Real property – Prescriptive easement

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Where a plaintiff has requested a declaration that it has acquired an easement by prescription over a partially paved corner of 315 Hunnewell in Needham, the plaintiff’s request should be granted in part, as the plaintiff has obtained by prescription an easement over part of the corner, but not all of it.

“One advantage of submitting land to the Massachusetts registration system is that ‘[n]o title to registered land, or easement or other right therein, in derogation of the title of the registered owner, shall be acquired by prescription or adverse possession.’ G.L.c. 185, §53. This case shows what can happen after land is withdrawn from registration.

“Plaintiff/counterclaim-defendant Crescent Road Realty, LLC (‘Crescent’) owns 178-186 Crescent Road in Needham, Massachusetts. When Crescent bought 178-186 Crescent in 2000, 315 Hunnewell Street, a property bordering two sides of 178-186 Crescent, was registered land. Vehicles owned by Crescent’s newly acquired 178-186 Crescent tenants and their visitors were using a partially paved corner of 315 Hunnewell (the ‘Corner’) to turn into 178-186 Crescent, but since 315 Hunnewell was registered land, that use didn’t threaten the title of 315 Hunnewell’s registered owners to that property: because of §53, no stranger could acquire prescriptive rights in the Corner.

“Things changed beginning in 2003. On June 6, 2003, 315 Hunnewell’s then-registered owner, Brookline Oriental Rug Company, Inc. (‘BORC’), obtained an order from this Court (Trombley, J.) under c. 185, §52, allowing the property to be withdrawn from registration. Learning that, Crescent figuratively circled a date twenty years hence on its calendar and continued to observe the use of the Corner. In May 2024, claiming there’d been no interruption in its or its tenants’ activities within the Corner, Crescent sued 315 Hunnewell’s current owner, defendant/counterclaim-plaintiff Needham Oriental Rug Company, LLC (‘NORC’), for a declaration that Crescent has acquired by prescription an easement over the Corner. NORC disputes that claim. NORC also seeks an injunction prohibiting Crescent and its tenants, invitees, and guests from entering 315 Hunnewell.

“… The Court holds that Crescent has obtained by prescription an easement over part of the Corner, but not all of it. …

“… Crescent has proven open, notorious, adverse, and continuous use (via Crescent’s tenants) of the shaded area on Exhibit A to this decision, for more than twenty years prior to NORC’s June 2023 grant of permission to Crescent to use the Corner. Judgment for Crescent will enter with respect to the areas over which it has established an easement; as for the rest of 315 Hunnewell, the Court will enter judgment in NORC’s favor and prohibit Crescent, its tenants, invitees, and guests from entering those areas without NORC’s permission.”

Crescent Road Realty, LLC v. Needham Oriental Rug Company, LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-004-26) (9 pages) (Vhay, J.) (Norfolk Land Court) (Docket No. 24 MISC 000251) (Jan. 21, 2026).

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