In and for the County of Missoula, Honorable Douglas G. Harkin, Judge Presiding. Clerk Chief Justice J. A. Turnage delivered the Opinion of the Court. The District Court for the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County, ruled that the Defendants have not established such an easement.
Defendants raise three issues on appeal.
The first issue, whether the District Court erred in concluding that the Defendants' use of the eight parking spaces did not establish a prescriptive easement, is dispositive. A prescriptive easement is established by open, notorious, exclusive, adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use of the claimed easement for five years. Defendants state their first issue as whether substantial evidence supports the court's conclusion that their use of the disputed parking spaces as established at trial did not constitute open, exclusive, notorious, hostile, adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use so as to establish a prescriptive easement. They argue that the evidence supports a finding that all of the elements of prescriptive easement were established. Defendants have combined their argument to address both findings and conclusions, and in so doing have muddied our standard of review.