject to approval by the trial court. As the record indicates a northern location would not be burdensome to plaintiff, while the southern location would result in major expense and inconvenience to defendants, we defer to
As the issues presented By the cross-appeals brought by defendants are moot because of our earlier finding, we' do not reach the merits of their claims. Defendants’ cross-appeals are accordingly dismissed.
Judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
