ROAD RAGE IN AGUA DULCE NEIGHBORS SUING TO GET RIGHT OF WAY THROUGH OASIS PARK.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS

Staff Writer

AGUA DULCE -- In 1953, a woman who made a living raising chickens sued the owner of a property who gated off the road to her home.

Today, a dispute for the same road easement that poultry farmer Laura Burke won in court more than 50 years ago is simmering between residents of a remote mountainous enclave along Briggs Road and the owner of a former mobile home park.

And as the court battle heads toward a trial, proceedings are in the works at Metrolink to help the residents' cause by allowing them an at-grade crossing into Oasis Park. A report to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich on whether the crossing would be safe is due back early this week.

In the court battle, the attorney for Rancho Agua Dulce recently withdrew his motion to dismiss the residents' lawsuit seeking road access.

He did that after attorneys for the residents submitted documents to the court that include the 1954 judgment granting a road easement to Burke, a Briggs Road resident, and barring the then-owners of the property and their successors from "interfering with or obstructing in any way, the use of said easement."

The 1954 judgment could set a precedent for the current dispute between Briggs Road residents and Rancho Agua Dulce.

"It's subject to interpretation," said Richard Marks, an attorney for the residents. "But I believe that it binds. ... (It's) something that a judge would certainly be interested in too, knowing that 53 years ago another judge found there was a prescriptive easement to Oasis Park."

A November trial has been scheduled in the case.

Manny Fernandez, a co-owner of the park, said his attorney will re-file a motion to dismiss.

"We are still confident that we're going to win this case," he said. "There's no way that these people can prevail."

Residents of Briggs Road drove through Oasis Park for decades to get to Soledad Canyon Road. They have had to take a longer back route since August 2004, when the route through Oasis Park was closed off by new owner Rancho Agua Dulce.

Burke, the poultry farmer from the 1950s, had been crossing through the property for decades until 1953, when the property owner put a metal post in the road and later a locked gate, according to her lawsuit.

To gain a prescriptive easement to cross through Oasis Park, residents of Briggs Road need to prove that they crossed through before without permission. To meet the requirements of the law, Burke also had to prove that she crossed the property "adversely" to the interests of the property owner.

But the legal terms have become more confrontational since then. While Burke's lawsuit said that she crossed "openly and peaceably," several Briggs Road residents now say in writing that they crossed the property in a "notorious" manner that was "hostile, adverse and under claim of right," according to court documents.

With the Metrolink report's imminent release, the dispute shows no signs of getting less hostile in the coming weeks.

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