Also known as: dedication & reservation · dedication · reservation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A grant of land or an interest in land for public or private use subject to conditions, restrictions, or retained rights by the grantor.
Demetrius Douglas dedicated a strip of his land to the city for a road while retaining a mortgage on the retained parcel. When the senior mortgagee and Douglas later modified the loan terms to extend the maturity date, a junior lienholder objected that the change prejudiced its position. The modification retained priority because it fell within the scope of rights reserved at the time of the dedication.
Deanna Davenport sought a permit to expand her store and the city conditioned approval on dedicating a strip for a bike path. The required dedication was not roughly proportional to the traffic impact of the expansion. The condition was struck because the government failed to show the exaction matched the project's effects.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Diana Delgado sold equipment to Dixon Foods under a contract that reserved title until full payment. The reservation created a security interest in the goods. Dixon Foods later granted a competing lien to another creditor, but the original reservation retained priority under the rules governing security interests.
Damian Decker exercised a power of appointment over trust property in favor of his children but expressly reserved the right to revoke the exercise. When he later attempted to change the beneficiaries, the reservation allowed the amendment because the terms of the power did not prohibit it.
Daphne Doyle obtained a permanent injunction requiring a factory to install specific waste controls. The order expressly reserved the court's power to modify the injunction upon a substantial change in circumstances. Years later the court altered the requirements after new environmental standards took effect.
Dustin Donovan won a judgment that included an injunction with an express reservation allowing revision if experience showed the remedy was ineffective. When the injunction failed to achieve its intended result, the court modified the order without waiting for a new action.
A reservation retains a right in the grantor while an easement by grant transfers a use right to another party. Both can create appurtenant or in-gross benefits depending on whether the right is tied to a dominant parcel.
Supporting sources
A reserved right is in gross when it is personal to the grantor and not tied to ownership of any particular parcel. It is appurtenant when the deed links the benefit to a dominant estate so that successors automatically receive it.
Supporting sources
No. Dedication requires a clear manifestation of intent by the owner plus acceptance by the public. Mere long-term recreational use without intent to dedicate does not convert the use into a dedication.
Supporting sources
Express statements that the permission is personal, nontransferable, does not create an easement or property interest, and may be revoked at any time establish a revocable license. Reliance on the permission alone does not convert it into an easement.
Supporting sources
…liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. Pp. 152-153. (b) The right of privacy is not absolute. The Court has…