Kentucky court rejects bid to use neighbour's driveway after land split

A property dispute in Kentucky has ended with a state appeals court ruling against a couple who claimed they had the right to use a neighbour’s pathway to reach their land. The dispute centred on two adjoining parcels that once belonged to the same family: a roughly 37-acre property bought in the 1950s and a smaller, three-fourths-acre tract acquired about 20 years later. For years, the family used a pathway across the smaller parcel to reach parts of the larger property. But after the two tracts were sold separately, the new owners disagreed over whether that access could continue.On October 23, 2026, the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld a jury’s decision that Charlie E. Stearns and Kathy Stearns had no legal easement allowing them to cross the adjoining property owned by John Warinner and Betty Warinner.