Adam Leitman Bailey discusses how title companies can better understand easements nationwide

1. UNDERSTANDING
EASEMENTS
First American Title Insurance CLE
King of Prussia, PA

2. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
The Deed:
The reason for so much
easement litigation

3. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
The Deed: Empire State Building

4. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
The Deed: World Trade

5. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Title insurance policies
covering easements

6. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Title insurance policies
covering easements

7. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements Appurtenant vs.
Easements in Gross

8. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements Appurtenant
• Created for the beneficial
use of a particular parcel
of real property, which is
referred to as the
“dominant estate” or the
“dominant tenement.”
• The real property that is
burdened by the easement
is commonly referred to as
the “servient estate” or
“servient tenement.”

9. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements in Gross
• Easements in gross
benefit a person or
entity, rather than
another real estate
parcel
• May be personal or
commercial

10. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements in Gross
• Commercial
easements in gross
are assignable or
transferable,
especially
pipelines and
utilities

11. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Types of easements in almost all
26 states east of the Mississippi
• Written express grant
• Prior use
• Necessity (except Georgia)
• Prescription
• Reference to plats and maps (Indiana has not ruled)

12. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Express Grant

13. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements of Necessity
• Must be absolutely necessary to cross somebody’s land
for a legitimate purpose

14. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Elements of Necessity
1. Prior common ownership of dominant and serving
tenements.
2. Transfer of one of the parcels.
3. Strict necessity for an easement at the time of
severance.

15. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Elements of Necessity

16. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Elements of Necessity

17. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Prescriptive Easements

18. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Prescriptive Easements

19. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Elements of Prescription
1. Adverse
2. Exclusive
3. Open and Notorious
4. Continuous and uninterrupted for requisite time period
– east of the Mississippi, this is 7 to 21 years

20. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Elements of Prescription

21. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Exceptions or limitations
to Prescriptive Easements
• Kentucky bars Prescriptive Easements “based on use
solely for recreational purposes”
• Pennsylvania prohibits Prescriptive Easements in
unenclosed woodlands
• Rhode Island has no right of footway except claimed in
connection with a right to pass with carriages and non-
profits for conservation

22. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements by Reference
to Plats and Maps

23. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements by Reference
to Plats and Maps
• Deed makes no reference to the plat or plans.
• Plans delineate public areas, streets, alleys, parking
spaces.

24. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements
• Must abide by common law rule, which states that the
intended easement is invalid if a single instrument is
used to reserve the easement to one person and,
simultaneously, to convey the burdened estate to
another.
• Instead, the grantee takes the estate free of the
easement, despite the clear contrary intent of the
parties. In these states, to effectuate the transfer of an
easement to a third party and avoid the common law
prohibition, two conveyances must be used: the first
conveys the easement to the intended beneficiary and
the second subsequently transfers the servient estate
to the intended transferee.

25. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
Easements
• Only a handful of jurisdictions allow for a reservation of
an easement to a person who is not a party to the
transaction. These states are: Connecticut, Indiana,
Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

26. ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY, P.C.
New York Real Estate Attorneys
THE END