Raney v. Four Thirty Seven Land Co.

This controversy involves the ownership in fee of the servient tenement in a right-of-way burdened by an easement of necessity. The dispositive question is whether necessary parties were before the court in an earlier proceeding.

The area in dispute is a right-of-way, variously described as a “pipestem” or a “dog-leg” shown as “A” and “B” on the diagram attached as an appendix to this opinion. The essential facts are undisputed.

In the late 19th century, Mary Darrell owned a 190-acre tract of land on the Potomac River in Loudoun County. In 1876, a neighbor named Whaley conveyed to her “a piece…