Brown & Brown of MT, Inc. v. Raty

Plaintiff commenced an action in the district court seeking a preliminary injunction preventing Defendants, their neighbors, from crossing Plaintiff's land, or in the alternative, a declaratory judgment stating that Defendants did not have a prescriptive easement. The district court granted a prescriptive easement in Defendants' favor but limited the width of the easement to twenty feet. Defendants appealed. Plaintiff cross-appealed, arguing that the district court erred in granting summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact existed concerning whether Defendants' use was permissive, whether the prescriptive easement included residential and recreational uses, and the width of the prescriptive easement. The Supreme Court (1) affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment on the existence of a prescriptive easement; (2) reversed and remanded the portion of the district court's judgment concluding that the prescriptive easement included residential and recreational uses; and (3) reversed and remanded the district court's decision to limit the width of the prescriptive easement to twenty feet for the purpose of trailing cattle. View "Brown & Brown of MT, Inc. v. Raty" on Justia Law