McCumbers v. Puckett
Court of Appeals of Ohio
918 N.E.2d 1046 (2009)
The McCumberses (plaintiffs) and the Pucketts (defendants) were next-door neighbors. Gary Puckett agreed to build the McCumberses a garage next to the Pucketts' existing driveway and completed 80 to 90 percent of it before quitting; the McCumberses hired someone else to finish it and paved a connection to the Pucketts' driveway. Years later, after an unrelated mailbox dispute, Gary threatened to fence off the driveway and block the McCumberses' access to their new garage. The McCumberses sued, claiming an easement by adverse possession, estoppel, or prescription; the trial court rejected the adverse-possession theory but found an easement by estoppel over the driveway and an adjacent grassy strip, and the Pucketts appealed.
Whether failing to object to another's improvements made in reasonable reliance on a landowner's permission to use land creates an easement by estoppel.