Wetmore v. The Ladies Of Loretto, Wheaton

73 Ill.App.3d 454 (1966)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Wetmore (P) owned land. P then sold part of that land to The Ladies of Loretto, Wheaton (D). (See the basic map on page 433 Rabin 4th). P granted an express easement across his land to D. In 1957, negotiations were discussed about creating another road to the west to allow access to D's ten acres. Instead of granting another easement, P offered to sell 40 acres to D. P also tried to get D to relinquish the original express easement. D refused but agreed verbally to direct traffic over the new road. After the sale, P tried to obtain D's release of the express easement, but they refused. P then began a campaign of harassment to ensure that usage of the express easement was brought to a halt. Eventually in 1962, with the building of a new structure on the property owned by D, P sued to have the express easement previously granted terminated; the new expansion was done on both the original and new 40-acre tract, and P reasoned that this expanded the express easement to the 40-acre tract and therefore it should be extinguished. D claimed an implied easement to the 40-acre tract from the express easement granted to the 10-acre tract. The trial court found no implied easement that the 10 and 40-acre tracts could not be segregated and as such, the express easement was abandoned and suspended by operation of law. D appealed.