Also known as: profit a prendre · profit à prendre · profits à prendre · profit prendre
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An easement that confers the right to enter land in the possession of another and remove timber, minerals, oil, gas, game, or other substances from it. The benefit may be held in gross while the burden remains appurtenant to the servient land.
Priscilla Parks granted Paragon Construction a fifteen-year written right to enter her wooded parcel each season and remove marked timber in exchange for a per-cord fee. After Parks sold the parcel to Premier Manufacturing, the buyer attempted to bar entry. The right qualifies as a profit because it authorizes both entry and removal of a natural resource from land in another's possession, so the burden runs with the land and binds the successor owner.
Preston Pratt conveyed a large ranch while expressly reserving for himself and his successors the perpetual right to graze livestock, gather firewood, and hunt game on the retained acreage. When the buyer later sold the ranch to Platinum Partners, the company denied the reserved rights. The reservations constitute profits because each authorizes entry onto land in another's possession plus removal of natural products, and the benefits run with the grantor's retained estate.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A profit authorizes both entry and removal of substances such as timber or game, whereas an ordinary easement grants only a right to enter and use the land without removal. The Restatement defines the profit as a distinct subcategory of easement that includes the extraction right.
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Yes. The burden of a profit is always appurtenant and therefore runs with the servient estate. A buyer who takes with notice or after proper recording takes subject to the profit for its stated duration.
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No. Annual revocable licenses that expressly reserve the right to terminate do not create an irrevocable profit even after many years of performance and reliance. The parties' written expressions of revocability control over conduct.
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The instrument must grant the right to enter and remove a natural resource. Language limited to access or use without extraction creates only an easement. Silence on removal prevents recognition of a profit.
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Yes. A recorded document granting the continuing right to enter marshland and remove wild oysters creates a profit because it authorizes both entry and removal of a natural resource from land in another's possession.
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…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…