## Facts

- S.S. Kresge Company of Michigan owned commercial property in Wausau, Wisconsin, including an alleyway running north–south to a public street.
- An adjacent southern parcel (the former Tisch lot) historically used the alley for access to a building used as a barbershop and living quarters.
- In 1936, after Kresge attempted to block the alley, a judgment established a prescriptive easement over Kresge’s alley for “all purposes of ingress and egress to and from” the Tisch lot, while confirming Kresge’s title to the alley as servient estate.
- In 1943, Winkelman Realty purchased the Tisch lot and also owned or controlled other nearby parcels used for department and men’s stores.
- After acquiring the Tisch lot, defendants used the alley not only for access to that lot but also to move and stage merchandise for multiple Winkelman stores on other parcels.
- Defendants converted the former Tisch premises into a retail appliance outlet and used it as a warehouse for goods intended for distribution to other Winkelman locations.
- Kresge sued in equity to quiet title to the alley subject only to the 1936 easement and to enjoin defendants from using the alley beyond ingress and egress for the former Tisch lot.
- The trial court quieted title in Kresge subject to the easement, ruled the easement was appurtenant only to the former Tisch lot, and enjoined uses exceeding ingress and egress to that lot; defendants appealed and Kresge cross-appealed seeking to bar all use of the alley by defendants.

## Issues

1. Whether a prescriptive easement for ingress and egress appurtenant to a specific lot may be used by a successor to serve other parcels and expanded commercial distribution activities.
2. Whether defendants’ intensified use of the alley, tied to changed use of the dominant parcel and distribution to other stores, constituted an impermissible added burden on the servient estate.
3. Whether the easement should be extinguished or further restricted based on defendants’ overuse.

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the judgment limiting the easement to ingress and egress benefiting only the former Tisch lot.
- The court rejected defendants’ claim that the easement could be used to support transport and storage operations for other Winkelman parcels.
- The court held the expanded use imposed an additional burden on the servient estate beyond the prescriptive right established by the 1936 judgment.
- The court rejected Kresge’s cross-appeal to eliminate the easement entirely and left the 1936 easement intact as to the former Tisch lot.

## Legal Principles

- An easement appurtenant may be used only in connection with the particular estate to which it is appurtenant, not to serve other parcels owned by the same party.
- A prescriptive easement is limited by the character and scope of the use through which it was acquired; a prescriptive right acquired by a particular use does not ordinarily justify an added use far different from the original use.
- Using an easement to benefit additional parcels or materially different operations that increase traffic or utility to non-dominant land is an impermissible enlargement that adds burden to the servient estate.
- A prior judgment establishing a prescriptive easement remains effective against successors; courts may restrain overuse without terminating the established easement absent grounds to do so.

## Conclusion

The court held that the alley easement established by the earlier judgment remained appurtenant only to the former Tisch lot for ingress and egress, and defendants could not expand it to support warehousing and distribution for other parcels because that enlargement imposed an added burden on Kresge’s servient estate.


S.S. Kresge Co. of Mich. v. Winkelman Realty Co., 260 Wis. 372, 50 N.W.2d 920 (Wis. 1952)