Rischall v. Bauchmann

In Rischall v. Bauchmann, 132 Conn. 637, 642-43, 46 A.2d 898 (1946), the owner of a tract of land at the intersection of two streets built a concrete walkway from the front of the house to the street. Id. at 639. Thereafter, the walkway was used by the occupants of the house as their only means of access. Id. Several decades later, a bank foreclosed on the property and subdivided it into four plots. Id. The house was situated on one plot and the walkway on another. Id. The bank subsequently conveyed the plot with the house to the plaintiffs and the plot with the walkway to the defendant. Id. at 640. The Court upheld the trial court's conclusion that the deed from the bank to the plaintiff created an easement by implication over the existing walkway because the walkway was the occupant's only means of access to the street and was intended by the original owner to run with the house due to the parcel's unusual topography. Id. at 642-44. The trial court's judgment was reversed and a new trial ordered, however, on the ground of an improper evidentiary ruling. Rischall v. Bauchmann, supra, 132 Conn. at 645-46.