Also known as: dominant tenements · dominant estate
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The parcel of land benefited by an appurtenant easement. The benefit of the easement runs with transfers of that parcel.
Damian Decker owns a landlocked parcel behind Denise Donovan's lot. Donovan grants Decker a recorded right of way across her land to reach the public road. Decker's parcel is the dominant tenement because the easement exists solely to benefit its use and possession.
Darius Dixon holds an easement across Diane Dawson's property to reach his rural home. After Dawson subdivides and sells adjacent parcels, Dixon begins using the driveway for delivery trucks serving new commercial development on his land. The dominant tenement's normal growth permits the increased frequency and intensity of use.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Darrell Duncan owns a large tract served by an access easement over Dylan Duffy's neighboring land. Duncan divides the tract into three residential lots and sells two. Each new owner may continue using the easement because the dominant tenement's division carries the benefit to the resulting parcels.
Decker Electronics purchases a lot within a planned subdivision subject to recorded covenants. The declaration states that each lot is both a dominant tenement entitled to enforce the restrictions and a servient tenement bound by them. When Decker later sells its lot, the buyer inherits both the benefit and the burden.
Dominion Capital owns a parcel benefited by an ingress easement across Drake Logistics' land. Dominion later acquires an adjoining tract and routes traffic from the new parcel over the easement. The servient owner may enjoin the expanded use because the easement benefits only the original dominant tenement.
Dixon Foods owns both a processing plant and the adjacent lot that supplies its only access road. After acquiring the servient lot, Dixon Foods no longer needs the easement. The dominant and servient tenements have merged, extinguishing the appurtenant right.
The dominant tenement is the parcel whose possessor holds an easement appurtenant over another parcel. Identification turns on whether the easement was created to benefit the use of a specific tract of land.
Supporting sources
Yes. Because the easement is incidental to possession of the dominant tenement, every succeeding possessor receives the benefit while the easement continues to exist.
Supporting sources
No. The easement may be used only for the benefit of the dominant tenement itself. Extending the use to nondominant parcels exceeds the scope of the servitude.
The easement is extinguished by merger. Once the same party holds both estates, the need for the easement disappears and it does not revive upon later severance.
Yes. The creating instrument may expressly provide that the benefit does not pass to transferees or that the easement is converted into one in gross, provided the terms of creation permit that result.
Supporting sources
…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…