Helen Rivas Rose et al. v. William Parsons Jr. et al.

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court reviewed a summary judgment concerning whether the owners of a Farm Lot held easements over Roads A and H to access nearby beaches. The court held that a codicil established easements appurtenant for the Farm Lot, regardless of whether the prior easements had been extinguished by merger, and remanded for consideration of abandonment. The court upheld summary judgment against the adverse-possession and slander-of-title claims and did not reach the applicability of Maine’s Paper Streets Act.

Holdings

1. The codicil established easements appurtenant to the Farm Lot over Roads A and H, notwithstanding any prior extinguishment of those easements through merger.
2. The issue of abandonment was not resolved on summary judgment and must be considered by the trial court on remand.
3. The trial court correctly concluded that Rose and Merrill failed to present prima facie evidence establishing easements over Roads A and H by adverse possession.
4. The trial court correctly granted summary judgment to the neighbors on the slander-of-title claim because Rose and Merrill failed to present evidence of a false statement made with malice or reckless disregard of its falsity.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the 1956 codicil established easements over Roads A and H for the benefit of the Farm Lot even if the easements had previously been extinguished by merger.
2. Whether Rose and Merrill presented prima facie evidence that they acquired easements over Roads A and H by adverse possession.
3. Whether Rose and Merrill presented prima facie evidence supporting their slander-of-title claim.
4. Whether the Paper Streets Act applied to the disputed easements.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded