Also known as: servitudes · servitus · servient · servitium · servage · easement · servient tenement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A legal device that creates a right or an obligation that runs with land or an interest in land. The right is called a benefit and attaches to a dominant estate. The obligation is called a burden and attaches to a servient estate.
A legal device that creates a right or an obligation that runs with land or an interest in land. The right is called a benefit and attaches to a dominant estate. The obligation is called a burden and attaches to a servient estate.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The condition of being held in slavery or involuntary labor. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits denial of the vote on account of previous condition of servitude.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The condition of being held in slavery or involuntary labor. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits denial of the vote on account of previous condition of servitude.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Sierra Solutions owns a pipeline that crosses land owned by Summit Bank. The recorded instrument grants Sierra the right to enter the land to inspect and repair the line. Sierra exercises that right after a leak develops. The right qualifies as an affirmative easement because it permits acts on the servient land that would otherwise be trespass.
Spencer Silver buys a parcel from a seller whose deed makes no mention of any easement. An earlier deed from the same grantor to a stranger had created a right of way across the parcel, but that deed was recorded outside the chain. When the neighbor later claims the easement, the court holds that Spencer took without constructive notice because the instrument lay outside his chain of title.
Sofia Stern sells a lot to Selena Singh and records a covenant requiring the owner to maintain a shared driveway. When Selena later sells to Santiago Sanchez, the new owner refuses to repair the driveway. The court enforces the covenant against Santiago because the obligation runs with the land under the definition of a servitude.
Seth Shapiro owns a landlocked parcel and obtains an easement across neighboring land owned by Spectrum Financial to reach the public road. The easement deed states it benefits Shapiro's parcel. When Shapiro sells the parcel, the buyer may continue to use the easement because it is appurtenant to the land.
Synergy Systems applies for a coastal development permit. The commission grants the permit only if Synergy conveys a public access easement across its beachfront lot. Synergy sues, claiming a taking. The court holds that the exaction is invalid without an essential nexus to impacts caused by the proposed development.
Modern usage confines easement to affirmative rights to use another's land. Servitude is the broader term that includes both affirmative easements and negative restrictions that run with land.
Supporting sources
A servitude is appurtenant when it is created to benefit and does benefit the possessor of a particular tract of land in the use of that land. It is in gross when it benefits no particular dominant estate.
Supporting sources
A purchaser receives constructive notice only of instruments appearing in the chain of title through which the purchaser claims. A servitude recorded in a different chain provides no constructive notice.
Supporting sources
State officials refuse to register Samantha Stone to vote because her grandfather had been held in servitude before emancipation. Samantha sues under the Fifteenth Amendment. The court holds the denial unconstitutional because the amendment forbids abridgment of the vote on account of previous condition of servitude.
Yes. The amendment expressly forbids denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of previous condition of servitude.
Supporting sources
The amendment prohibits involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime after conviction. Psychological coercion alone is generally insufficient to establish a violation.
Supporting sources
…must forever maintain its property in its present state.[^maj-5] The property has been thus subjected to a nonconsensual servitude not borne by any neighboring or similar properties.[^maj-6] B Appellees have thus destroyed—in a literal sense, “taken”— substantial property rights of Penn Central. While the term…