McDonald v. Harris
Alaska Supreme Court
978 P.2d 81 (1999)
David and Sylvia Harris (defendants) built a driveway in 1983 to access a home completed in 1985, using it continuously year-round; construction workers also occasionally used it to reach a nearby gravel pit, but the public did not. Denise McDonald (plaintiff) bought the neighboring parcel in 1986 relying on a rough, inaccurate sketch of its boundaries. Nine and a half years later, a formal survey revealed the Harrises' driveway encroached on McDonald's land, and she blocked it. The Harrises sued for a prescriptive easement; the trial court found they met the ten-year statutory requirement and granted the easement, and McDonald appealed.
Whether entitlement to a prescriptive easement requires showing continuous, hostile, and notorious use of the land for the requisite statutory period.