Opinion ID: 1186809
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Scope of the prescriptive easement

Text: The trial judge found that the increase in use of the roadway since 1970 which was due to the business activities of Aquiculture and the four additional residents was not an expansion of the prescriptive easement. The trial judge held that this was merely an increase in degree and was thus permissible. The question of whether the increased use of the road amounts to an expansion of the original easement or merely an increase in degree of use is a question of law. [1] As a matter of law, this increase in use amounted to an expansion of the original easement. We disagree with the trial court and reverse this holding. Thus, a prescriptive easement exists over the appellants' property, but the easement is limited to the transportation necessary for the ingress and egress of a single family residence and the farming and cattle operations as it existed prior to 1970. Prescription acts as a penalty against a landowner and thus the rights obtained by prescription should be closely scrutinized and limited by the courts. 2 Thompson on Real Property § 349 (1961). The quantity of use of an easement obtained by prescription is determined and fixed to the right as exercised for the full period of time required by statute. Palmer v. Fitzpatrick, 97 Idaho 925, 557 P.2d 203 (1976); West v. Smith, supra ; Hall v. Taylor, 57 Idaho 662, 67 P.2d 901 (1937). As mentioned earlier the prescriptive period in Idaho is five years. I.C. § 5-203. The only use made of this roadway for the full prescriptive period was that of an access road for ingress and egress of a single family residence and the attendant movement necessitated by the cattle and farming operations conducted on the dominant estate. The increased use of the roadway as an ingress and egress for the commercial business and the additional four residents commenced at the earliest in 1970. This action was filed in January, 1974. Thus this increased use has not occurred for the requisite five years. There appear to be no Idaho cases dealing with this issue. We find persuasive the reasoning of the California Court in Bartholomew v. Staheli, 86 Cal. App.2d 844, 195 P.2d 824 (1948): When an easement is acquired by prescription, the extent of the right is fixed and determined by the manner of use in which it originated. An easement acquired by prescription cannot be extended or increased so as to enlarge the burden except by grant or by adverse user which has been acquiesced in for the required statutory time. One who has acquired an easement by prescription or by grant may not use it to impose a substantial increase or change of burden on the servient tenement. [citations omitted] The scope of a prescriptive easement is determined by the use through which it is acquired. A person using the land of another for the prescriptive period may acquire the right to continue such use, but does not acquire the right to make other uses of it. [Citations omitted]. 195 P.2d 828-9. In the Bartholomew case the facts indicated that from 1929 until 1943 the defendants in the action had used the roadway across the plaintiff's property for the purposes of ingress and egress to their home and farming operation. In 1943 the defendants organized and maintained a nudist colony, dude ranch, and subdivision on their property. This new business greatly increased traffic over the roadway. Suit was filed to enjoin this additional traffic in 1945. The court found that a prescriptive easement existed for the purposes of traveling to and from the defendant's property as a single family dwelling and farm, but not for the traffic caused by the resort or the subdivision. Likewise, in Campbell v. Winchester Realty Company, 294 S.W.2d 919 (Ky. 1956), the highest appellate court in Kentucky limited the scope of a prescriptive easement. The dominant estate in this case had been used for a livery stable and poultry business. The owners of the dominant estate, the plaintiffs, had used a passageway over defendant's property in connection with these businesses. The dominant estate was later used for a plumbing business and the passageway over the servient estate was used for customers of the new businesses and for hauling garbage. The court held that a prescriptive easement may have been established, but not for the new business. The court held that an easement by prescription is limited by the purpose for which it is acquired and the use to which it is put. 294 S.W.2d at 920. The authorities of other jurisdictions support the principle that the extent and scope of a prescriptive easement cannot be enlarged unless the increased use has occurred for the entire statutory period required by law. The trial court erred in finding that the respondents' prescriptive easement extended to the increase in traffic due to the business of Aquiculture and the four additional family residences. The increased use extended beyond the original prescriptive easement. Title 7, ch. 7 of the Idaho Code allows private persons to exercise eminent domain rights to acquire by-roads for access from highways to farms and residences. Thus, our decision will not inhibit the development of property in this state or be an undue hardship on the parties in this case who commenced use of the road after 1970. We do not mean to imply from our decision today that any increase in use of a prescriptive easement is an expansion. Our decision is consistent with §§ 478 and 479 of the Restatement of Property concerning evolution and expansion of easements. [2] Rights obtained by prescription should be strictly limited, and we read these sections of the Restatement narrowly. We are aware that some changes in the character of the dominant estate are foreseeable and will necessitate changes in the use of a prescriptive easement. We emphasize, however, that any changes in the use of a prescriptive easement cannot result in an unreasonable increased burden on the servient estate and that the increase in use must be reasonably foreseeable at the time the easement is established. We may illustrate this point by example. The respondents Wallace and Eda Connolly purchased the dominant estate in 1967. The respondents leased portions of their property for pasturage and cattle were hauled over the roadway in question. Any increase in use caused by these leasing operations would not be an expansion of the easement, merely a permissible increase in degree of use. The original easement contemplated the operation of a cattle ranch and the further development of this cattle ranch would be foreseeable. Also this additional use would not amount to an unreasonable increased burden because of the infrequency of the trips.