Russell

Plaintiff landowner filed an action against defendant Union Oil Company seeking to recover $155,400 pursuant to a purported license agreement between plaintiff and Union which allegedly permitted Union to continue the utilization of a private telephone line over plaintiff’s land. Judgment was rendered in favor of Union in the court below. The court concluded that no license agreement was in effect since the proffered license was never accepted by Union; that Union thereafter acquired a prescriptive easement for the telephone line. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment.

Pursuant to stipulation, the matter was submitted to the trial court on an “Agreed Statement of Facts and Testimony,” a summary of which follows: Plaintiff was the owner of 40 acres of unimproved land. For many years the Southern California Edison Company had maintained six utility poles on his land along the east-west boundary. On the poles were strung power lines. In the latter part of September 1957, pursuant to an existing agreement with Edison, Union attached a single one-half inch diameter private telephone line on the poles and ran the line to a warehouse which it maintained on adjoining land. The…