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  1. #1

    Default Blocked From Use of an Easement

    Our easement was established by prescription. A person bought property that was on both sides of the easement. He is claiming that since he now owns property that, according to the deeds, show the property meeting at the center of the easement, he now says he owns that part of the easement, and has stopped everyone from using it.

    The deeds for the property he bought clearly state in text and show in drawings that the easement goes along with the sale of the property. My research has not turned up anything that allows a buyer of property across which the easement runs, to then void the easement and claim that portion of it as his own.

    He is taking me to court on Thursday of this week, May 24, 2007, to stop me from using the easement, which I've been doing for 26 years. I need advice quickly. Thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    38,867

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an easement

    if you have a prescriptive easement and it was subsequently recorded, who originally took it to court to have it recorded as an easement.

    or do you mean you have and easement by grant? where some landowner agreed and allowed and easement across their land, which would have subsequently recorded.

    the only way what you are describing could happen is if the person bought the dominant tenenement and released the easement. If there are other dominant tenents, he could only release his own easement.

    It would appear there are other dominant tenements which he could not release their easement rights.

    btw: the serviant tenent can claim the property as his own because it is his. He simply has to allow others to use it as the easement grant states.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    I need advice quickly. Thanks.
    Have you already responded to the suit? It is late to be asking for advice. I would try to get a continuance or find an attorney in a hurry.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    Thank you for your reply. The chronology is the original easement is mentioned in my deed, dated 1909. The EXTENDED easement subsequently shows up in deeds recorded in the 1970's all the way up to 2007, in the deeds issued to the person who bought the pieces of property which led him to claim ownership of that part of the easement. That extension goes from my house about a quarter of a mile and stops at a piece of property privately owned. I have written permission from that owner to access his property for casual use.

    The person stopping me from using the easement bought 5 plots of land, all abutting the easement. He was not able to buy one parcel, which is at the end of the easement, and which abuts the piece of private property I mentioned above, to which I have written permission to access.

    I'm not clear about the meaning of your reply, which seems to say that a buyer of property across which an established easement runs, can claim ownership of the easement, if only to that portion, and then able to stop public use of that easement.

    This would fly in the face of the reason easements are created, especially by prescription, which is to guarantee public use of that easement. If a person were able to void an easement simply by buying the land across which an established easement runs, there would be no easements in existence.

    Three weeks ago I had a court hearing, a Show Cause action brought by the land owner, in which the judge rulled in my favor, and enjoined the plaintiff from stopping my use of the easement. The same judge will be holding the upcoming Summons hearing, on Thursday, to determine if the case goes to trial.

    Many thanks for your help.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    I'm not clear about the meaning of your reply, which seems to say that a buyer of property across which an established easement runs, can claim ownership of the easement, if only to that portion, and then able to stop public use of that easement.



    No; that is not what the reply was.

    The problem is that you are very confused. (A lot of lawyers don't understand easements either so don't feel bad.)

    You are giving us mixed signals. You say you have a prescriptive easement but then you say that the easements were granted in deeds.

    What is it?

  6. #6

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    Sorry for the obfuscation. Here we go again.

    The easement was created by prescription.

    All of the deeds issued down through decades, clearly state the easement exists, and therefore allows public use of it.

    Plaintiff bought 6 parcels of property that the easement crosses. All the deeds relating to those purchases acknowledge the existence of the easement.

    Plaintiff now claims that he owns that 20 ft wide easement, and is not allowing public access to it.

    Hope I clarified it a bit.

    Thanks for sticking with this.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    204

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    Quote Quoting Qasar
    View Post
    Sorry for the obfuscation. Here we go again.

    The easement was created by prescription.

    All of the deeds issued down through decades, clearly state the easement exists, and therefore allows public use of it.

    Plaintiff bought 6 parcels of property that the easement crosses. All the deeds relating to those purchases acknowledge the existence of the easement.

    Plaintiff now claims that he owns that 20 ft wide easement, and is not allowing public access to it.

    Hope I clarified it a bit.

    Thanks for sticking with this.
    You are mistaken on one major point. An easement does NOT create a public throughway. It grants access only to those described in the easement, and only for the purposes also described.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    Quote Quoting colourfastt
    View Post
    You are mistaken on one major point. An easement does NOT create a public throughway. It grants access only to those described in the easement, and only for the purposes also described.
    My "layman" is showing. Sorry.

    The basic question that this all boils down to is "Can a person unilaterally void an easement status by the simple expedient of purchasing the land that contains the easement and declaring it private property?"

    The court has already determined that the road IS a prescriptive easement, in the recent Show Cause hearing.

    In my case, I personally created a prescriptive easement by using the road for 26 years, but literally tens of thousands of people, over decades, have provably used the road, as well. I'm not concerned with them, as the upcoming hearing deals specifically and only with me, and the attempt by the plaintiff to stop me from using the easement.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    1. The court did not rule on that question of dominant tenant, only that a. the easement was established by prescription b. I have been given permission by the owner of property to access his property via the easement.

    2. To my knowledge, there is no documentation of when and by what situation the easement was created. My deed says that I am given the right to use the road to get to my house. That goes back to 1909. Deeds filed since then acknowledge the easement being established for an extended distance past my house. These deeds are dated from the 1970's (maybe further back than that), to 2007. But I am basing my position on the fact that I have permission from the owner of a piece of property, to access his property for "casual" use. I did so, over 26 years, across lands owned by others, establishing the easement.

    Was it necessary for me, the user of the easement, to have filed something with the court, that legally records the prescriptive easement? My research says "Prescriptive easements are a type of implied easement, in that they arise even though they are not expressly created or recorded."

    3. The guy is not stopping the owner of the parcel of land, that he, the plaintiff, doesn't own, from passing over the easement to get to his land, TO MY KNOWLEDGE, but there is no house there so it probably has never come up.

    4. This entire issue has only been brought to the attention of the court at my recent Show Cause hearing, brought by the Plaintiff, at which time the court ruled that the road I use is an easement by prescription, and I have the right to use it. It's probably never been brought up before, in any court of law.

    5. If I read your response correctly, in order for the Plaintiff to bar my use of the easement, he would have to have purchased the land that I have been accessing (the Dominant Tenement). He has not done that, so that overrides any rights he may have acquired when he bought the Servient Tenements. This is what I have been attempting to ascertain, in my clumsy way.

    It must be hell for someone with your heavy background in law, to have to take someone like me, a rank beginner, to school, in order to have them understand what you are saying. What a nightmare, and I thank you very much for continuing to address my problem. Your perseverence, I think, has finally paid off.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Blocked From Use of an Easement

    The hearing was held today. What it has come down to is it's going to trial, with the burden of proving that I have used the easement for enough years to create it as a prescriptive easement, falling on me.

    I have several neighbors who will probably give me letters to that effect. Anything else you think I should present?

    Thank you.

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