Furman E. Hendrix, Inc. v. Hanna

Barnes, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Proctor, J.) declaring that the appellees, Benjamin Franklin Hanna and Betty Evelyn Hanna, his wife, have acquired by prescription a right-of-way adjoining their southeast property line extending from the White Hall Road to the driveway leading to the appellees’ garage, that the appellant, Furman E. Hendrix, Inc., pay the appellees $782 as damages for interference with the right-of-way, and that the appellant be enjoined from interfering with the appellees’ use of the right-of-way. The Chancellor found that for many years, at least as far back as 1919, the lane which ran from the White Hall Road, along the easterly side of appellees’ property, in a southerly direction back into the property of the appellant had been used by the appellees and the appellant, or their predecessors in title, jointly. The lane started out as a dirt road, was improved by the addition of stone from time to time, the stone having been put on the road by both the appellees and the appellant.

The road was tarred and chipped in the 1940’s by Baltimore County, the appellant paying for the work. The road was used to get household supplies, fuel and gas to the appellees’ premises. It was used by members of the appellees’ family and by customers of the appellees’ flower operation that was conducted on their premises. The appellant or its predecessors in title used the road as an entrance to its farm and as a roadway for tank trucks hauling molasses from storage tanks located on the appellant’s land beyond the appellees’ premises. ⁴⁴⁵ It is not disputed that in order to establish an easement by prescription it is only necessary to prove an adverse, exclusive and uninterrupted use of the way for twenty years.

See Shuggars v. Brake, 248 Md. 38 , 234 A. 2d 752 (1967); Clayton v. Jensen, 240 Md. 337 , 214 A. 2d 154 (1965); Cox v. Forrest, 60 Md. 74 (1883). The appellant contends, however, that (1) the well established rule that where a person has used a right-of-way for twenty years unexplained it is presumed that the use has been under a claim of right or adverse, unless it appears to have been by permission (see Shuggars v. Brake, supra, and cases cited therein), does not apply where the way in question is shown to have been opened or maintained by the owner of the soil for his own benefit and the claimant’s use of it appears to