Also known as: dominant tenement · servient tenement · dominant tenements · servient tenements · dominant estate · servient estate
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A pair of terms identifying the parcels connected by an appurtenant easement. The dominant tenement is the land whose possessor holds the benefit of the easement. The servient tenement is the land whose possessor is subject to the burden of the easement.
Dakota Industries owns the factory lot. Dawson Steel owns the adjacent industrial park. Dawson Steel's predecessor recorded an easement allowing trucks to cross the factory lot on a paved road to reach a rail spur. When Nexus Manufacturing later buys the factory lot, the trucks continue using the road because the park is the dominant tenement and the factory lot is the servient tenement.
Duarte Shipping owns Whiteacre and holds an easement to build a road across Blackacre owned by Desert Oil. After the road is built, Desert Oil claims Duarte Shipping must repair damage caused by its own trucks. The duty falls on the beneficiary of the easement because Blackacre is the servient tenement and Whiteacre is the dominant tenement.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Delilah Duran owns parcel B and uses a path across parcel A owned by Damian Decker to reach her land. The path benefits parcel B as the dominant tenement. Parcel A is the servient tenement because its possessor must allow the passage.
Diana Delgado owns the servient parcel burdened by an electric transmission line easement held by Power Company for the benefit of an adjacent dominant parcel. Delgado plants crops beneath the line. The planting is permitted because it does not unreasonably interfere with the easement.
Dwight Dorsey conveys the servient parcel to Dolores Diaz while retaining the dominant parcel. Before the conveyance the servient parcel had been used only for foot traffic. After the sale the new owner must allow continued foot traffic because that was the established use of the servient tenement.
Dylan Duffy conveys the servient parcel to Delilah Duran while retaining the dominant parcel. After the conveyance the dominant owner begins using the path for heavier vehicles than before. The new use is measured against the actual post-conveyance pattern on the servient tenement to determine whether the burden has increased unreasonably.
The dominant tenement is the parcel whose possessor holds the benefit of an appurtenant easement. The servient tenement is the parcel whose possessor is subject to the burden of that easement.
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Subdivision does not destroy the easement. Each resulting parcel ordinarily receives a proportionate share of the benefit, subject to reasonable apportionment that prevents an unreasonable increase in the burden on the servient tenement.
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The beneficiary of the easement has the duty to repair and maintain portions of the servient estate under its control to the extent necessary to prevent unreasonable interference or third-party liability. The servient owner has no general repair duty unless the parties use the improvements jointly.
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The servient owner may make any use of its land that does not unreasonably interfere with enjoyment of the easement.
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…appeal from a judgment that denied their counterclaim for an injunction against Will and Jean Brown, plaintiffs, owners of the dominant estate. Defendants requested the injunction to prevent plaintiffs from using an easement appurtenant to gain access to a nondominant estate adjacent to the dominant estate. We reverse and remand…