Widmayer v. Leonard

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that the burden of persuasion concerning a prescriptive easement remains with the claimant throughout trial; however, after many years of use, the burden of producing evidence shifts to the opponents of the easement to establish that the claimant's use was merely permissive
• explaining that a rebuttable presumption “permits . . . a directed verdict if the opposing party fails to introduce evidence rebutting the presumption”
• noting that it was for the finder of fact to “weigh the evidence submitted by the parties regarding adverse and permissive use”
• providing that a presumption “is dissipated when substantial evidence is submitted by the opponents to the presumption”
• “if the jury finds a basic fact, they must also find the presumed fact unless persuaded by the evidence that its nonexistence is more probable than its existence”
• “if the jury finds a basic fact, they must also find the presumed fact unless persuaded by the evidence that its nonexistence is more probable than its existence”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).