REAL PROPERTY-EASEMENTS BY PRESCRIPTION-USE OF PRESUMPTION

Authors

Robert B. Olsen, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Plaintiffs sought to enjoin defendants from using a driveway located on plaintiffs' property. Defendants counterclaimed to have an easement by prescription declared. The parties occupied adjacent city lots. Defendants' predecessor began using the driveway in 1920 without seeking permission from plaintiffs' predecessor. The respective predecessors were on friendly terms at the inception of the user. Defendants and their predecessors made minor repairs to the driveway and claimed at the trial that they had constantly used it as their own. In 1936, two years after plaintiffs acquired full title to their lot, their predecessor executed an abortive quit-claim deed to the driveway to defendants' predecessor. The prescriptive period in the state was twenty years. The trial court granted the counterclaim. On appeal, held, reversed. Defendants' evidence failed to overcome the presumption of permissive user that arises upon a showing that the user had its origin in neighborly accommodation. Although the abortive quitclaim deed of 1936 may have initiated an adverse user, the prescriptive period had not expired before commencement of this action. Lunt v. Kitchens, (Utah 1953) 260 P. (2d) 535.

Recommended Citation

Robert B. Olsen, REAL PROPERTY-EASEMENTS BY PRESCRIPTION-USE OF PRESUMPTION, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1074 (1954).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol52/iss7/15