Legal Definition and Related Resources of Easement

A right of the owner of one parcel of land, by reason of such ownership, to use the land of another for a special purpose not inconsistent with the general property in the owner. Trans Continental Oil Co. v Emmerson, 298 III. 394, 16 A.L.R. 507. A burden on the servient tenement for the benefit of the dominant tenement . Gray v McWilliams, 98 Cat. 157, 32 P. 976. Sometimes an easement may be implied by law as when the owner of a parcel of land conveys and grants part thereof to another, which leaves the remainder of the land without means of entry or exit, except over the land conveyed. Such an easement is known as a way of necessity and does not ordinarily exist as an appurtenance , but arises as an implication of law from the principle that where any thing is granted the means to attain same are granted, and a grant of ground includes a way to same. Wagner v Fairlamb, 151 Colo. 481, 379 P.2d 165. An easement is an incorporeal right imposed upon a corporeal property and as such must have a dominant tenement and a servient tenement. The dominant tenement is that to which the right belongs and the servient, that upon which the obligation is imposed. Hasselbruig v Koepke, 248 N. W. 869, 93 A.L.R. 1170, 263 Mich. 466. Easements can be created in four different ways: 1. by an express grant, the grantee being the owner of a tenement. Stockdale v Yerden, 220 Mich. 444,190 N. W. 225; Graham v Walker, 78 Conn. 130, 61 A. 98. A grant in gross is only a personal contract giving no estate or interest in land. The true nature of an easement is that it is a jus in rem, and permanently binds the servient land. 2. by an implied grant; 3. by the presumption of a lost grant , and 4. by prescription under the statute of Limitations. However, except where provided by statute, no easement by prescription can be acquired in lands belonging to the United States or to a state . Miser v O’Shea, 37 Or. 231, 62 P. 49; or in lands dedicated to public use. Lynchburg v Chesapeake and O.R. Co., 17 Va. 108, 105 S.E. 510.

A right in the owner of one parcel of land, by reason of such ownership, to use the land of another for a special purpose not inconsistent with a general property in the owner. 2 Washb. Real Prop. 25. A privilege, without profit, which the owner of one adjacent tenement hath of another, existing in respect of their several tenements, by which that owner against whose tenement the privilege exists is obliged to suffer or not to do something on or in regard to his own land for the advantage of him in whose land the privilege exists. Termes de la Ley; Bell, Diet. (Ed. 1838). “Easements,” “Servitude”; 1 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 298; 3 Barn. & C. 339; 5 Barn. & C. 221; 3 Bing. 118; 2 McCord (S. C.) 451; 3 McCord (S. C.) 131, 194; 14 Mass, 49; 3 Pick. (Mass.) 408; 47 Md. 801. In the civil law, the land against which the privilege exists is called the “servient tenement”; its proprietor, the “servient owner”; he in whose favor it exists, the “dominant owner”; his land, the “dominant tenement.” And, as these rights are usually not personal, and do not change with the persons who may own the respective estates, it is very common to personify the estates as themselves owning or enjoying the easement. 4 Sandf. Ch. (N. Y.) 72; 3 Paige, Ch. (N. Y.) 254; 16 Pick. (Mass.) 522. Easements have these essential qualities. There must be two tenements owned by several proprietors, the dominant, to which the privilege is attached; the servient, upon which it is imposed. White & T. Lead. Cas. 108; 17 Mass. 443. Easements, strictly considered, exist only in favor of, and are imposed only on, corporeal property. 2 Washb. Real Prop. 25. They confer no right to any profits arising from the servient tenement. 4 Sandf. Ch. (N. Y.) 72; 4 Pick. (Mass.) 145; 5 Adol. & E. 758; 30 Eng. Law & Eq. 189; 3 Nev. & P. 257. They are incorporeal. By the common law, they may be temporary; by the civil law, the cause must be perpetual. They impose no duty on the servient owner, except not to change his tenement to the prejudice or destruction of the privilege. Gale, Easem. (3d Ed.) 1-18; Washb. Easem. Index. Easements are either (1) positive or (2) negative, the former authorizing the commission of acts on the servient estate, and the latter merely forbidding the servient owner from doing some act to the detriment of the dominant owner, as to build to the obstruction of his light. They are also (3) appurtenant, or (4) in gross, the former running with the land, and the latter attached to a person.
(5) Quasi easements. “There are rights mentioned in the books as quasi easements. (1) Where there has been an easement proper, with a dominant and servient tenement, and the ownership of such tenements has been unified. (2) Where the owner of land has constructed a way or drain over one portion of it for the benefit of another portion, and there has never been a separate ownership of a dominant and servient tenement. This class is again subdivided into those which are called ‘continuous,’ as a drain or sewer, which are used continuously without the intervention of man, and those which are called ‘noncontinuous,’ as a right of way, which can only be used by the intervention of man, repeated at intervals when user is desired.” Goddard, Easem. 84; 68 N. Y. 66. Easements are as various as the exigencies of domestic convenience, or the purposes to which buildings and land may be applied. The following attach to land as incidents or appurtenances, viz.: The right of pasture on other land; of fishing in other waters; of taking game on other land; of way over other land; of taking wood, minerals, or other produce of the soil from other land; of receiving air, light, or heat from or over other land; of receiving or discharging water over, or having support to buildings from, other land (3 EL, Bl. & El. 655) ; of going on other land to clear a mill stream, or repair its banks, or draw water from a spring there, or to do some other act not involving ownership; of carrying on an offensive trade (2 Bing. N. C. 134; 5 Mete. [Mass.] 8) ; of burying in a church, or a particular vault (Washb. Easem.; Civ. Code N. Y. pp. 149, 150; 8 H. L. Cas. 362; 3 Barn. & A. 735; 11 Q. B. 666) . An easement is distinguished from a license in that it carries an interest, and from a profit a prendre (q. v.) in that it is a privilege without profit.

