Stephen and Jane Riffle successfully claimed a prescriptive easement over a small triangular portion of land owned by neighbors S. David Smith and E. Anne Hayes, which the Riffles had used for parking and access for over 20 years.

Key Points:

• The Riffles and their predecessors used the disputed area continuously, openly, and notoriously since the early 1950s.
• A 1997 survey revealed that the land was actually owned by Smith and Hayes’s predecessor.
• After failed negotiations to purchase the land, Smith and Hayes erected a fence in 2011 to block the Riffles’ use, prompting the lawsuit.
• The trial court found the Riffles had satisfied all elements of a prescriptive easement:
  1. Continuous use for at least 20 years;
  2. Adverse use under a claim of right;
  3. With the owner’s knowledge and acquiescence (or such visible use that acquiescence is presumed).

On Appeal:

Smith and Hayes argued that a “friendly-neighbor” exception should apply, negating the presumption of adversity. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court declined to adopt such an exception, because the trial court found no evidence of a friendly-neighbor relationship between the parties or their predecessors.

Holding:

Judgment affirmed. The court upheld the prescriptive easement and rejected the proposed expansion of Maine law to include a friendly-neighbor exception.

Summary by ChatGPT