Utility easements are something most business owners probably do not even think about until it affects their site planning and development. Suddenly, they find themselves wondering not only what a utility easement is, but also how to circumnavigate the restrictions...
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) confirmed that its move away from the common law requirement of mutual consent for easement relocation was broad and included the ability to alter not only the location but the dimensions of easements. The SJC's decision...
Landowners who purchase and combine multiple, adjoining lots can sometimes find themselves in a quandary if there is an existing easement that benefits only one of those lots. To illustrate, picture three adjacent lots: A, B, and C. When these lots were initially...
The age of Massachusetts lends itself well to preservation easements. These kinds of easements, also referred to as preservation restrictions, create tax and other benefits for owners of historic properties in exchange for certain restrictions that will protect and...
On February 8, 2013, the Supreme Judicial Court another land use/real estate decision in White v. Hartigan, 464 Mass. 400 (2013), a case on direct appellate review from the Land Court. At issue in the case (a quiet title action) was whether the plaintiffs owned a...
Easements come up a lot in our practice at (for a recap of easement basics, see our April 19, 2012 post). When we receive a call involving an easement, the easement, or right of way, is typically the focus of the dispute, but sometimes an...
A few months ago we briefly covered prescriptive easements in a general land use post about different types of appurtenant easements.To recap, to prevail on a claim of prescriptive easement-which is governed by M.G.L. c. 187, § 2-claimants must show that they (or...
Earlier this month, the SJC remanded an interesting easement case back to the Land Court and ordered the Land Court judge (Piper, J.) to take a second look at the width of the easement that he had laid out to the extent that it conflicted with local subdivision road...
With summer weather upon us, beach and shoreline access is a timely topic. For beachfront or oceanfront (littoral) landowners, keeping trespassers off of their private property is often a primary concern. For beachgoers, access to the beach and ocean is the ultimate...
Most people are familiar with the concept of easements. As defined by Black's Law Dictionary (7th ed.), an easement isAn interest in land owned by another person, consisting in the right to use or control the land, or an area above or below it, for a specific limited...
