Malibu Homeowners Win Right to Cross Camp Property to Reach Meadow

By City News Service

A retired screenwriter/director and his wife won the right Friday to cross the land of a camp for the blind in Malibu to reach a meadow they own that is separated from their home by a creek.

A seven-woman, five-man Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for about two hours before finding in favor of Jeremy Joe and R. Lynne Kronsberg, who were sued by the Junior Blind of America in June 2012.

Attorneys for the agency maintained their clients accommodated the Kronsbergs, but did not want to grant them the unfettered right to drive or walk across their land.

"I am very pleased with this verdict and thank the jury for a job well done,'' Kronsberg attorney Paul Berra said. Jeremy Kronsberg, who penned the screenplay for the 1978 film "Every Which Way But Loose'' and wrote and directed the 1981 Tony Danza film "Going Ape,'' expressed satisfaction with the decision.

"It's been a very long time and I'm deeply gratified,'' he said.

The 76-year-old Kronsberg, who additionally has a background as a lyricist and currently teaches at Santa Monica College, said he and his 69-year-old wife never considered moving.

"If you saw how beautiful it is, you would know what I mean,'' he said.

A Junior Blind representative declined to make any immediate comment.

Attorney Steven Atlee, on behalf of the agency, told Judge Mark Mooney he may bring a motion asking him to determine the scope of the Kronsbergs' right to access the land.

In his closing argument Thursday, Atlee said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lee Smalley Edmon found in 2005 that the couple did not have a "prescriptive easement'' that would allow them to drive or walk across Camp Bloomfield without permission.

A holder of a prescriptive easement can use the property of another without possessing it.

Atlee argued the Kronsbergs should be denied that right once more, despite claims made in a June 2011 letter to the Junior Blind that they had the right to cross the property because they had more than five years of uninterrupted use of the land after the first judgment.

"Essentially what Mr. Kronsberg is doing here is playing a game of `gotcha,''' Atlee said. But Berra told jurors the screenwriter followed the letter of the law in making the claim.

"He knew the law from the first case and he knew what he needed to do to establish these prescriptive easement rights,'' Berra said.

The Junior Blind filed the first legal volley by originally suing only Jeremy Kronsberg.

The Bloomfield Foundation and its trustee, William Bloomfield, also were plaintiffs.

The foundation owns the 40 acres along Mulholland Highway, west of Decker Road.

Kronsberg filed a countersuit three months later, and his wife was named by the plaintiffs as a defendant in an amended complaint filed in November.

According to Berra, the Kronsbergs have crossed camp property for three decades and continue to do so an average of twice a week to reach a 3/4-acre meadow they own and consider "another room in their home.''

The couple said they would have had to cross the Arroyo Sequit creek if they could not traverse the camp property.

Berra noted the two also faced "snakes, poison ivy and other hidden dangers.''
The Kronsbergs use the meadow to hunt for chanterelle mushrooms, check for wildflowers and crows' nests, search for coyote dens and bird watch, according to Berra's court papers.

According to Atlee, the Junior Blind went out of its way to accommodate the Kronsbergs even after the 2005 judgment against them.

"They never tried to stop them,'' Atlee said.

But the operators of the 40-acre Camp Bloomfield had a legitimate concern for the safety of the visually impaired children who are provided with free camping each summer, Atlee said.

The camp also provides education programs throughout the year for schools and other organizations, according to Atlee's court papers.

Atlee told jurors that giving the Kronsbergs a prescriptive easement within Camp Bloomfield would mean that any subsequent owner of their property would have the same right.

The Junior Blind and Camp Bloomfield had no idea the Kronsbergs were attempting to build a claim for a prescriptive easement until they sent a letter two years ago, Atlee said.