Nature of the Relationship
An easement is a real right imposed upon one immovable, called the servient estate, for the benefit of another immovable, called the dominant estate, belonging to a different owner.
The dominant estate is the land or building in whose favor the servitude exists; the servient estate is the land or building that must tolerate the use or abstain from an act for the benefit of the dominant estate.
The easement benefits the immovable, not merely the personal convenience of the owner. Because of this character, the right passes with the dominant estate and the burden follows the servient estate even when ownership changes, unless the easement has been extinguished or validly modified.
The relationship is governed first by the title, law, or juridical act creating the easement; when the easement was acquired by prescription, its extent is measured by the manner and scope of the possession through which it was acquired; when the source is silent, the nature and purpose of the easement determine the rights reasonably necessary for its use.
An easement is indivisible. If the dominant or servient estate is divided, the servitude is not split into independent new servitudes, and the division cannot increase the burden or diminish the right beyond what the original easement allows.
Measure of Rights and Burdens
The controlling principle is proportionality between utility and burden: the dominant owner may enjoy everything necessary for the easement, while the servient owner must suffer only what the easement validly requires.
The grant of an easement includes all rights necessary for its use. A right of way, for example, carries the incidental right to pass in the manner contemplated by the grant, and a drainage easement carries the incidental right to maintain the channel necessary for drainage.
Accessory rights are implied only to the extent necessary. The dominant owner may enter the servient estate to inspect, repair, or preserve the works needed for the easement, but may not occupy, store, build, widen, intensify, or use the servient estate for purposes outside the easement.
Any ambiguity in the extent of a servitude is resolved by preserving the usefulness of the easement while avoiding an unnecessary burden on ownership. The servient owner retains all attributes of ownership that are compatible with the easement.
Rights of the Dominant Estate
The owner of the dominant estate has the right to use the easement according to its title, legal source, established possession, or natural purpose.
The dominant owner may make, at his expense, the works necessary for the use and preservation of the easement. These works may include repairs, clearing, reinforcement, maintenance, or other acts without which the easement would be ineffective.
The dominant owner may demand that the servient owner refrain from obstructing, narrowing, relocating, closing, damaging, or otherwise impairing the easement, unless the law or the title permits the act.
The dominant owner may protect the easement as a real right by seeking recognition of the servitude, removal of obstructions, injunction against interference, restoration of the easement, and damages when the impairment causes compensable injury.
When several estates or several owners are entitled to use the same easement, each may use it in accordance with the original burden. Each user must keep within the purpose, route, intensity, and mode contemplated by the easement.
Obligations of the Dominant Estate
The dominant owner must use the easement only for the benefit of the dominant estate. He cannot treat the servitude as a personal privilege, lease it apart from the land, extend it to another property, or use it to serve an estate not included in the easement.
The dominant owner must not alter the easement or make it more burdensome. An alteration may consist of changing the place, manner, purpose, size, intensity, frequency, beneficiaries, or physical works in a way that exceeds the original servitude.
The dominant owner must exercise the easement in the least prejudicial manner consistent with its proper use. The rule does not deprive him of effective enjoyment, but it prevents unnecessary damage to the servient estate.
Before making necessary works, the dominant owner must notify the servient owner and choose a convenient time and manner. Notice allows the servient owner to protect his property interests and to object to unnecessary or excessive work.
The dominant owner bears the expenses of works necessary for the use and preservation of the easement, unless the title, law, or agreement provides otherwise.
If several dominant owners benefit from the easement, they must contribute to necessary expenses in proportion to the benefit each receives. A dominant owner who does not wish to contribute may free himself by renouncing the easement for the benefit of the others.
The dominant owner is liable for damage caused by abuse, excessive use, negligent maintenance, unauthorized construction, or use beyond the lawful scope of the easement.
Rights of the Servient Estate
The servient owner remains the owner of the property burdened by the easement. He may possess, use, enjoy, improve, enclose, sell, lease, mortgage, or otherwise deal with the servient estate, provided he does not impair the easement.
The servient owner may use the same area or works affected by the easement if such use is compatible with the dominant owner's right. A gate, fence, cultivation, paving, drainage work, or similar act is permissible only when it does not substantially obstruct or render the easement less convenient.
The servient owner may demand that the dominant owner confine use to the lawful extent of the easement. He may resist enlargement, unauthorized construction, conversion to another purpose, use for another estate, or any act that creates a heavier burden.
When the original place or manner of the easement has become very inconvenient to the servient owner, or prevents him from making important works, repairs, or improvements, he may demand a change at his expense. The substitute must be equally convenient for the dominant estate and must not prejudice the dominant owner or other lawful users.
The servient owner may use the works made for the easement when such use is compatible with the right of the dominant estate. If he obtains benefit from the easement or its works, he must contribute to expenses in proportion to his benefit, unless there is a contrary agreement.
The servient owner may seek judicial relief to deny a claimed easement, fix its true extent, remove unauthorized works, prevent excessive use, recover damages, or declare the easement extinguished when legal grounds exist.
