DAVIS, Chief Judge.
Joseph Lehmann and his wife, Therese Lehmann, own beachfront property on the Gulf of Mexico in Sarasota County. Cocoanut Bayou Association (CBA) owns the parcel of beachfront property adjoining the Lehmanns' property on the north. This appeal involves a dispute over the location of the property line dividing their respective parcels.
The facts regarding the parties' chain of title to the property are not in dispute. To provide the background needed to understand the issues on appeal, it is necessary to review the recorded transactions that
The 1912 revised plat of the Siesta Subdivision recorded in the public records of Sarasota County showed the property divided into blocks separated by platted streets.
All of the property involved in this litigation was originally owned by E.S. Boyd and his wife Helen with the exception of Lots 10 and 11 of Block 60. These two lots were owned by Kathleen Ingalls, and she deeded title to the lots to James and Alice Thomas in 1945. Then in 1946 the Boyds executed a deed in favor of the Thomases, conveying title to Lots 9, 12, 13, 14, and the north half of Lot 15 in Block 60. Lots 9 and 10 are adjacent to the south side of Bee Street.
In 1950 Mr. Thomas deeded his interest in the above-described property to Mrs. Thomas. The Thomas/Thomas deed contained the same property description as the 1946 Boyd/Thomas deed, that is, the property bordered by the extended center line of Bee Street on the north, Gulf Avenue on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico on the west. The Thomas/Thomas deed, however, was not recorded until 1953.
Prior to that recording, in 1952, Mr. and Mrs. Boyd conveyed to CBA by deed property north of Bee Street. By the Boyd/CBA deed, the Boyds conveyed the south 100 feet of Block 59, as described in the 1912 plat. They also conveyed property adjacent to the northern border of the Thomases' property. The description did not use the lot designations of the 1912 plat; instead it provided a description in terms of platted streets. That is, the point of beginning was the point on the western edge of Higel Avenue 100 feet north of the center line of Bee Street. From that point of beginning, the property line extended west to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, then south along the waters' edge to the southern side of the extended Bee Street, and then east along the southern edge of the extension of Bee Street. This southern
By this description, the Boyds attempted to convey to CBA property that included a twelve-and-one-half-foot-wide stretch of land along the south side of the extended center line of Bee Street from the western side of Gulf Avenue to the Gulf of Mexico — property they already had deeded to the Thomases.
In 1964 Mrs. Thomas conveyed her interest in Block 60 to her daughter, Alice Thomas Shannon. The deed referred to the property by the lot numbers as indicated by the 1912 plat. However, in addition to the property described by lot numbers, the description added the property running from the western boundary of Lot 10 to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico bordered to the north by the line extended from the northern side of Lot 10 west to the Gulf of Mexico. It should be noted that this description included the property located within the land designated for Gulf Avenue. Title to the property identified in the Thomas/Shannon deed subsequently was transferred through several transactions until ultimately the Lehmanns obtained title in 1979.
Upon the purchase of the property in 1979, Mr. Lehmann was made aware of the disputed ownership of the parcel along the northern boundary line of his property. But the Lehmanns believed that the Boyd/CBA deed was a "wild" deed because Boyd had attempted to convey that which he did not own. In what appears to be an attempt to protect their interest in the contested parcel, Mr. Lehmann executed a deed to his then-wife Judy C. Lehmann purporting to convey title to the parcel to her alone. This deed was recorded on July 8, 1982. Although there are several other transactions of record that are discussed by the parties, the transactions described herein are the only transactions relevant to our decision.
In 2012 CBA filed a quiet title action against the Lehmanns seeking a determination that it was the owner of marketable title to the contested parcel, which it described as "that property lying to the south of the center line of Bee Road [sic] had it been extended from the platted portion to the Gulf of Mexico and south 12 1/2 feet west 70 feet and north to the extended center line of Bee Street." The action was brought on both the theory of
§ 712.02, Fla. Stat. (2012).
CBA's complaint alleged that the July 9, 1952, Boyd/CBA deed was a sufficient root of title under MRTA and that more than thirty years had passed since the recording of that deed. According to CBA, under MRTA, the 1952 Boyd/CBA deed was evidence that marketable record title was vested in CBA and that the Lehmanns' claim to ownership was barred.
CBA also alleged that its occupancy of the property, which commenced in 1952, met all the requirements of adverse possession so that its title to the property had vested. Although not alleged in its complaint, at trial CBA argued that it had good title to the contested property and that this property was never included in any of the transactions in the Lehmanns' chain of title.
In its final judgment, the trial court found that the contested property was included in the Boyd/Thomas deed, the Boyd/CBA deed, and the Thomas/Thomas deed. The only property described in all three deeds was the property west of Gulf Avenue. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not accept CBA's argument that the contested property involved in this litigation is limited to the property within Gulf Avenue but rather determined that the contested property includes land west of Gulf Avenue to the waters' edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Because the trial court sought to settle the dispute as to the larger parcel, it is necessarily implied that the trial court did not limit its consideration to the property originally described as Gulf Avenue. Accordingly, our review is limited to the trial court's determination of the ownership of the property it described as the "Disputed Parcel."
