Winery appeals court ruling in Alexander Valley land dispute

An act of neighborly generosity between two Alexander Valley vineyard owners has ended up in a long court battle that’s still not over for two warring families on Highway 128.
Attorneys for Soda Rock Winery owners Ken and Diane Wilson are appealing  a recent Sonoma County Superior Court ruling that the Wilsons were improperly using a neighbor’s dirt road for access to their Soda Rock Winery and tasting room.
The legal clash began in 2008 when the Wilsons, owners of a half-dozen Healdsburg area winery properties, were renovating the historic Soda Rock Winery they bought in 2000. The winery’s tasting room opened two years ago.
Their next door neighbor, Belle Terre vineyard owner Ronald Dick, initially had let the Wilsons use an old dirt road running between their properties as “a neighborly accommodation,” said Belle Terre’s attorney Lourdes Lopez of the Healdsburg law firm of Passalacqua, Mazzoni, Gladden, Lopez & Maraviglia.
But after noticing an increase in traffic and dust as the Wilson winery work proceeded, Dick asked the Wilsons to stop using the Belle Terre “avenue” that historically was only utilized for Belle Terre vineyard maintenance use, according to the civil action filed in Sonoma County Superior Court.
Wilson countered that Dick was mistaken about the Belle Terre property line. Soda Rock’s property actually extended more than nine feet onto the Belle Terre vineyard road, said Wilson.
Dick, whose family has owned the 147-acre Belle Terre Ranch since 1943,  commissioned a survey that indicated Wilson was wrong.
The property line is clearly marked by a row of “ancient oak trees” between the neighboring parcels, with the disputed road on the Belle Terre side of the oaks, according to the survey, said Lopez in her court statements.
Dick asked the Wilsons to stop using the road in 2008 and went to court to have the property line dispute resolved through the legal process called “quiet title.”
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Arthur Wick’s decision in the case included a ruling last month that the Wilsons must pay more than $116,000 in attorney’s fees to their neighbor.
The monetary award was fair because Belle Terre “was the prevailing party in every applicable measure,” said Wick.
The judge also ordered the Wilsons to stay off the Belle Terre vineyard dirt road.
In his ruling justifying the attorneys’ fees, “The suit involved defending the plaintiff’s property, enjoining trespass, and establishing the true boundary between the warring neighbors,” wrote Wick.
“Every aspect of the plaintiff’s case was disputed and vigorously litigated. The case involved no fewer than seven depositions, numerous expert witnesses, and a four day court trial. The court also notes that the case has been litigated since 2009,” said Wick. “This case was not a simple run of the mill neighbor/property line dispute.”
Attorney’s fees at $350 an hour are reasonable for “a litigator in Sonoma County with Ms. Lourdes’ and Mr. [Thomas] Passalacqua’s experience,” said Wick. “The number of hours also is reasonable for the length and difficulty of the case.”
The Wilson’s attorney, Richard De Liberty, has appealed the decision to the state court of appeals.