Also known as: adversely enjoyed · hostile use · adverse use
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Possession or use of land under a claim of right against the property owner. The use must remain continuous and uninterrupted for the prescriptive period to create an easement.
Andre Antoine's logistics firm drove maintenance trucks across a neighbor's gravel path several times each week to reach a backbone connection. The pattern continued without any pause in the firm's asserted right for more than a decade. When the neighbor later blocked the path, the firm claimed a prescriptive easement based on the unbroken attitude of adverse use.
Adrian Aguilar ran fiber optic cable along a strip of adjacent land and used it openly for server maintenance. The servient owner never filed suit or took steps outside court to stop the activity during the full prescriptive period. Aguilar therefore asserted that the use remained uninterrupted and ripened into an easement.
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Aaron Adams maintained a footpath across a working farm for seasonal training access over many years. The use stayed continuous and uninterrupted for the entire period required by local prescription rules. Adams claimed the resulting easement extinguished any inconsistent rights of the farm owner.
Ava Adebayo crossed a neighboring parcel only during spring and fall training seasons for more than the prescriptive period. The denial of the owner's rights occurred solely in those seasons. Any easement that arose was therefore limited in duration to the exact scope of that seasonal denial.
Alexis Archer continued to drive maintenance vehicles across a strip of land after the prescriptive period had run. The servient owner sued for trespass based on the ongoing crossings. Archer invoked the immunity that arose from the completed adverse use during the prescription period.
Alice Atkins and her successor continued the same pattern of adverse path use after a sale that transferred all interests in the route. The combined periods satisfied the full prescription requirement. The successor therefore held the easement that had ripened through the tacked adverse enjoyment.
The use must be adverse, open and notorious, continuous, and uninterrupted for the full prescriptive period. Continuity requires no break in the essential attitude of mind required for adverse use. Uninterrupted use means the servient owner neither sues successfully nor stops the use without litigation.
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The durational extent is limited by the exact denial of the servient owner's rights during the adverse use. Seasonal or periodic use therefore produces an easement only for those periods and intensities.
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Once the prescriptive period ends, the user gains immunity from liability for the acts of use that occurred during that period.
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Yes, when privity exists between them, such as through a deed assigning interests in the route. The combined periods can satisfy the full prescription requirement.
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…appellants contend that their constitutionally established rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to exclude appellees from adverse use of appellants' private property cannot be denied by invocation of a state constitutional provision or by judicial reconstruction of a State's laws of private property. We postponed…