Opinion ID: 2362105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Continuous Use for at Least 20 Years

Text: [¶ 18] Continuous means occurring without interruption. Striefel v. Charles-Keyt-Leaman P'ship, 1999 ME 111, ¶ 16, 733 A.2d 984, 993 (quoting BRYAN A. GARNER, A DICTIONARY OF MODERN LEGAL USAGE 213 (2d ed.1995)). Continuous possession and use requires only the kind and degree of occupancy (i.e., use and enjoyment) that an average owner would make of the property. Id. (citations omitted). For the purposes of a public easement, however, evidence of the use of a road by the abutting landowners to access their own land is insufficient to establish the existence of a public prescriptive easement. Rather, the test of a public use is the use of the road by people who are inseparable from the public generally; it is not the frequency of the use of the number of people using the way. Id.; see also Longley, 1998 ME 142, ¶ 14, 713 A.2d at 944 (holding, [c]ontinuous public use is not determined by `the frequency of the use, or the number using the way, but its use by people who are not separable from the public generally.'). [¶ 19] There is sufficient, competent evidence in the record to support the court's finding that the City and the public's use was continuous for over 40 years, well beyond the 20 year requirement. See Eaton v. Town of Wells, ¶ 35-37, 760 A.2d 232, 245 (finding as compelling the testimony of residents regarding use of beach). Such a finding is not clearly erroneous.