For their part, the Lehmanns raised several affirmative defenses below, including exceptions to MRTA spelled out in the statute. See § 712.03. The Lehmanns maintain that the application of MRTA is precluded by (1) the 1953 recording of the 1950 Thomas/Thomas deed, (2) the recording of the July 8, 1982, Lehmann/Lehmann deed, (3) the payment of taxes on the disputed property by the Lehmanns, and (4) the open possession of the property by the Lehmanns. The case proceeded to a nonjury trial on CBA's complaint and the Lehmanns' affirmative defenses.
Although the trial court's final judgment does not mention MRTA, it does include a specific finding that the 1952 Boyd/CBA deed "is the root of title." This suggests that MRTA was the basis of the trial court's determination that CBA's "title to and ownership of the Disputed Parcel is superior to the interest of any party, including the [Lehmanns]." The issue that
"MRTA ... describ[es] certain titles in land of record for a stated time, declares them to be of marketable quality and, with certain exceptions, undertakes to completely extinguish all other estates, interest[s], claims or charges as against such titles." Holland v. Hattaway, 438 So.2d 456, 463 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). The statute provides that once a person — along with his or her predecessors in title — has been vested with an estate in land of record for a period of thirty years or more, he or she shall have the marketable record title to that estate. § 712.02. The statute then goes on to provide that the act would not extinguish competing rights under certain exceptions. See § 712.03. And "MRTA can even confer marketability to a chain of title arising out of a forged or wild deed." Holland, 438 So.2d at 463 (citing Marshall v. Hollywood, Inc., 236 So.2d 114 (Fla. 1970)).
In the instant case, the CBA's quiet title action was filed August 15, 2012. This is the date by which the marketability of CBA's title is to be determined. See id. To determine CBA's "root of title," we must identify the last recorded transaction which both purported to transfer title to CBA and was recorded prior to August 15, 1982, thus satisfying MRTA's thirty-year requirement. As found by the trial court, the 1952 Boyd/CBA deed is CBA's "root of title" as defined by MRTA.
At the time of the 1952 conveyance, the Boyds did not own the contested parcel, and their attempt to convey title to the parcel to CBA was therefore a "wild" deed. Nevertheless, as we have noted, such a wild deed may become the root of marketable title under MRTA. See City of Miami v. St. Joe Paper Co., 364 So.2d 439, 446-47 (Fla.1978) ("[MRTA] is not concerned with the quality of the title conveyed by the root of title so long as the root purports to convey the estate claimed. This can be so even though a deed is not part of the chain of title emanating from the sovereign and is therefore often called an `interloping' or `wild' deed. It can, under the marketable title acts, form a root of title which may eventually cut off the interest of a person who might otherwise have a claim." (quoting Wilson v. Kelley, 226 So.2d 123, 127 (Fla. 2d DCA 1969))).
The next step in applying MRTA is to determine whether any of the exceptions stated in section 712.03 apply to preclude the statute's application. The Lehmanns argued below that the 1953 recording of the 1950 Thomas/Thomas deed and the July 8, 1982, recording of the Lehmann/Lehmann deed triggered the statutory exceptions. They argued that these deeds represented interests in the property arising from title transactions which were recorded subsequent to the date of the root of title — July 9, 1952 — but within the thirty-year period — which would have expired July 9, 1982.
The trial court's final judgment rejected this argument by finding that the 1982 Lehmann/Lehmann conveyance "was not in good faith." With that finding, and the finding that the 1952 Boyd/CBA conveyance was a valid root of title, the trial court determined that CBA had an ownership interest that was superior to that of the Lehmanns and granted the relief requested by CBA. The final judgment, however, does not consider the 1953 recordation of the Thomas/Thomas deed. This was an oversight by the trial court.
Because the Thomas/Thomas deed was recorded after the 1952 recording of CBA's "root of title," the exception to MRTA in section 712.03(4) is triggered. The 1953 Thomas/Thomas deed included the description of the property designated by the trial court as the "Disputed Parcel" and put CBA on notice of Mrs. Thomas' claim to the same property. Thus MRTA cannot be employed to perfect the 1952 "wild" Boyd/CBA deed. Accordingly, the trial court erred in concluding that the 1952 Boyd/CBA deed was the root of title perfected by the application of MRTA and in granting CBA relief based on MRTA.
We note that the final judgment also suggests that the trial court considered and rejected the Lehmanns' counterclaim for title based on their adverse possession of the contested property. We affirm this ruling without further discussion. Because ownership remains at issue, we remand for further proceedings.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
NORTHCUTT and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.
Section of 1912 plat map modified with pertinent detailed references.