WAX, SEALING. [SEALING-Wax.] WAY, Chimin (from the French Chemin), is a term used to denote either a right, in one person or more, of passing over the land of another, or the apace over which such right is exercisable. In the former sense a way is an incorporeal right of the class called EASEMENTS.
There are five kinds of way :-1. A foot-way, for persons passing on foot only ; 2. A horse-way, for persons passing on horseback, but including a foot-way ; 3. A drift-way, for driving cattle ; 4. A carriage way, for leading or driving carts and other carriages, always including a foot- and horse-way, and usually, but not necessarily, including a drift-way ; 6. A water-way for ships and boats. [RivErs.] All these may be either private or public ways. Private ways are enjoyed by particular persons or classes ; public ways are open to all persons ; hence such a way is said to be communis strata, or alta via regia—in the language of pleading, a common and public queen's high-way.
I. The proper origin of a private right of way is, a grant from the owner of the soil.
Such a grant may be made to a party, or to him and his heirs in cross • that is, without respect to any land or house of which be may be the owner or occupier : or to the grantee, his heirs, and assigns, being owners of such a house or close ; in which case the right granted will be appurtenant to the house or close to which the grant is annexed, and the right will pass with the house or close.
The grant of a way may be either express or implied ; and in the case of an express grant, the grantor may impose such restrictions upon his grant as he thinks proper. If a man at the time when he conveys part of his land to another, has no access to the land con veyed, except over the land which he reserves, the grant of a right of way over the land reserved is implied. If a man conveys part of his land, and has no access to the part reserved, except over the land conveyed, a right of way over the land conveyed is impliedly reserved. The way so impliedly granted or reserved is called a " way of necessity." Where no deed can be produced whereby a way is expressly or im pliedly created, the party who claims the way may, in the ease of a long-continued user of the right without evidence of commencement or interruption within the period of legal memory, plead that it has been immemorially enjoyed by him and his ancestors in the case of a way in gross, or by him and all those whose estate he has, in the house or close to which the way is annexed, in the case of a way appendant (that is, immemorially appurtenant).
Until lately also, a lost grant would be presumed in ordinary cases, after an uninterrupted and unexplained user of twenty years. The rule of law as to prescription for ways is settled by 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 71, 8. 2. [PsEscluntorT.] A grant of a right of way made by a person who has only a limited estate in the land over which the way passes, is effectual only during the continuance of the estate of the grantor. If a claim to a right of way is set up in respect of the twenty years' or the forty years' enjoy ment mentioned in the statute, if it, appear that tho land over which the right is claimed has, during the whole or part of the twenty or forty years, been in the occupation of a party who had a limited estate in such land, not only is no right of way acquired against the rever sioner, but no right whatever is gained by the user.
The party to whom a private road is allotted under the general enclosure act, has a statutory right of way.
If the party entitled to a way becomes the owner of the land over which it passes, the right of way is extinguished if the party has the same extent of interest in the land and in the way. But if the one be held for an estate different in extent of duration from the other, the right is only suspended during the union of the two interests. Even where a right of way is extinguished by unity of possession, it will, in some cases, revive upon a severance of that unity, as by partition among parcenera, &c. A private right of way may also he extinguished by a deed of release executed by the party who is entitled to such way; and such a release may be presumed from a non-user for twenty years or from a declaration made by the party that ho has no such right.