Obligations of the Servient Estate
The principal obligation of the servient owner is to abstain from acts that impair the use of the easement. The burden may require tolerating an act by the dominant owner or refraining from an act that would otherwise be within the powers of ownership.
The servient owner generally is not required to perform affirmative acts for the dominant estate. An easement is ordinarily a charge on property consisting in allowing or not doing, not a personal obligation to render service, except when the law, title, or accessory obligation validly requires participation.
The servient owner must not change the route, site, structure, width, mode, or conditions of the easement on his own authority when the change would reduce convenience, safety, utility, or effectiveness for the dominant estate.
The servient owner must respect necessary works lawfully made by the dominant owner. He cannot destroy, block, alter, or appropriate them in a manner inconsistent with the easement.
When the servient owner benefits from the easement or its works, contribution to expenses follows the benefit received, unless the parties validly stipulated a different allocation.
Works, Repairs, and Expenses
| Matter | Rule | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary works | The dominant owner may make works needed for the use and preservation of the easement. | The works must not alter the easement or make the servient estate more burdensome. |
| Notice | The dominant owner must notify the servient owner before undertaking necessary works. | The time and manner must be convenient and must avoid unnecessary damage. |
| Expenses | The dominant owner bears necessary expenses unless law, title, or agreement provides otherwise. | Multiple beneficiaries contribute in proportion to benefit. |
| Servient owner's use | The servient owner may use the easement or works if compatible with the dominant right. | He contributes to expenses according to benefit unless there is a contrary agreement. |
| Excessive works | Works that enlarge, intensify, or change the easement require authority from law, title, or consent. | Unauthorized excess may be enjoined, removed, or compensated in damages. |
Acts That Impair or Increase the Easement
Impairment by the servient owner includes physical obstruction, narrowing, closure, diversion, destruction of works, denial of access for repair, hostile enclosure, or any act that makes the easement materially less useful.
Increase of burden by the dominant owner includes using the easement for a different estate, expanding the route or area, converting occasional use into a substantially different constant use, constructing unnecessary works, changing the mode of use, or allowing strangers to use the easement beyond the contemplated benefit of the dominant estate.
The legality of a change depends on the nature of the easement. A change that is merely incidental to ordinary and contemplated use may be allowed, while a change that imposes a new or substantially heavier servitude is not.
In voluntary easements, the deed or agreement may define the allowed width, location, duration, use, beneficiaries, maintenance duties, and expense sharing. In legal easements, the statute supplies the requisites and consequences, and private arrangements cannot defeat mandatory rights when the law grants the easement.
Change of Place or Manner
The servient owner has a limited right to request relocation or modification when the original place or manner has become very inconvenient or prevents important works, repairs, or improvements on the servient estate.
The change is valid only if the servient owner bears the expense, offers another place or manner equally convenient to the dominant estate, and causes no prejudice to the dominant owner or to other persons entitled to use the easement.
The dominant owner cannot insist on the original location merely to inconvenience the servient owner when an equally convenient substitute is available under the law. Conversely, the servient owner cannot compel a substitute that is less safe, less direct, less effective, more costly to use, or inconsistent with the established purpose.
Relocation by private decision alone is improper when the dominant owner objects and the requisites are disputed. Judicial determination may be necessary to determine equality of convenience, absence of prejudice, and proper allocation of expenses.
Effect of Division of the Estates
If the servient estate is divided among several owners, the easement remains on the portions affected by its location and purpose. The division cannot make the servitude more onerous for one portion or extinguish the burden on the portion necessary for the easement.
If the dominant estate is divided, each new owner may use the easement, but only in the manner allowed before division. No owner of a divided dominant estate may increase the burden by multiplying uses beyond what the servient estate was bound to tolerate.
Indivisibility protects both sides. It prevents the servient owner from destroying the easement by partition and prevents the dominant owners from turning one servitude into several heavier servitudes.
Protection, Violation, and Extinguishment
The dominant owner's action to enforce an easement is directed at recognition of the real right and cessation of interference. The relief may include injunction, restoration, removal of obstruction, accounting for necessary expenses when proper, and damages.
The servient owner's action is directed at denial, limitation, relocation, or extinguishment of the claimed burden. The relief may include declaration that no easement exists, determination of its exact extent, removal of excessive works, injunction against unlawful use, and damages.
An easement may be extinguished by merger of ownership of the dominant and servient estates in the same person, nonuse for the period provided by law, impossibility of use when the legal conditions for extinction are present, expiration of the term or fulfillment of a resolutory condition, renunciation by the dominant owner, or redemption agreed upon by the parties.
Temporary impossibility of use suspends practical enjoyment but does not necessarily destroy the real right. If the estates return to a condition allowing use before extinction by nonuse, the easement may again be exercised within its lawful scope.
Once extinguished, the former dominant owner cannot continue using the servient estate unless a new easement is created or another legal basis exists. Once merely violated, however, the remedy is enforcement, restoration, and damages, not automatic extinction.