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