Defense Verdict in Favor of Landowners in Prescriptive Easement Case

Gentry Locke’s Real Estate Litigation attorneys Kevin W. Holt and Aidan C. Williams represented the defendants in this case. The plaintiff asserted a prescriptive easement over our clients’ undeveloped property in the Endicott community of Franklin County. Plaintiff alleged that he and his ancestors had used a “soil road” on our clients’ property to access his parcel from State Route 40 for more than 20 years prior to filing suit. The judge found the evidence of plaintiff’s use of the road was too infrequent and inconsistent to meet the burden of proof to establish a prescriptive easement. Neither our clients, nor the previous owners of the land, had seen or heard plaintiff using the path with any regularity over a period of time dating from the late 1990’s. Our clients are delighted with the result as they plan to build their retirement home on the property in coming years.