Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Easements
Message-ID: <2862@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 5-Nov-85 13:50:02 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2862
Posted: Tue Nov  5 13:50:02 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 06:30:37 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 52

I recall reading references to "easements" in the past -- as far as I
recall, they involve rights of people to continue doing things as they
have been done in the past, despite the contrary wishes of new property
owners, specifically with regard to rights-of-way. Does the general
public have easement rights, or do they only apply to specific
individuals? I'd appreciate seeing comments from net people about easements
in general, and also if the concept applies in this case:

There is an office building across the street from the building in which
I work. This other building has a parking area built-into the ground
floor, which provided a covered pathway for pedestrians to get into an
adjoining parking garage building and also to cut through to the next
street, thereby saving steps and allowing one to get out of inclement
weather for a block. This area was also used by automobiles going into
or leaving the parking garage, though that also has two other exits.

This building was either bought by a new owner, or is being renovated by
the present owner (not sure which); in any case, the area through which
pedestrians could walk was blocked at times during the construction
work, but this blockage was always removed and the path opened up after
the particular construction/demolition need that caused it to be blocked
was over with. However, just in the past few days, a permanent-appearing
fence has been installed which blocks the pedestrian access and cuts off
the walkway.

Pedestrians have been using this walkway for as long as I have been
working here, and therefore for some time before that. I have been
working in this building since 1973, so there has been at least a decade
of pedestrians having free access to walk through this area. There has
never been any question that this is private property (there were signs
up about the parking area being restricted to the tenants of the
building), but there also was never any restraint or restriction on the
public walking through this route.

Does this history of free public access give an easement and restrain
the owners from blocking the route? Or does it give grounds for a civil
suit or a court injunction to prohibit the owners from restricting
public access now and in the future? I would appreciate any discusion
or explanatory comments on this general area and this specific instance.

(What happens to an easement of right-of-way if the property is changed
so that continued access is impossible? Say, instead of just putting up
a fence by an area which continues to be used for parking, the whole
building was torn down and a new building constructed which closed off
the route entirely? Or would the easement prevent the legal
construction of the new building at all in that case?)

Thanks for comments and advice!

Will Martin

UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin   or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA