Court Opinion

ID: 9619975
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:36:19.100609+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:46.189510
License: Public Domain

*924HALLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
The majority opinion at the outset says that the plaintiff, defendant in error, was entitled to an easement in this case because of 60 O.S.1951 § 49. This section has no application to the facts in this case for the following reasons: First there was no grant of an easement either actual or implied; Second there was no easement by prescription. Parties agree there was no actual grant of an easement. In order to obtain a grant by implication the two lots involved in this suit must have been owned by a single owner. This never existed here. Haas et al. v. Brannon, 99 Okl. 94, 225 P. 931, 936. I quote from this case:
“It may be said in general that the tendency of the courts is to discourage implied grants of easements, since the obvious result, especially in urban communities, is to fetter estates and retard buildings and improvements, and is in violation of the policy of the recording acts.”
Was there an easement obtained in this case by prescription? I say not. The evidence before us shows that use made of the stairway, the stair landing and the space amound it was at all times permissive. No evidence of adverse use or possession of the premises by either the owners or occupants of the premises involved has been shown. From the erection of the buildings on the respective lots, the use of them by all was permissive. It has long been the rule in this jurisdiction that mere license or permissive use of lands of another, however long continued, will not ripen into a prescriptive right or easement. Catterall v. Pulis, 137 Okl. 86 278 P. 292; Thomas v. Morgan, 113 Okl. 212, 240 P. 735, 43 A.L.R. 934.
I think that Union National Bank of Lowell v. Nesmith et al., 238 Mass. 247, 130 N.E. 251, lays down the sound rule of law to follow in the case at bar. The majority opinion cites Rothschild et al. v. Wolf et al., 20 Cal.2d 17, 123 P.2d 483, 154 A.L.R. 75, as sustaining its position. With that I cannot agree. In the last mentioned case there was an agreement creating an easement and in the case at bar there is no such agreement. I say that no easement exists in this case either by grant or prescription.
I dissent.
I am authorized to state that WELCH, J., concurs in the views expressed herein.