Court reaffirms that appurtenant easements cannot be severed from the dominant estate

A court reaffirmed a traditional rule of property law in a little litigated issue, holding that an appurtenant easement attached to a dominant estate and intended to benefit the owner of that land cannot be severed and transferred to someone who is not an owner of property intended to be benefited by the easement. Rosen v. Keeler, 2010 WL 288997  (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2010). The case is significant because recent changes in real property law have increased the powers of owners to invent new kinds of property rights and to  disentangle the strands in the bundle of rights that goes along with ownership. This ruling reaffirms the traditional view that certain packages of rights must go together and cannot be disaggregated among multiple  owners. See article.