Easement

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WI Court of Appeals – District II

Case Name: Leventi Trust, et al v. Bryan M. Waltersdorf et al

Case No. 2015AP1068

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Reilly, P.J., and Hagedorn, J.

Focus: Easement

In 2007, Bryan and Nicole Waltersdorf purchased a home in the sightly Village of Oconomowoc Lake. Originally platted over 100 years ago, the Beachmont subdivision included multiple properties connected to each other and to the main road via an easement. The precise location of the easement, however, was not so clear. All this became plain when, in 2012, the Waltersdorfs purchased an adjacent property with the hopes of building a new home on the combined properties. One of the casualties of this plan was one leg of the then-existing oval drive, which was removed. The neighbors sued. After a seven-day trial featuring experts opining on deeds and surveys, childhood stories of what the area looked like in the 1940s, and a personal visit to the property by the judge himself, the circuit court determined that the easement was—as the Waltersdorfs hoped—located on the remaining leg of the oval drive. The neighbors appeal, raising two arguments. First, they challenge the location of the express easement, arguing it included the whole oval drive. In the alternative, they argue that the now-destroyed leg of the oval drive, in use for generations, established an easement by prescription. Resting on our deference to the circuit court’s factual findings, we affirm

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.