Property Before the Classroom: Adverse Possession, Prescriptive Rights, Easements, Licenses, Profits, and Scope of Use

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EPISODE SUMMARY
Adverse possession allows a possessor to acquire title by satisfying statutory requirements for the limitations period. The common elements are actual, open and notorious, exclusive, adverse or hostile, and continuous possession. Tacking allows successive possessors to combine periods if privity exists. Disabilities may extend the limitations period only if present when adverse possession begins.Adverse possession of personal property varies by jurisdiction, with discovery rules, demand-and-refusal rules, or traditional limitation principles used for stolen or hidden objects.A prescriptive easement arises through open, notorious, adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use for the statutory period. Unlike adverse possession, it gives a right to use land, not title.An easement is a nonpossessory right to use another’s land. The servient estate is burdened. The dominant estate is benefited when the easement is appurtenant. Easements appurtenant benefit land and usually run with it. Easements in gross benefit a person or entity; commercial easements in gross are often transferable.Easements may be created expressly, by implication, by necessity, by prescription, or by estoppel. Express easements usually require a writing. Implied easements arise from apparent, continuous, reasonably necessary prior use at severance. Easements by necessity arise when severance leaves land without access. Easements by estoppel arise from permission plus reasonable reliance.Licenses are permissions to enter or use land. They are generally revocable and do not create property interests, though reliance may make a license irrevocable through estoppel. Profits allow entry onto land to remove natural resources.The scope of an easement depends on its terms, purpose, method of creation, and reasonable expectations. Overburdening occurs when use exceeds the permitted scope. Easements may terminate by release, merger, abandonment, prescription, expiration, condemnation, estoppel, end of necessity, destruction, or express terms.The key lesson is that property rights can arise from long possession, necessary access, prior use, written grant, reliance, or prescription. Students must identify whether a right exists, what kind of right it is, how far it extends, and when it ends.