Trial Lawyer’s Takeaway: no tacking is required if prescriptive easement has already vested; prescriptive easements are appurtenant; burden of proving hostility shifts to landowner “many years” after statutory period

This case involved every property law student’s favorite topic: adverse possession.  More specifically, it involved easements by prescription, which are a variant of adverse possession.  The basic gist of adverse possession law in Michigan is that if someone has clearly treated property as their own for a period of fifteen years, and the real landowner has never done anything about it, then that person (the adverse possessor) will have a right to the land.  A similar principle applies to an easement—which is just the right to use another’s land, rather than a right to possess it.  Issues arise when it comes time to transfer property that is potentially subject to an adverse possessor’s interest.  This case analyzes one of those issues.