Bishields v. Campbell

Delaplaine, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is the second appeal in the suit brought in the Circuit- Court for Allegany County by James E. Campbell and wife to enjoin Michaele Bishields and wife from barricading a road near Slabtown, over which they claimed a right of way, leading from the public highway through the land of defendants to their own home. In the bill filed on November 2, 1949, complainants alleged that prior to October 26, 1949, they had been using the roadway continuously and adversely more than forty years and had thus acquired an easement over the land of defendants, but that defendants had erected a steel and wire gate at the entrance of the roadway and put a lock on the gate, thereby closing the roadway to complainants and the public. Before testimony was taken, the Court was informed that Mrs. Bishields was dead, and the case proceeded against Bishields as the sole defendant.

It appeared at the trial that the gate complained of was the fourth gate that had been erected there during a period of at least forty years, but the three previous gates had never been locked. Defendant asserted that he had complained of the use of the roadway by complainants, but had never taken any action to prevent them from using it. On November 15, 1950, the Court dismissed the ⁶²⁴ bill, and from that decree complainants took the first appeal. On April 13, 1951, the Court of Appeals reversed the decree and remanded the case for the passage of a decree in conformity with the Court’s opinion.

We held in that opinion, which was written by Judge Grason, that the evidence established that complainants had used the roadway through defendant’s land openly, continuously and adversely more than twenty years, and thus had acquired an easement by prescription. We further held that, since complainants had no other reasonably convenient way to their property, they were not precluded from obtaining an injunction on the ground that they would not suffer irreparable injury because of the obstruction. Campbell v. Bishields, 197 Md. 572 , 80 A. 2d 262 . On April 4, 1952, the Circuit Court entered another decree, which consists of three paragraphs.

The first paragraph declares that complainants and the public have the right to the free use of the roadway over defendant’s property from the public road to the property of complainants. Defendant made no objection to that paragraph, but appealed from the second paragraph, which enjoins him from “maintaining any gate or other obstruction on said roadway or from interfering in any manner with the free use of the same.” As the second decree has given rise to controversy over the meaning of “free use of the roadway,” we think it appropriate to state the general principle that a right of way is merely a right of passage and the owner of the land is entitled to use it for any purpose that does not unreasonably interfere with the use of the easement. Hence, it is held in this State that, in the absence of an agreement or surrounding circumstances to the contrary, the owner of the servient estate has the right to maintain gates on a right of way at the points where the way begins and terminates. Baker v. Frick, 45 Md. 337, 341 , 24 Am.

Rep. 506 . Of course, if a' grant, construed in connection with the ⁶²⁵ surrounding circumstances, shows an intention that no gate shall be erected, such a showing of intention is controlling. It is equally true that