Nonuse insufficient to show an easement was abandoned and it is not extinguished by prescription when a locked gate did not make it impossible for the easement owner to use the right of way

A locked gate did not extinguish the right to use an express easement when the fence was intended to keep out the public and did not prevent the easement owner from accessing the right of way. Twenty Bartlett, LLC v. Sgarano, 2018 Mass. Super. LEXIS 104 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2018). Only if an action renders use of an easement “practically impossible” can it start the statute of limitations running for a prescriptive easement that will extinguish the easements after the statutory period. The court required greater evidence that the easement owner was actually excluded and that the land owner was actually exercising exclusive control over the path.