Prescriptive Easement: Owner’s Possession Need Not Be Continuous

  The requirements for a prescriptive easement are that the plaintiff or its predecessors must have used the property for the statutory period of five years. Further, such use must have been (1) open and notorious; (2) continuous and uninterrupted; (3) hostile to the true owner; and (4) under claim of right.

  One potential defense to an action for prescriptive easement is Civil Code section 741 which provides in pertinent part: “No future interest can be defeated or barred by any alienation or other act of the owner of the intermediate or precedent interest, nor by any destruction of such precedent interest by forfeiture . . . or otherwise . . . .” Continue reading