Property Law Flashcards
Prescriptive Easement requirements
(1) Open and Notorious (2) Adverse (3) Continuous and Uninterrupted for the statutory period
(Need not be exclusive: the user may share the use with the owner or other easement claimants.)
What does it mean for an easement to be surcharged?
this means the easement holder used the easement in a way that exceeded its legal scope. –The servient landowner may enjoin the excess use and possibly sue for damages if the land has been harmed.
Such use does NOT give the servient landowner the power to terminate the easement nor does the easement terminate as a matter of law.
What does Condemnation of a Servient Estate do to an easement?
Condemnation of a servient estate will TERMINATE and easement. The easement holder may be entitled to compensation for the value lost.
Does Nonuse of an Easement for the statutory period terminate an easement?
No. Nonuse of an easement for the statutory period does not terminate an easement.
Nonuse alone, even for a long period of time, is insufficient to constitute an abandonment of the easement.
What is required for termination of an easement through Abandonment?
Nonuse + intent to never use easement again through physical action = Abandonment
OR
Oral expressions of a desire to abandon accompanied by a long period of nonuse = Abandonment.
How can you “extinguish” an easement?
By the easement holder’s physical act of abandonment.
building a permanent structure over the easement
Easement termination by Prescription
Similar to adverse possession, an easement holder loses his right to an easement if someone interferes with the easement through long continued possession and enjoyment of the servient estate in a way that would indicate to the public that no easement right existed.
Easement implied by operation of law (“quasi easement”)
An easement may be implied if, prior to the time the tract is divided, a use exists on the “servient part” that is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of the “dominant part” and a court determines that the parties intended the use to continue after division of the property.
