Rhoades v. Barnes

Citations

• 54 Wash. 145
• 102 P. 884
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 960

Syllabus

<p>Licenses — Parol—Revocation—Frauds, Statute or. A parol license to be exercised on the land of another creates an interest in land, is within the statute of frauds, and may be revoked by the licensor irrespective of performance and expenditures by the licensee.</p> <p>Waters and Water Courses — Prescription—Adverse User. No prescriptive right is acquired under a permission to use water by tapping a water company’s line on the lands of a third person, the user paying therefor by keeping a dam in repair; since the user of the water was not a proprietor, and the use was permissive and not hostile.</p> <p>Same — Lapse or Time — Interruption or User. The initiation in 1898 of a prescriptive right to take water from a pipe on the lands of another, is prevented from ripening by the acts of the owner in 1905, claiming the water and stopping the flow.</p> <p>Same — Grants—Restrictions. A grant by a water company to erect a dam and take water through a four and one-half inch pipe at any point in a creek across the grantor’s lands, does not authorize the use of an eight-inch pipe, nor a change in the location of the dam after several year’s use, the grantee being bound by its first location.</p> <p>Estoppel — Matter in Pais. The use of water under a parol license, which was revoked before any prescriptive rights could ripen, does not obtain rights in the realty by estoppel in pais.</p>