Gamboa v. Clark

¶1 To resolve disputes over whether someone’s long, unobjected-to use of a neighbor’s property gives rise to a prescriptive easement, jurisdictions apply different presumptions of permissive or hostile use and treat different circumstances as overcoming or shifting those presumptions. In this prescriptive easement case the outcome does not turn on any factual dispute but instead on the proper application of the burden of proof and presumptions provided by controlling Washington cases.

¶2 For 16 years, Magdaleno (Mack) and Mary Gamboa used a gravel roadway located on the property of their…