Hudson v. Watson

Citations

• 5 Pa. Super. 456
• 1897 Pa. Super. LEXIS 269

Syllabus

<p>Statute of frauds — Parol agreement to abandon an easement — Executed contract — Evidence.</p> <p>A parol contract for the abandonment of an easement will be sustained when such an agreement has been so far executed as to make it inequitable to rescind the same.</p> <p>Proceedings being pending for opening a public road, over lands servient to an easement of right of way, the owner of the dominant tenement made a parol agreement with the owner of the servient tenement that if he would refrain from objecting to the road he, the owner, would release his right of way. Acquiescence being thus obtained and the road opened, such parol agreement becomes executed and cannot be repudiated because not in writing — but the question of alleged abandonment must be submitted to the jury under adequate instructions.</p> <p>Easement by prescription — User must be uninterrupted and adverse.</p> <p>An uninterrupted adverse possession of land for the period of twenty-one years gives a title which is not to be defeated by mere protestation of the owner. He must make entry or bring an action within twenty-one years or his right is gone. The same doctrine applies to an easement. The right claimed however, not only must have been enjoyed without interruption for twenty-one yeai’s, but such enjoyment must have been adverse to the rights of the owner of the land in order to give title.</p> <p>Easement — Right of way — Essentials of title by prescription.</p> <p>Two of the essential qualities of easements are that they are imposed for the benefit of corporeal property and that there must be two distinct tenements, the dominant and servient. They do not attach when claimed by prescription to the person. A right of way by prescription is established when the occupier of the dominant tenement is there by a claim of right and acquires title to the land- by possession and to the easement by user.</p> <p>Charge of court — Erroneous quotation of name of witness, not reversible error.</p> <p>The