McAdam v. Benson Logging & Lumbering Co.

Citations

• 57 Wash. 407
• 107 P. 187
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 766

Syllabus

<p>Vendor and Purchaser — Bona Fide Purchaser — Notice of Easement — Estoppel. Tbe purchaser of land subject to an easement for a logging road cannot assert an abandonment of the easement by nonuser, where, prior to his purchase, use of the easement had been resumed with the consent of the original owner.</p> <p>Easements — Abandonment—Effect of Nonuser. Mere nonuser for ten years of a right of way granted for a logging road will not defeat the right, or amount to abandonment of, the easement, where no time was stipulated for the use and no provision was made in the grant for restoration of the land on failure to use the same.</p> <p>Easements ■ — • Abandonment — Intent - — ■ Evidence — Sufficiency. Abandonment of an easement is not shown by the fact that the rails of a logging road were taken up and the right of way not used for ten years, where there was no provision that the land should revert by nonuser, the rails were taken up for temporary use pending litigation of the title to the timber lands served by the road, and the financial depressions of 1893 compelled further suspension of operations for several years, it being testified that there was no intention to abandon the road.</p> <p>Evidence- — Judicial Notice — Financial Panic. The court will take judicial notice of the financial panic prevailing in 1893 and subsequent years.</p> <p>Adverse Possession — Estoppel to Assert — Laches — Easements — Abandonment. The plaintiff in ejectment, owner of the dominant estate, cannot recover land granted for a logging road or defeat the easement by reason of the fact that the rails were taken up and the right of way not used for the statutory period of ten years, where it appears that there was no intent to permanently abandon the easement, and that plaintiff had notice of the rehabilitating of the road, assisted in hauling the rails, arranged for gates at crossings, and for several years stood by while the railroad was rebuilt, without objection or demand for possessi