Kershaw Sunnyside Ranches, Inc. v. Yakima Interurban Lines Ass'n

¶42 (dissenting) — Although the majority claims that it merely “builds” upon Justice Charles W. Johnson’s comprehensive approach in Brown v. State, 130 Wn.2d 430, 924 P.2d 908 (1996), majority at 263 n.5, that is unfortunately not true. Instead it tears down the framework constructed there. Brown’s analysis provides a framework for resolving the question whether a grant in a deed to a railway is of an easement or a fee simple interest. The crucial starting point is the presumption that “where the original parties utilized the statutory warranty form deed and the granting clauses convey…