Also known as:profits à prendre · profit a prendre · profits a prendre · profit in gross
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A nonpossessory interest in land that authorizes its holder to enter land possessed by another and remove natural resources or substances such as timber, minerals, oil, gas, or game.
Sources & Authorities
How it applies
Common Examples
2
Hunting Guide Agreement Survives Sale
Canyon Ridge Outfitters entered a fifteen-year written agreement with Mark Fulton granting the exclusive right to enter Elk Ridge Ranch and harvest game animals for paying clients. Fulton sold the ranch to Paula Jensen, who attempted to bar Canyon Ridge from further entry. The court treated the grant as a profit because it combined a right of entry with the right to remove game, a resource from the land, and held that the burden ran with the ranch so Jensen took subject to the interest.
Settlers' Resource Rights Characterized
Landowners in a Colorado valley asserted rights to graze livestock, gather timber, hunt, and fish on parcels originally settled under an 1860s agreement. The court characterized those rights as profits à prendre because each involved entry onto another's land to remove a product of the soil or wildlife, and applied the rules governing profits to determine whether the rights survived subsequent conveyances.
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Restatements
Hornbooks
Course Outlines
Study Supplements
Dictionaries
Lobato v. Taylor71 P.3d 938 (Colo. 2002) (en banc)
Common questions
Frequently Asked
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How does a profit differ from an easement?+
A profit grants the additional right to remove substances from the land, whereas an easement authorizes only entry and use without removal. The Restatement treats a profit as a type of easement that includes the removal component.
Supporting sources
Can a profit bind a subsequent purchaser of the servient land?+
Yes. When properly created and recorded, the burden of a profit runs with the servient land so that a buyer takes subject to the profit holder's right of entry and removal.
Supporting sources
What distinguishes a profit from a revocable license?+
A profit is a nonpossessory property interest that survives transfer of the land and cannot be revoked at will. A license is mere personal permission that is typically revocable and does not create an interest in land.
Supporting sources
Must a profit benefit a particular parcel to run with land?+
A profit may be appurtenant, benefiting a dominant parcel, or in gross, benefiting a person. When appurtenant, both the benefit and burden run automatically with the respective parcels.
Supporting sources
71 P.3d 938 (Colo. 2002)Property
…briefing of this twenty-one year-old litigation, agree that the rights at issue are most appropriately characterized as profits à prendre. A profit à prendre—in modern parlance, a profit—"is an easement that confers the right to enter and remove timber, minerals, oil, gas, game, or other substances from land in the possession…
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