A dispute over access to personal land in Utah intensified after a guy utilized a tractor to clear fully grown trees on his neighbour’s home, arguing that an old easement provided him a path to reach his own land.
The disagreement ultimately included more than the concern of where a roadway might be developed. The neighbour looked for a civil stalking injunction, and the courts needed to think about whether conduct connected to a home dispute might validate constraints meant to safeguard a person. The Utah Court of Appeals outdated May 2026 promoted the injunction versus the male, while a different civil case over the contested easement stayed unsettled.
The judgment likewise took a look at how rapidly courts should hear obstacles to such orders.
Utah land gain access to conflict intensifies after declared residential or commercial property damage
The case, Hasemeyer v. LeFevre, worried neighbours residing in a rural part of southern Utah. Matthew LeFevre thought a historical easement crossed the northern edge of Eric Hasemeyer’s home and would enable him to reach an undeveloped area of his own land. He wished to utilize that path to develop a gain access to roadway, with strategies to establish the land for a home.
Hasemeyer challenged that analysis. An easement had actually traditionally existed in the location, however the neighbours disagreed over whether it stayed legitimate and where it ran. Access to the challenged path was likewise made complex by a locked county gate. The court did not settle the ownership and gain access to concern in the stalking procedures; that concern was being pursued independently.The difference ended up being more severe in October 2024. LeFevre asked Hasemeyer for an essential to the county gate without discussing why he required it.
After turning over the secret, Hasemeyer saw trees falling near the back of his residential or commercial property. He went to examine and discovered that LeFevre had actually utilized a tractor to damage 2 or 3 fully grown trees, according to the Utah Court of Appeals’ account of the proof.When Hasemeyer challenged him, LeFevre stated he was eliminating the trees due to the fact that he had an easement. He stopped the work after the conflict, however the event triggered Hasemeyer to look for legal recommendations.On 16 October 2024, Hasemeyer’s legal representative sent out LeFevre a cease-and-desist letter. The attorney stated a preliminary evaluation of the home deeds and associated records recommended that the declared easement did not exist, while an official title search was still being pursued. The letter required that LeFevre stop trespassing and triggering more damage.
Utah easement disagreement magnifies after more trees are eliminated
The very first fight did not settle the matter. LeFevre later on sent out Hasemeyer a study file that he thought supported his claim to the path.
Supposedly, on 7 November 2024, he went back to the disputed location with heavy devices, obviously the exact same tractor, and eliminated more trees and shrubs while starting to grade a roadway.The neighbours stayed at chances over the files. In February 2025, LeFevre emailed Hasemeyer to inquire about the reaction to the product he had actually supplied. The following day, Hasemeyer’s legal representative sent out another letter, arguing that any easement LeFevre held went through the southern part of the residential or commercial property, not the northern area where the trees had actually been eliminated.
The legal representative once again required that he stop the work.A more fight followed on 26 February 2025. Hasemeyer’s spouse was operating in a greenhouse at the northern end of the residential or commercial property when she saw LeFevre running his truck and tractor. As he approached the contested path, she stepped onto the course in front of him.According to the proof later on thought about by the court, LeFevre continued moving gradually up until the tractor was instantly in front of her legs.
She informed him to remain off the home. He chuckled and left, taking a county roadway back to his home instead of utilizing the challenged path.The encounter did not end there. Hasemeyer had actually seen part of it from inside your house and called 911. Before officers showed up, LeFevre went back to the location with a blade extension connected to his tractor. His neighbour’s spouse tape-recorded the 2nd technique on her phone. She affirmed that he turned rapidly onto the contested path and came towards her at speed, raising the tractor’s blade as he advanced.
She needed to step in reverse to prevent him before he stopped.
Utah court weighs stalking injunction in the middle of a contested residential or commercial property easement
Hasemeyer looked for a civil stalking injunction after the occurrences. The demand was not merely about the loss of trees or the building of an undesirable roadway. It likewise count on the duplicated entries onto the home and the February encounters including the tractor and Hasemeyer’s better half.The court at first approved an injunction without very first hearing from LeFevre.
Such an order is called an ex parte injunction. LeFevre challenged it and asked for an evidentiary hearing, at which both sides might provide their accounts and supporting product.Throughout the hearing, the celebrations used files connecting to the contested easement in addition to proof about the 3 occurrences. LeFevre kept that he was attempting to reach his own land, not pester or threaten his neighbours. He argued that he truly thought he had a legal right to utilize the path which a stalking injunction was an inappropriate method to solve a residential or commercial property conflict.
Appeals court declines difficulty to stalking injunction over contested Utah land
LeFevre interested the Utah Court of Appeals, arguing that his actions did not total up to stalking, the evidentiary hearing was postponed poorly, the pending easement claim avoided the injunction, and its constraints were too broad.The court declined his primary arguments, discovering that the duplicated residential or commercial property entries, tree elimination and tractor encounters supported the injunction under Utah’s stalking law.
Judge Ryan D. Tenney, who composed the viewpoint, included an area on his own behalf (Part I(C)), which the 2 other judges, Gregory K. Orme and Ryan M. Harris did not sign up with.In it he recommended that Utah Supreme Court precedent on when conduct is ‘directed at’ a person ought to be reconsidered. He acknowledged, nevertheless, that the outcome was forced by existing caselaw, and the injunction was promoted.
The court likewise took a look at the hold-up in the hearing
LeFevre had actually asked for an evidentiary hearing on 10 March 2025, 3 days after the preliminary injunction was released.
The district court held a preliminary hearing on 24 March, heard proof on 7 April and got closing arguments on 21 April. The last judgment for that reason came 42 days after his demand.Utah law typically needs an evidentiary hearing within 10 days of a participant’s composed demand, unless engaging factors validate a hold-up. The appellate court concurred that the statute described an evidentiary hearing, not just any court look.
It likewise accepted that scheduling pressures might total up to engaging factors in particular situations.The judges stated courts ought to weigh the factors for a hold-up versus the bias it triggers the individual based on the injunction. The length of the hold-up and the significance of the limitations likewise matter. In this case, the injunction did not avoid LeFevre from accessing his home or office, although it avoided him from entering his neighbour’s home to utilize the challenged path.
The court discovered no reversible mistake in the hold-up.
The easement concern stays unsolved
The appeal did not figure out whether LeFevre had a legitimate easement throughout the northern part of Hasemeyer’s land. The court decreased to consider his argument that a pending civil suit over the path lawfully disallowed the stalking injunction due to the fact that he had actually not effectively raised that concern in the lower court. It likewise declined his obstacle to the injunction’s scope. The order disallowed him from getting in Hasemeyer’s home, properties or residential or commercial property for a duration of 3 years.
LeFevre argued that this successfully avoided him from working out the gain access to rights he declared, the court stated the constraints were within the district court’s discretion under the scenarios. The judges kept in mind that if LeFevre prospers in the different easement lawsuits, he can ask the court to customize or withdraw the injunction. In the meantime, the limitations stay in location.
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