Also known as: easement arising by prescription · easement by prescription · easements by prescription · prescriptive easement · prescriptive easements
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An interest in land acquired when a person makes open, continuous, and adverse use of another's property under a claim of right for the period of time fixed by local law as sufficient for prescription.
Eugene Ellsworth drove daily across a dirt path on Edgar Evers's vacant lot to reach a public road. The use remained open and without permission for exactly ten years, the period fixed by local law. At the end of that time Eugene asserted a permanent right to continue the crossings.
Ella Emerson installed solar panels on her roof that required unobstructed sunlight across Esther Eisenberg's adjacent lot. Ella used the light openly for more than twenty years, yet Esther later built a structure that blocked the rays. Ella sued claiming a prescriptive easement for light.
The plaintiff, Frank Prah, owns a residence in a subdivision in the Town of Muskego that he constructed during 1978 or 1979. His home includes a solar energy system which includes roof-mounted solar collectors located on the south side of the roof. The solar energy system supplies heat for the plaintiff's domestic hot water and space heating. The plaintiff has invested $20,000 in his solar heating system. In 1980, the defendant, Richard D. Maretti, acquired the vacant lot immediately south of Prah's property and began planning to build a two-story residence whose roof would extend to within twelve feet of the lot line. The proposed structure would cast a shadow over Prah's solar collectors during the winter months, rendering the heating system inoperable. Prah informed Maretti about the solar system and asked him to adjust the location of the new home to avoid interference with the collectors, but Maretti declined to modify his plans. Prah then filed suit in the Circuit Court for Waukesha County, alleging that the construction would constitute a private nuisance and seeking injunctive relief along with compensatory and punitive damages. The circuit court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. On appeal, the court of appeals certified the case to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, which accepted certification.
View caseThe use must be open, continuous, adverse, and under a claim of right for the full period fixed by local law.
Supporting sources
The use must continue for the period of time fixed by local law as sufficient for obtaining easements by prescription.
Supporting sources
No. The use must be adverse and without permission. Use that begins with permission does not ripen into a prescriptive easement.
Supporting sources
…across adjoining property. We do not agree with the defendant's analysis. The doctrine of ancient lights was a doctrine of easement by prescription. The doctrine of ancient lights has no application to this case. The plaintiff is not claiming an easement by prescription. The plaintiff is claiming that the defendant's proposed…