Easements are legal documents created by a landowner (a.k.a. the “dominant” land holder), which gives a different person or entity (the “servient” land holder”), a legal right to the land, or a portion of the land, often for a limited purpose. For example, conveyancing attorneys often find easements for the benefit of utility companies, granting the right to install utility lines over a portion of the dominant estate. Another example that frequently arises is when a dominant land owner grants what is often called an access easement over his land for the benefit of his adjacent neighbor, whereby the servient neighbor is permitted rights to drive/walk over the easement area to access her land. Most people assume that drafting and recording an easement results in a permanent and fixed specified area; however, a recent line of Land Court decisions indicate that this is not the case! Similar decisions have been approved by the Appeals Court, so it appears that a new perspective by landowners and their attorneys is required and that recorded land and registered land (Land Court) are being treated equally.
Judge Piper, in Martin v. Simmons Properties, LLC, ruled that the dimensions of an easement, even when defined by a Land Court Plan, may be modified by the servient land holder so long as the purposes of the easement are not frustrated, and the utility of the easement is not lessened. In the Martin case, the certificate of title does not include any reference to the full width of the easement, as drawn on the registered plan. Likewise, it does not include any language restricting a change in its dimensions, prohibiting other uses, or requiring that the easement be kept open to the limits of its extent.
In another case, M.P.M Builders, the SJC refers to the Restatement (Third) of Property to support a similar decision. In this case in particular, the court permitted a reduction in the width of an easement, when the dominant land holder did not dispute that at all times he had been able to use the remaining portion of the easement for the purposes of the easement. The decision indicates the court’s willingness to use the Restatement and an overall flexible approach to balance, “the interests of the interests of the easement holder and the servient land owner.”
The lesson to be learned here is that drafting easements is not a simple task. Every Massachusetts landowner should take care before agreeing to, drafting and recording easements. It is now more important than ever to seek the advice of counsel, specializing in real estate and land use, when considering an easement. But, at the very least, the easement should specify its purposes (in great detail), its dimensions, it should indicate the need for the limits to permit activities such as maintenance and repair, state that the full dimensions shall be kept open, and specify that the easement area cannot be changed without the agreement of both the dominant and servient owners.