Wolfe v. Gregory’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “An easement of necessity will be implied when “there has been a severance of the unity of ownership of a tract of land in such a way as to leave one part without access to a public road.” Whitt v. Ferris, 596 N.E.2d 230, 233 (Ind.Ct.App.1992). An easement of necessity may arise, if ever, only at the time that the parcel is divided and only because of inaccessibility then existing. Ind. v. Innkeepers of New Castle, Inc., 271 Ind. 286 , 392 N.E.2d 459, 464 (1979). To demonstrate that an easement of necessity should be implied, a plaintiff must establish both unity of title at the time that tracts of land were severed from one another and the necessity of the easement. For example, if a landowner conveys a piece of real estate that is completely surrounded by the landowner’s remaining property, then we imply that the conveyance includes an easement across the landowner’s remaining property. Larabee v. Booth, 463 N.E.2d 487, 492 (Ind.Ct.App.1984). In addition, if a conveyed piece of property has no outlet to a public road except by going across the grantor’s remaining land or across the land of a stranger, the law implies a way of necessity over the grantor’s remaining land, Whitt, 596 N.E.2d at 233 , because an easement of “necessity cannot arise against the lands of a stranger.” Moore v. Ind. & Mich. Elec. Co., 229 Ind. 309, 315 , 95 N.E.2d 210, 212 (1950) (citing State ex rel. McNutt v. Orcutt, 211 Ind. 523 , 199 N.E. 595 (1936), reh’g denied, 211 Ind. 523 , 7 N.E.2d 779 [ (19”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. William C. Haak Trust v. Wilusz

2. “Unlike an easement or right-of-way, a license merely confers a personal privilege to do some act or acts on land without conveying an estate in the land.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Downing v. Owens