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QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT THE HOSTILITY ELEMENT OF A PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT, PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiffs’ (Schwengbers’) motion for summary judgment in this prescriptive easement case should not have been granted. The action concerned a shared driveway and a question of fact was raised whether plaintiffs’ use of the driveway was “hostile:”

“A party claiming a prescriptive easement must show . . . that the use of the easement was open, notorious, hostile and continuous for a period of 10 years” … . Hostility is the only element contested here. Once the other elements of a prescriptive easement are established, “hostility is generally presumed, thus shifting the burden to the defendant to demonstrate that the use was permissive” … . However, permission can be inferred when “the relationship between the parties is one of neighborly cooperation and accommodation,” in which case no presumption of hostility will arise … . Moreover, “where permission can be implied from the beginning, no adverse use may arise until the owner of the servient tenement is made aware of the assertion of a hostile right” … . “Generally, the question of implied permission is one for the factfinder to resolve” … . …

… Schwengber … made assertions regarding her cordial and cooperative relationship — specifically relative to the driveway — with her neighbors who owned defendant’s parcel from 1974 to 2011. These assertions could be read to infer that plaintiffs had implied permission to use the driveway. Inasmuch as Schwengber’s affidavit contained assertions that supported inferences of both hostility and permissive use, plaintiffs failed to meet their initial burden on their summary judgment motion. Even if plaintiffs had met their burden, defendant submitted evidence indicating that his immediate predecessor-in-interest had an amicable and neighborly arrangement with plaintiffs. Schwengber v Hultenius, 2018 NY Slip Op 02379, Third Dept 4-5-18

​REAL PROPERTY LAW (PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENTS, QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT THE HOSTILITY ELEMENT OF A PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT, PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (THIRD DEPT))/EASEMENTS (PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENTS, QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT THE HOSTILITY ELEMENT OF A PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT, PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (THIRD DEPT))/PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENTS (QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT THE HOSTILITY ELEMENT OF A PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT, PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (THIRD DEPT))/HOSTILITY (PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENTS, QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT THE HOSTILITY ELEMENT OF A PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT, PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (THIRD DEPT))

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