Jan. 2026 Magazine - Flipbook - Page 12
ATTORNEY’S ANGLE
Because way easements—including those acquired by prescription—are easements
appurtenant, they run with the land until terminated. So, once established, the way easement
allows the successors in interest to the
dominant estate to continue crossing the servient estate along the established way. Easements
appurtenant can terminate by merger of the dominant and servient estates, abandonment,
prescription, or failure of
purpose.
The jury heard three key pieces of evidence that would allow a reasonable andfair-minded
juror to
conclude that Albert is entitled to a prescriptive easement over the gravel crossing. First,
although only Meek had a license to use the gravel crossing, the trial testimony established
that Meek’s successors in interest continued to use the crossing for five decades before
Western objected to the continued use. Second, trial testimony indicated that only the
Property’s owners, their licensees, and their invitees used the gravel crossing during this
time. And third, the gravel crossing appears to pre-date the Meek license by nearly two
decades and was readily observable in an aerial survey of the surrounding area as early as
1941.Western argued that the prescriptive easement finding must fail because the evidence
adduced at trial conclusively established that the adverse use was not exclusive. In
particular, Western argued that both it and its predecessors have continuously used the
railroad tracks that the gravel road crosses for well over a century. This argument
misunderstands the law.
The exclusivity analysis focuses on whether the landowner and the easement claimant
