Opinion ID: 886413
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Elements of a Prescriptive Easement

Text: ¶ 21 The first three issues presented on appeal address findings of fact regarding the existence of a prescriptive easement over Mayflower Road. Therefore, before turning to the first issue, we set out the general requirements for prescriptive easements. The party seeking to establish a prescriptive easement must show open, notorious, exclusive, adverse, continuous and uninterrupted use of the easement for the full statutory period by clear and convincing evidence. Wareing, 280 Mont. at 206, 930 P.2d at 43. If a claimant establishes the elements of open, notorious, continuous, uninterrupted and exclusive use of an easement, a presumption arises that the use is adverse to the servient estate and the burden shifts to the owner to show the use was permissive. Wareing, 280 Mont. at 209, 930 P.2d at 45; Glantz v. Gabel (1923), 66 Mont. 134, 141, 212 P. 858, 860. ¶ 22 The required elements are the same for public and private prescriptive easements. Granite County v. Komberec (1990), 245 Mont. 252, 257, 800 P.2d 166, 169 overruled on other grounds by Warnack v. Coneen Family Trust (1994), 266 Mont. 203, 879 P.2d 715. The only difference is that a public prescriptive easement requires qualifying use by the public, while a private prescriptive easement requires qualifying use only by the private party. Before 1953, the statutory period of use required was ten years, after 1953 and to the present, the statutory period is five years. Section 70-19-401, MCA. The period of prescriptive use by a claimant's predecessors in title inures to the benefit of the claimant. Section 70-19-401, MCA; Rude v. Marshall (1917), 54 Mont. 27, 29-30, 166 P. 298, 298. ¶ 23 Open and notorious use is such that it gives the owner of the servient estate actual knowledge of the hostile claim, or is of such character as to raise a presumption of notice because it is so obvious the owner could not be deceived. Mildenberger v. Galbraith (1991), 249 Mont. 161, 167, 815 P.2d 130, 134-35. Continuous and uninterrupted denotes use not interrupted by an act of the owner of the land or by voluntary abandonment by the party claiming the right. Hitshew v. Butte/Silver Bow County, 1999 MT 26, ¶ 17, 293 Mont. 212, ¶ 17, 974 P.2d 650, ¶ 17. Adverse use is exercised under a claim of rightnot as license revocable at the pleasure of the servient estate. Public Lands Access Ass'n v. Boone & Crockett Club Found. (1993), 259 Mont. 279, 283, 856 P.2d 525, 527. Exclusivity requires that the right to use does not depend on the like right in others. Wareing, 280 Mont. at 208, 930 P.2d at 44.