Also known as: tenements · dominant tenement · servient tenement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A parcel of land that is either benefited by an easement as the dominant tenement or burdened by an easement as the servient tenement.
Theo Thomas owns a parcel crossed by a recorded right of way allowing Tara Tran to reach her irrigation canal. When Theo attempts to fence off the path, the court recognizes his land as the servient tenement subject to the easement. Tara obtains an injunction restoring access across the parcel.
Trevor Tate buys an office tower that previously enjoyed a recorded easement for utility lines over an adjoining garage parcel. After the purchase, the garage owner blocks the lines. The court holds that the tower is the dominant tenement and the easement benefit transfers automatically with possession.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Talia Torres acquires a warehouse served by a dock easement across Morgan's neighboring parcel. Before the conveyance the prior owner used the dock only for occasional barge loading. The court examines that historical use of the servient tenement to determine the current permissible scope.
Tyrone Tran purchases a farm benefiting from an access easement over Tanya Tang's adjacent field. After the sale the new owner begins daily heavy-truck crossings. The court reviews the actual use made of the servient tenement after the conveyance to assess whether the expanded activity exceeds the easement's original scope.
Talia Torres acquires land benefiting from a prescriptive easement across Morgan's parcel. After subdivision the court weighs the relative burden caused by the subdivided uses upon the servient tenement to decide whether the total exceeds the original scope.
Trevor Tate buys an office tower served by a prescriptive easement over an adjoining garage. The court considers needs resulting from normal evolution in the use of the dominant tenement and the extent those needs increase the burden on the servient tenement.
Yes. When possession of the dominant tenement passes to a successor, the appurtenant easement ordinarily passes with it unless the creating instrument or circumstances clearly prevent succession.
The easement is appurtenant when the grant expressly ties the right to a benefited parcel, such as language stating the right is for the benefit of the farm or the office tower.
No. Each subdivided portion of the dominant tenement generally succeeds to the benefit of the easement provided the original grant does not limit the right to a single undivided parcel and the total use stays within the original scope.
Only if the terms or manner of creation clearly indicate that succession is not intended. A recorded grant that ties the right to the parcel itself and contains no express limitation on duration or revocation ordinarily permits succession despite earlier personal characterizations.
…Four years later another statute provided "[t]hat no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall be put out of Land or Tenement, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to Death, without being brought in Answer by due Process of the Law."[^maj-19] And in 1363 it was provided "that no man be taken or…