Also known as: appendants · appenditia · appurtenant
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A right or interest attached to and benefiting a particular parcel of land rather than held personally or in gross. The attachment occurs when the right is created to enhance the use or value of the benefited land and continues to serve that land after transfer of ownership.
Marvin sold a pasture strip containing a canal to Apex Livestock but reserved the right to draw irrigation water for his retained homestead farm. The reservation was created to support farming operations on the homestead parcel. When Marvin later conveyed the homestead to Joy, the water right passed automatically with the land because it benefited the possessor in the use of that specific parcel.
Adjacent Holdings granted a recorded covenant to MetroCenter Properties promising roving security patrols and exterior cleaning for the shopping center. The burden attached to Adjacent's parcel and remained tied to ownership of that land even after MetroCenter sold the center to a new owner. Tenants in the center could enforce the obligation because the burden stayed appurtenant to the servient estate.
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Ortiz leased cropland to Green Valley Farms but retained control over the shared irrigation canal and pumping system that the tenant was entitled to use. After the cooperative stopped maintaining the system, Green Valley Farms suffered crop losses. Ortiz remained liable for the dangerous condition on the retained portion because the tenant's right to use it was appurtenant to the leased parcel.
Brook Firm owned a condominium unit that held an easement over a neighboring courtyard parcel for client access. The easement was created to benefit the condominium unit in its use as office space. When Brook Firm later sold the servient parcel, the buyer took subject to the continuing right because the easement remained appurtenant to the dominant tenement.
Apex Properties obtained from Quantum Fiber a recorded agreement requiring maintenance of a fiber conduit serving an office building. The benefit was created to serve the building and its occupants. When Apex leased a floor to Vector Labs, the tenant could enforce the maintenance obligation because the right was tied to occupancy of the particular parcel.
Successive adverse users crossed a strip of Tabitha's ranch to reach a public road for more than the prescriptive period. The resulting easement accrued to the benefit of all persons holding interests in the dominant parcel that the path served. Later owners of the benefited land could therefore continue the use without obtaining a new grant.
An appurtenant easement is created to benefit and does benefit the possessor of a particular parcel in the use of that land, so the benefit runs with the dominant estate. An easement in gross is not tied to any benefited parcel and belongs to the holder personally.
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Yes. When a covenant is appurtenant to land and involves repair, maintenance, or services that a tenant can enjoy without diminishing the landlord's interest or materially increasing the obligor's burden, the benefit runs to the lessee in possession.
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Unity of ownership extinguishes the easement to the extent the dominant owner can make the same uses by virtue of owning the servient estate. The easement does not automatically revive upon later severance of title.
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No. A prescriptive easement appurtenant accrues only for the benefit of interests in the land to which it is appurtenant and does not extend to noncontiguous parcels acquired later.
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…federal court determination of petitioner's claims will neither upset a prior state court determination of status or obligations appurtenant to status nor pre-empt a pending state court determination of this nature. Cf. Moore v. Sims , 442 U. S. 415 (1979) (applying Younger abstention doctrine to prevent federal court action…