Also known as: nonexclusive easement in gross · non-exclusive easement in gross · non-exclusive easements in gross · nonexclusive easement · easement in gross
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A nonpossessory right to use land that benefits its holder personally or in business rather than any particular parcel. The holder shares use of the burdened land with the servient owner and with others the servient owner authorizes.
Nexus Technologies holds a nonexclusive easement in gross allowing it to run fiber lines across a corner of Naomi Norton's ranch. Nexus later buys fee title to that exact corner for a repeater station. Because Nexus can now make the same use through ownership, the easement ends over the purchased corner while remaining in force over the rest of the ranch.
Nimbus Cloud holds a nonexclusive commercial easement in gross to maintain utility poles on National Trust land. Nimbus sells its entire utility business, including the easement, to another company. The transfer is valid because commercial easements in gross are alienable to the same extent as estates of like duration.
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In a nonexclusive easement the holder shares use with the servient owner and with others the servient owner permits. An exclusive easement gives the holder sole authority to decide who may use the burdened land.
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Yes. Because the first easement is nonexclusive, the servient owner retains the power to authorize others to use the same area so long as the total burden does not surcharge the servient estate.
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The easement is extinguished to the extent the holder acquires an estate in the servient land that permits the same uses the easement authorized.
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Yes. Commercial easements in gross may be transferred subject to the same restrictions that apply to estates of like duration.
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…of land: "[I]t seems clear that what the restrictive covenants did create for the benefit of the plaintiff trustee is an easement in gross...." Id., at 341, 321 A.2d 469. We also take this opportunity to clarify, contrary to the plaintiff's assertion, that a person need not simultaneously own both the benefited and the…