Mueller v. Hoblyn case brief

Mueller v. Hoblyn case brief summary
887 P.2d 500 (1994)

CASE SYNOPSIS

The District Court of Laramie County (Wyoming) entered a judgment which declared that a portion of an easement was terminated by the adverse possession of the defendant servient estate owner, in an action to quiet title that was filed by the plaintiff owners of the dominant estate. The owner of the servient estate then appealed.

CASE FACTS
The owners of the dominant estate to an ingress and egress easement filed an action against the owner of the servient estate to quiet title to the easement. The owner of the servient estate contended that the easement was abandoned through nonuse, and that his actions in drilling a well and growing crops on the easement had demonstrated his ownership of the easement through adverse possession.

DISCUSSION

• The court held: 
• (1) the right to use the easement was not terminated by the operation of law; 
• (2) the easement was also not terminated by estoppel; 
• (3) the servient estate owner's actions in maintaining boundary fencing, growing various crops and drilling a water well did not terminate any portion of the easement under the rule of adverse possession. 
• The servient estate owner's use of the easement was not adverse to the holders of the unused easement, and it was not inconsistent with the easement's purpose to provide ingress and egress.

CONCLUSION
The court affirmed the judgment in part and reversed the judgment in part.

See also: Mueller v. Hoblyn case (full text) on Google Scholar.

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