Thompson v. E.I.G. Palace Mall, LLC

Restaurant owners Mary Eilen Thompson and others (plaintiffs), whose restaurant sat next to a parking lot owned by E.I.G. Palace Mall, LLC (defendant) after the two properties had once shared a common owner, regularly used part of the public-facing lot for customer parking and delivery-truck access; when E.I.G. sought to redevelop the lot, the restaurant owners claimed a prescriptive easement, but E.I.G. argued the lot's openness to the general public defeated the required adverse, hostile use, and further argued the restaurant owners' implied-easement claim also failed. The lower court granted E.I.G. summary judgment on both theories, and the restaurant owners appealed.