noun

• advantage in land
• convenience
• gateway
• interest in land
• liberty of use
• privilege
• right of passage
• right of use
• right of way
• serviceway
• way over land Associated Concepts: affirmative easement
• apparent easement
• appurtenance
• appurtenant easement
• discontinuing easement
• dominant and servient estates
• easement by grant
• easement by necessary implication
• easement by prescription
• easement in gross
• easement of access
• easement of convenience
• easement of necessity
• equitable easement
• implied easement
• implied reservation of easement
• incorporeal herditament
• incumbrance
• intermittent easement
• irrevocable license
• license in nature of easement
• natural easement
• necessary easement
• negative easement
• noncontinuous easement
• prescription
• private easement
• profit a prendre
• public easement
• quasi easement
• right of way
• right of way in gross
• secondary easement
• servitude
• visible easement foreign phrases: Iter est jus eundi
• ambulandi hominis; non etiam jumentum agenai vel vehiculum
• A way is the right of going or walking by man
• and does not include the right of driving a beast of burden or a vehicle

Browse or run a search for Easement in the American Encyclopedia of Law, the Asian Encyclopedia of Law, the European Encyclopedia of Law, the UK Encyclopedia of Law or the Latin American and Spanish Encyclopedia of Law.

Easement in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Easement in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

Search for legal acronyms and/or abbreviations containing Easement in the Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary.

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Mentioned in these terms

Á Prendre, Abandonment, Dedication, Disturbance, Dominant Tenement, Encumbrance, In Gross, Incorporeal Hereditament, Interruption, Lost Grant, Non-user, Profit A Prendre, Real Property, Restrictive Covenants, Right-of-way, Secondary Easement.

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This definition of Easement is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

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Easement in the United States

Easement in Connecticut

It is well settled that ‘[a]n easement creates a nonpossessory right to enter and use land (more in the U.S.) in the possession of another and obligates the possessor not to interfere with the uses authorized by the easement.’ Il Giardino, LLC v. Belle Haven land (more in the U.S.) Co., 254 Connecticut (provision) 502, 528, 757 A.2d 1103 (2000).
” An easement is a nonpossessory interest in the land (more in the U.S.) of another. Martin Drive Corp. v. Thorsen, 66 Connecticut (provision) App. 766, 773, 786 A. 2d 484 (2001).
“An easement is a property right in a person or group of persons to use the land (more in the U.S.) of another for a special purpose not inconsistent with the general property right in the owner (more in the United States) of the land (more in the U.S.). . . . J. Cribbet, Property Law (1962), p. 16. . . . An easement is always distinct from the right to occupy and enjoy the land (more in the U.S.) itself. It gives no title to the land (more in the U.S.) on which it is imposed. . . . Kelley v. Tomas, 66 Connecticut (provision) App. 146, 153, 783 A.2d 1226 (2001).
The plaintiffs’ rights of ingress, egress and parking are much more akin to a license than an easement. “A license in real property (more in the United States here) is a mere privilege to act on the land (more in the U.S.) of another, which does not produce an interest in the property .
Since a license does not convey a possessory interest in land (more in the U.S.) . . . a license does not run with the land (more in the U.S.) to bind a subsequent purchaser.” Clean Corp. v. Foston, 33 Connecticut (provision) App. 197, 203, 634 A.2d 1200

