A TREATISE ON THE AMERICAN LAW OF EASEMENTS AND SERVITUDES. BY EMORY WASHBURN, LL.D., BUSSEY PROfessor of LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR of a FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY SIMON GREENLEAF CROSWELL. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STAN, ORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. A 3184 Copyright, 1885, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. UNIVERSITY PRESS: TO THE HON. HORACE BINNEY, LL.D. IN dedicating this work to you, without first asking permission, I may have presumed too far upon the acquaintance which I share with the profession and your fellow-citizens generally, through your distinguished learning as a jurist, your practical wisdom as a statesman, and the fruits of a long life of usefulness and honor. In this hour of peril to all we hold dear, it is gateful to recall that a few remain who, like you, stood by the nation's cradle at its birth, and have watched over its wonderful growth as it rose and expanded under the protection of wise laws, and the invigorating influences of beneficent institutions. It is impossible to contemplate even so minute a department of the law as that to which the following pages are devoted, without perceiving something of the all-pervading spirit of progress and improvement which has hitherto vitalized the jurisprudence of our country. And of no State can this be more truly said than of Pennsylvania, within which your labors have been chiefly employed. You have borne your full share, as a minister of the law, in giving form and consistency to that jurisprudence which, we trust, will carry it safely through the ordeal of a civil war, again to bless a prosperous and a united people. In the hope that the light of returning harmony and prosperity over our common country, under the protection of Law, may yet gild the declining hours of so active and useful a life, permit me to subscribe myself, with high respect, Your obedient servant, CAMBRIDGE, February, 1863. EMORY WASHBURN. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. SINCE the publication of the previous edition of Washburn on Easements, this branch of the law has been the subject of decision in a large number of reported cases. Some of these cases give merely the application of well-recognized principles to various combinations of facts, and therefore have been cited in this edition only when the peculiar circumstances of particular cases seemed to render them noticeable. Other cases, though settling the law for the first time in the States in which they were decided, follow the line of decisions in other States, and are valuable only as precedents in their own States. Such cases have been cited when they were thought of sufficient importance. Other cases give the gradual development of the law as it is applied to new groups of facts or under novel conditions, or show the growth of new rules of law or the abandonment of outgrown principles. These cases have been selected for notice, more or less extended, in proportion to their value, the aim of the editor being to incorporate in his work the important changes made since the last edition, and to cite the leading cases which determine those changes. It may be mentioned that, among other topics included under the general designation of the law of Easements, the subject of implied grants and reservations of easements has lately received much attention both in England and the United States, and the cases on this point will be found fully cited in the appropriate places. Discussions of the doctrine of prescription and of the nature of the rights of lateral and subjacent support, light and air, &c., have also been involved in many cases, to which reference has been made. It is believed that no decision of importance has been left unnoticed, though the large number of cases bearing on the subject has rendered citations of them all undesirable. |