Dyer v. Thurston

Plaintiffs-appellants and defendants-appellees are adjoining landowners. At one time both properties were owned by one owner. For a good number of years in the past there had been joint use by the residents of the two properties of a path that runs from defendants’ property, across plaintiffs’ property, and thence to a lake. Plaintiffs in 1967 became unwilling to allow defendants to use the pathway and constructed a fence across their property. Defendants took down the fence and continued to use the pathway.

The lower court, sitting without a jury, found that defendants had a prescriptive…