Chapter 8 Conclusion

• Library: Treatise on the Law of Easements (SCBar) (2017 Ed.)

Chapter 8 Conclusion

The law of easements continues to evolve as society and its needs change. Even though prior law continues to control the decisions, the reader should look closely at the prior decisions to determine if there are indications that the prior interpretations are no longer applicable or have been overlooked in recent cases. For example, the cases and writers in South Carolina did not often mention the easement implied from prior use until the Boyd case in which the court states the requirements for an easement implied from prior use and quotes Elliott v. Rhett, 39 S.C.L. (5 Rich.) 405 (1852).¹ The court also has recently clarified the elements to prove a prescriptive easement and overruled those decisions that held that adverse use and claim of right as separate methods of proving the third element of a prescriptive easement.² In that case the court also adopts...