Neighbors claim a prescriptive easement over land owned by a man who purchased his property and blocked the entrance to a drive which had been used as access to the neighbor’s property. The trial court found the neighbors had satisfied their burden of proving continuous, open and notorious use of the entrance for a five-year period. On appeal, the servient property owner contended no prescriptive easement could be found because the neighbors crossed over his property to use their own property for recreational purposes only. In affirming, the appellate court concluded that “Civil Code section 1009, which prevents the use of private property for recreational purposes by members of the public from ripening into a permanent right, is inapplicable to the facts of this case because [the dominant property owners] claim a private prescriptive easement for the purpose of accessing their own property.” (Pulido v. Pereira (Cal. App. Third Dist.; March 5, 2015) 234 Cal.App.4th 1246 [184 Cal.Rptr.3d 754].)
