AARON v.DUNHAM
Filed 3/15/06; pub. order 3/27/06 (see end of opn.)
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
| RICHARD AARON et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. DALLAS DUNHAM et al., Defendants and Appellants. | A109488 (Humboldt County Super. Ct. No. DR000483) |
I. INTRODUCTION
In 2000, plaintiffs Richard and Lilia Aaron (Aarons) purchased real property adjoining the property owned by defendants Dallas and Patricia Dunham (Dunhams). Although the Aarons' new property was served by a steep driveway, use of that driveway had long since been discontinued by previous owners because more convenient access to the property existed via a private road across the Dunham property. This road had been built by an oil company to provide access to gas wells on neighboring property. For nearly 20 years, occupants of the Aaron property had made unimpeded use of this road. Not long before the Aarons' purchase, however, the Dunhams had begun to limit use of the road.
The Aarons filed this lawsuit to establish their right to a prescriptive easement across the Dunham property, based on their predecessors' use of the road. The evidence demonstrated that express permission to use the road had been granted to the owners of the Aaron property in 1982, when the road was built, but that two other sets of occupants had used the road since then without asking or receiving permission. On the basis of this evidence, the jury found that adverse, open, and uninterrupted use of the road had been made at least from 1990 to 1995. Although the lessee oil company had posted signs on the road pursuant to Civil Code[1] section 1008, which would ordinarily prevent the acquisition of a prescriptive easement, the trial court ruled that the signs were not effective because they were not erected by the owner of the property, as required by the statute, and granted the Aarons a prescriptive easement. We affirm.
II. BACKGROUND
The Aarons purchased the property at 1643 Tompkins Hill Road (Tompkins Hill property) in Fortuna in June 2000. The only access to public roads over their property is a one-half-mile-long, steep driveway. The driveway presents difficult passage, particularly in inclement weather. Further, because of its precarious location, maintaining the driveway is â€
