Easements

Easement by necessity implied over government land

/ Easements, Real Estate Transactions

A Hawai`i court has recognized an easement by necessity over government land when the landlocked parcel was separated from land belonging to the state. Malulani Group, Ltd. v. Kaupo Ranch, Ltd. 329 P.3d 330 (Haw. 2014). The court held that the intent of the parties determines whether an easement exists over remaining land of the grantor to ensure access to a public road from an otherwise landlocked parcel. The court also held that no statute of limitations bars assertion of an easement by necessity.

Servient owner entitled to change easement location

/ Easements, Real Estate Transactions, Servitudes

The Vermont Supreme Court has adopted the rule promoted by the Restatement (Third) of Property (Servitudes), §4.8(3), allowing the owner of a servient estate to relocate an easement if this does not reduce the utility of the easement to the owner of the dominant estate. Roy v. Woodstock Cmty. Trust, Inc., 94 A.3d 530 (Vt. 2014). The case concerned an underground easement for water lines. The court also held that the dominant estate owner was entitled to build a housing complex and that this development did not exceed the scope of a right-of-way easement even though it had been originally used only by a church.

No prescriptive easement for underground sewer pipe because the use was not open and notorious

/ Easements, Servitudes, Trespass

The Massachusetts Land Court has held that no prescriptive easement can arise no matter how long a sewer pipe has traversed a neighbor’s property because the non permissive use was not “open and notorious” and there were no other indications that the pipe was there. 143-145 Nahant Rd, LLC v. Mastoras, (Mass. Land Ct. 2014), 2014 WL 2548094, 42 Mass. Lawyers Weekly 1879 (July 7, 2014). With no easement, the use was likely a trespass although that was a question on remand.

Easement can be narrowed by servient estate owner

/ Easements, Servitudes, Statute of Frauds, Title Issues

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Martin v. Simmons Props., Inc., 2014 WL 128537 (Mass. 2014), that the servient estate owner is entitled to narrow an easement as long as this does not interfere with the uses for which the easement was initially created. The court applied the traditional rule that easements are encumbrances on land and to be construed narrowly. At the same time, the touchstone was the intention of the parties that created the easement, determined both by the language in the easement and the circumstances at the time of creation of the easement. Because the documents and plan creating the easement did not specify an exact width of the easement or require that it be kept open through its full extent, the easement owner was entitled only to such use as was needed to afford access to the dominant estate. The court also reaffirmed the traditional rule that …

Easement can be narrowed by servient estate owner Read More »

Court holds that beach rights can be lost through erosion

/ Easements, Title Issues, Trespass, Water Rights

The Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has reaffirmed the old rule that property rights can be expanded by slow accretion or diminished through slow erosion when property is located on a stream or the ocean. In White v. Hartigan, 982 N.E.2d 1115 (Mass. 2013), beachfront owners claimed a right to use the beach behind their neighbors house because their deed had given them rights to the beach in 1841. The court disagreed, noting that changing boundaries had placed the plaintiffs’ beach under water and that they had no right to “moveable” boundaries ensuring access to the beach behind their neighbor’s house.

Implied beach easement found from recorded plans and sales statements

/ Easements, Real Estate Transactions, Servitudes

A Massachusetts court has held that owners of lots near the ocean had an implied easement of access to the beach because recorded plans drafted in 1892 showed an unenumerated lot with access to the ocean and the developer had advertised the lots as “Shore Lots” with a “Cool breeze all the time, good bathing, boating and fishing, nice beach, no undertow, shade trees on several of the lots.” Leahy v. Graveline, 82 Mass.App.Ct. 144, — N.E.2d —, 2012 WL 2819395 (Mass. Land Ct. 2012). The case represents an application of the recent decision in Reagan v. Brissey, 844 N.E.2d 672 (Mass. 2006) that similarly found implied rights to use open land depicted on a subdivision map.

Court affirms that nonuse does not extinguish an old easement

/ Adverse Possession, Easements, Real Estate Transactions, Servitudes

The Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has reaffirmed that even longstanding non-use of an easement will not extinguish it or cause it to lapse because of prescription. Cater v. Bednarek, — N.E.2d —, 462 Mass. 523 (Mass. 2012). To extinguish an easement by prescription requires acts inconsistent with the easement that put the easement owner on notice that its uses are being disrupted. Moreover, if the servient estate owner makes only part of an easement inaccessible, it is extinguished only as to that part but not the rest. In addition, the court held that, where a deed does not specify the dimensions of the easement, it must be interpreted to establish dimensions that are reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of the dominant estate; the easement is not limited to the purposes for which the dominant estate was used at the time the easement was created. Moreover, if the easement …

Court affirms that nonuse does not extinguish an old easement Read More »

Easements implied by prior use or by necessity

/ Easements, Real Estate Transactions

The Massachusetts Land Court has reaffirmed that easements can be implied from prior use if they were used before severance of the two parcels and are “reasonably necessary” for use of the dominant estate while easements by necessity require the dominant estate to be inaccessible but for the easement. Black v. Klaetke, 20 LCR 120, 2012 Mass. LCR LEXIS 56 (Mass. Land Ct. 2012).

Court rules that designated open space on plat is insufficient to establish an easement absent proof the developer induced buyers to purchase in reliance on promises of open space

/ Consumer Protection, Easements, Estates and Future Interests, Real Estate Transactions, Statute of Frauds

Disagreeing with the ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Reagan v. Brissey, 844 N.E.2d 672 (Mass. 2006), an appeals court in New Mexico held that open space designated on a recorded plat is not sufficient to create an easement of access by owners of lots on the map in the absence of evidence the developer made representations to buyers inducing them to buy in reliance on promises those lots would remain open. The mere presence of open space on the map was insufficient to prevent the developer from selling that open space for development purposes. Agua Fria Save The Open Space Ass’n v. Rowe, 255 P.3d 390 (N.M. 2011)

Washington Supreme Court adopts relative hardship doctrine and refuses to order a house removed when it was unwittingly built on land owned by another

/ Easements, Servitudes, Statute of Frauds, Trespass

Defendants unknowingly built their house on land that belonged to the plaintiff who also did not know that the land belonged to him. The mistake was discovered after the house was built and plaintiff sued to eject the trespassers from his land. The Washington Supreme Court denied injunctive relief, adopting the relative hardship doctrine. The court granted plaintiff damages for the value of the land encroached on by his neighbor’s structure but denied plaintiff an injunction ordering the structure removed. Proctor v. Huntington, 238 P.3d 1117 (Wash. 2010).

Scroll to Top