Easement in the Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims

French aise, ease, relief; assistance, accomodation, convenience. A service or convenience which one neighbor has of another, by character or prescription, without profit. Pest v. Pearsall, 22 Wend. 438 (1839). The right which one man has to use the land of another for a specific purpose. Jackson v. Trullinger, 9 Oreg. 397(1881). The liberty, privilege, or advantage in land, without profit, distinct from an ownership in the soil. Jamaica Pond Aqueduct Corporation v. Chandler, 9 Allen 165(1864). The essential qualities of easements are: they are incorporeal; they are imposed upon corporeal property; they confer no right to participation in profits arising from such property; there must be two distinct tenements, the dominant, to which the right belongs, and the servient, upon which the obligation rests. Pierce v. Keater, 71 N.Y. 421(1877).

Note: This legal definition of Easement in the Dictionary of Law (English and American Jurisprudence) is from 1893.

Easement in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of easement.

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Easement

(You may find easement at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

late 14c., “compensation, redress,” from Old French aisement “comfort, convenience; use, enjoyment,” from aisier “to ease,” from aise (see ease; this term is also a noun.). The meaning “legal right or privilege of using something not one’s own” is from early 15c.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Policeman
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• easement in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• easement in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

English Legal System: Easement

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Easement :

A right enjoyed by the owner of land (the dominant tenement) to a benefit from other land (the servient tenement). An easement benefits and binds the land itself and therefore continues despite any change of ownership of either dominant or servient tenement, although it will be extinguished if the two tenements come into common ownership (Compare quasi-easement). It may be acquired by statute (for example, local Acts of Parliament), expressly granted (e.g. by *deed giving a right of way), arise by implication (e.g. an easement of support from an adjoining building), or be acquired by *prescriptio (See also profit à prendre.) An easement can exist as either a legal or an equitable interest in land. Only easements created by statute, deed, or prescription and held on terms equivalent to a *fee simple absolute in possession or *term of years absolute qualify as legal easements and are binding on all who acquire the unregistered servient tenement or any interest in it Legal easements over registered land should be registered but in practice will usually be binding without registratio All others are equitable easements and must generally be registered to be enforceable against a third party who acquires the servient tenement for value in money or money’s worth. Under section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925, when land is conveyed, all easements appertaining to it automatically pass with it without the necessity for express words in the conveyance.

See also registration of encumbrances.

Concept of Parcel 2 Easement in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Parcel 2 Easement: A colloquial term used to describe an appurtenant easement of the dominant tenement, because the easement is described in the legal description. Usually, the property is described as parcel 1 and the easement as parcel 2.

Concept of Easement in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Easement: A right created by grant, reservation, agreement, prescription, or necessary implication, which one has in the land of another. It is either for the benefit of land (appurtenant), such as right to cross A to get to B, or “in gross”, such as a public utility easement.

Concept of Parcel 2 Easement in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Parcel 2 Easement: A colloquial term used to describe an appurtenant easement of the dominant tenement, because the easement is described in the legal description. Usually, the property is described as parcel 1 and the easement as parcel 2.

Concept of Easement in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Easement: A right created by grant, reservation, agreement, prescription, or necessary implication, which one has in the land of another. It is either for the benefit of land (appurtenant), such as right to cross A to get to B, or “in gross”, such as a public utility easement.

Hierarchical Display of Easement

Law > Civil law > Ownership

Meaning of Easement

Overview and more information about Easement

For a more comprehensive understanding of Easement, see in the general part of the online platform.[rtbs name=”xxx-xxx”]

Resources

Translation of Easement

• Spanish: Servidumbres
• French: Servitude
• German: Grunddienstbarkeiten
• Italian: Servitù
• Portuguese: Servidão
• Polish: S&lstrok;u&zdot;ebno&sacute;&cacute;

Thesaurus of Easement

Law > Civil law > Ownership > Easement

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