/LAWN-guh poh-ZESH-ee-oh est PAH-kis yoos/·Latin maxim
Also known as:long possession is the law of peace · prescription
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A principle that long, continuous, and uninterrupted possession or use of land creates legal rights equivalent to those granted by formal title or grant. The maxim supplies the doctrinal foundation for acquiring easements by prescription when the use matches what an easement would permit and satisfies adversity and duration requirements under local law.
Sources & Authorities
How it applies
Common Examples
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Weekly Truck Access Over Gravel Path
Laura Lewis's software startup began driving maintenance trucks several times each week across a neighboring data center's rear gravel path in 2005 to reach a public backbone connection. The trucks followed the same route on a consistent schedule without any written permission or objection from successive owners. After eighteen years of uninterrupted use the current owner erected a barrier, but the continuous pattern satisfied the prescription period and created an easement benefiting the startup's successors.
Long Adverse Use Of Driveway
Neighbor Nora drove daily across Owen's unpaved driveway for fifteen years to reach her own garage without permission or objection. When Owen later fenced the route Nora sued claiming an easement. The court recognized the prescriptive right because the long continuous use satisfied the maxim and local prescription period.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Cases
Uniform Acts
Model Codes
Restatements
Dictionaries
Decades Of Pasture Access
Rancher Ray grazed cattle on an unfenced hillside belonging to a distant owner for the full statutory period. Successive owners never interrupted the grazing. When a new purchaser tried to exclude the herd the court held that Ray's long possession had ripened into an easement under the maxim.
Shared Benefit Of Prescriptive Path
Luna Lang used a footpath across a neighbor's field for the full prescription period to reach a public road. After acquiring title she permitted two adjacent landowners to use the same path under the same claim of right. The benefit of the prescriptive easement accrued to Lang and the neighboring users alike because the original adverse use supported rights for all who stood in privity with the adverse user.
Continuous Irrigation Ditch Use
Farmer Faye diverted water through an open ditch across Grant's acreage every growing season for twenty years. Grant's predecessors never objected. When Grant blocked the ditch Faye established an easement by prescription because the uninterrupted long use met the maxim's requirements.
Unchallenged Boundary Fence
Homeowner Hal maintained a fence twenty feet beyond the recorded line on vacant land for the full prescription period. The true owner never protested. When the owner later demanded removal the court quieted title in Hal under the maxim because long adverse possession had created equivalent rights.
Common questions
Frequently Asked
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What elements must be shown to acquire an easement by prescription under the maxim?+
The use must be adverse, open, and continuous and uninterrupted for the full period of prescription fixed by local law. The character of the use must match what would be permitted if an easement already existed.
May successive periods of adverse use be combined to satisfy the prescription period?+
Yes when privity exists between the successive users, such as through a conveyance that assigns interests in the route or access path. The combined periods then count toward the required duration.
Does the benefit of a prescriptive easement extend only to the original adverse user?+
No. The benefit may accrue to the adverse user alone or to the adverse user and others who stand in privity with that user.
576 U.S. 644 (2015)Legislation and Regulation
…people of the same sex. Does it remove that issue from the political process? Of course not. It would be surprising to find a prescription regarding marriage in the Federal Constitution since, as the author of today’s opinion reminded us only two years ago (in an opinion joined by the same Justices who join him today):…