LeDeit v. Ehlert

The San Antone Canyon, which lies east of San Jose, California, in the rugged terrain of the Mt. Hamilton Range, has not only served as a hunting and recreation area but as the locus of this dispute as to respondents’ prescriptive right to cross appellants’ lands for the pursuit of such activities. The dispute is reflected in a controversy over whether the court committed prejudicial error in instructing the jury that an open and continuous peaceable use of the claimed roadway generated a presumption that the use was adverse to the owner. We have concluded that while the better practice would…