Traders, Inc. v. Bartholomew
Vermont Supreme Court
459 A.2d 974 (1983)
Traders's (plaintiff) land was severed from what became Bartholomew's (defendant) property in 1931, leaving Traders's parcel landlocked except via a discontinued former town highway running entirely on Bartholomew's land, which Traders's predecessor had used for access from 1943 to 1976; the trial court found only a prescriptive easement limited to that historical ingress-and-egress use, and Traders appealed arguing it was instead entitled to a broader easement of necessity.
Whether, when commonly owned land is severed leaving one parcel landlocked, the grantee of the landlocked parcel is entitled to an easement by necessity over the remaining lands of the common grantor or the grantor's successor in title.