A second-half Grant Brebner penalty was enough to extend Hibs' winning run to three games and leave Motherwell floundering at the foot of the table.
Hibs received a blow before the game when Alen Orman suffered an epileptic fit in the warm-up and his place in the starting line-up went to 18-year-old Steven Whittaker.
Although Motherwell still had plenty to play for the game had an end of season feel about it with the visitors offering very little in attack.
Although James McFadden forced a save out of Daniel Andersson in the fourth minute the visitors rarely threatened after that.
Hibs dominated the game but they created few chances of their own with the best one falling to Mathias Jack in the 24th minute after some superb build-up play.
Whittaker, fellow youngster Scott Brown and Brebner were all involved in a move that resulted in a superb diagonal pass from defender Janos Matyus but Jack's first touch badly let him down and, with only the keep to beat, he let the ball run out of play.
Although Motherwell looked a bit livelier after the interval it was no surprise when Hibs went ahead with a goal that was total nightmare for Motherwell defender David Partridge.
First he slashed a clearance straight to Hibs skipper Ian Murray, then, in a desperate bid to redeem himself, he bundled the Hibs man over for a clear-cut penalty.
Brebner stepped up and calmly sent Francois Dubourdeau the wrong way to give the home side the lead.
Derek Riordan almost added a second after 87 minutes but his shot came back off the post and in the final minute of normal time only a superb one-handed save from Andersson denied Steven Craig an equaliser they would scarcely have deserved.
Deep in injury time Andersson palmed away a McFadden free-kick to preserve Hibs' lead.