[WSBARP] Shot in the Dark

[Paul Neumiller]

As is typical in a rural county, written easement calls for 60 foot access easement but the actual crushed aggregate road is about thirty feet wide.  Client has a plant hedge about 25 feet from actual road with a mowed lawn abutting the actual road (that is, the lawn is in between the hedge and the actual road.  Now, dominant easement holder is driving on client’s lawn by about three feet (but still part of the easement) and is threatening to “tear out” the hedge “because I have a right to and you can’t stop me.”  In fact, there are about 10 servient tenements he is doing this to.  He is a retired Department of Transportation employee so he says he knows his rights and the law.  Unfortunately,  Littlefair vs. Schulze, 169 WnApp. 659 (Div. 2, 2012), says, basically, he (dominant tenement) can do this.

Are there any cases or anything out there that says enough is enough, the road is already a flat, unobstructed, straight 30 feet wide road.  You don’t need any more so stop bullying your neighbors just because you may have the right?  All parcels are at least 2.5 acres.  Any ideas other than going to the guy, hat in hand, and asking for mercy?


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