Maine Law Review Volume 48 Number 2 Article 3 April 2018 Maine Roads and Easements Knud E. Hermansen Donald R. Richards Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr Part of the Land Use Law Commons, and the Property Law and Real Estate Commons Recommended Citation Knud E. Hermansen & Donald R. Richards, Maine Roads and Easements, 48 Me. L. Rev. 197 (2018). Available at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol48/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Maine School of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Maine School of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAINE ROADS AND EASEMENTS Knud E. Hermansen & Donald R. Richards I. INTRODUCTION ........................................ 200 II. EASEMENT TERMS AND CLASSIFICATIONS ............. 202 A. Appurtenant Easements and Easements in Gross .. 203 B. Public Easements and Private Easements .......... 204 III. EASEMENT STATUS AND USES ........................ 205 A. Easement or Fee Simple Title ...................... 205 1. Operative Records ............................. 206 2. Common Law ................................. 206 3. Range-Ways and Range-Roads ................. 207 B. Title Within the Easement ......................... 209 C. Multiple Uses/Easements .......................... 210 D. CorrelativeRights and Appurtenances ............. 211 1. Express or Clearly Intended ................... 211 2. Implied Rights and Limitations ................ 212 a. Utilities in Private Road Easements ........ 217 b. Utilities in Public Roads .................. 217 c. Obstructions .............................. 218 d. PrescriptiveEasements .................... 218 e. Exclude the Obvious ...................... 220 f Increased Traffic Not Speed ............... 220 g. Subdivision of the Appurtenant Parcel..... 220 h. Accessing Non-Appurtenant Parcels ....... 220 IV. CREATION ............................................ 222 A . G rant ............................................. 223 B. Reservation ....................................... 223 1. Exception Used ................................ 223 2. Subject To/Together With ...................... 224 C. Implication ........................................ 225 1. Strict Necessity ................................ 226 2. Quasi Easements .............................. 231 3. Subdivision and Sale .......................... 233 4. Boundary in a Description..................... 235 5. Application and Comparison .................. 237 D . Estoppel .......................................... 241 E. Prescription ....................................... 242 F. D edication ........................................ 248 G. Covenants ........................................ 250 H . Statutes ........................................... 25 1 1. Private Way (Public Easement) ................ 251 2. Easements Upon Discontinuance............... 251 3. Burial Grounds................................ 252 198 MAINE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 48:197 4. Condemnation or Conveyance ................. 252 5. Intertidal Lands and Navigable Bodies of Water ....................................... 253 6. Blanket Utility Easements ...................... 254 7. Conservation Easements ....................... 254 & Scenic Easements .............................. 255 9. Constructive Easements ........................ 255 10. Solar Easements .............................. 255 11. Access to Great Ponds ........................ 256 12. Navigable Water .............................. 256 13. D rainage ..................................... 257 I. Problems Creating or Conveying Easements ........ 257 1. Grants by the Dominant Estate ................ 257 2. Rule Against Perpetuities ...................... 257 3. No Title Interests .............................. 258 4. Inadequate Description ........................ 259 5. Stranger to the Deed ........................... 259 V. EXTINGUISHMENT ..................................... 261 A . Release ........................................... 261 B. Condition or Event ................................ 261 1. Paper Streets .................................. 262 2. Vacation ....................................... 262 C. N onuse ........................................... 262 D. Abandonment ..................................... 265 E. Merger of Title (Unity of Title) .................... 268 F. Termination of Necessity ........................... 268 G. Foreclosure ....................................... 269 H . Destruction ....................................... 269 I. Death of the Party ................................. 269 J. Statutes ............................................ 270 1. Discontinuance ................................ 270 2. Abandonment ................................. 272 3. Statute of Limitation or Conditional Period .... 273 4. Vacation by Petition ........................... 274 5. Vacation upon Condition ...................... 274 6. Revocation of Dedication ...................... 274 7. Adverse Use ............................. 275 K. Rights and Title upon Conveyancing or Termination ....................................... 275 VI. LOCATING EASEMENTS ................................ 276 A. Easement Information ............................. 276 B. Easement Position ................................. 279 1. Monuments .................................... 280 2. Directions and Distances....................... 280 3. Use and Occupancy ........................... 283 4. Servient Estate-FirstChoice .................. 284 1996] ROADS AND EASEMENTS C. Boundaries of the Easement ....................... 284 1. Grant or Intent ................................ 285 2. Occupation and Possession Barriers............ 286 3. Adequate and Reasonable Width ............... 287 4. Prescriptive Easements Width .................. 289 5. Official Action ................................ 289 VII. PARCEL BOUNDARIES IN OR ALONG ROAD EASEMENTS ........................................... 290 A. Public Road Easements ........................... 293 B. Private Easements ................................. 299 C. Paper Streets ...................................... 299 D. Former Public Streets ............................. 300 E. Railroads ......................................... 301 VIII. UNRESOLVED ISSUES .................................. 302 A. Vacation, Abandonment, Discontinuance, etc...... 302 B. Lines of Occupation Versus Three-Rod Width ..... 302 C. New Road on Original Road ...................... 304 D. Center or Far Side ................................ 304 E. Sidelines .......................................... 305 F. Marginal Street Doctrine........................... 309 G. Government Subdivider ........................... 309 IX. CONCLUSION-COUNSELING THE CLIENT ............. 310 MAINE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 48:197 MAINE ROADS AND EASEMENTS Knud E. Hermansen* Donald R. Richards** I. INTRODUCTION Black's Law Dictionary1 defines an easement as a right of use over the property of another. An easement is a right in the owner of one parcel of land, by reason of such ownership, to use the land of another for a special purpose not inconsistent with a general prop- erty right in the owner.2 It is an interest that one person has in the land of another.' A primary characteristic of an easement, that its burden falls upon the possessor of the land from which it issued, is expressed in the statement that the land constitutes a servient estate or tenement and the easement a dominant tenement.4 The servient estate may utilize the easement area for its own purposes or in con- junction with the dominant estate as long as such use does not inter- fere with the dominant estate.5 An easement is distinguishable from a "license," which merely confers personal privilege to do some act on the land. Easements do not allow exclusive possession of the area. They are categorized as incorporeal hereditaments. Ease- * Knud E. Hermansen is an associate professor in the College of Engineering, University of Maine. He is also a land surveyor, civil engineer, and attorney offering consulting services in Old Town, Maine. ** Donald R. Richards is a partner in the surveying firm of Richards & Cranston located in Rockland, Maine. The authors would like to thank Mr. Joseph J. Wathen, Esq., Staff Attorney with the Maine Municipal Association; Mr. Bruce VanNote, P.L.S., Esq., Staff Attorney with the Maine Department of Highways, and Mr. John T. Mann, P.L.S. and Mr. Reubon Wheeler of Mann Associates for their help, review, and comments in preparing this Article. 1. BLACK'S LAW DICrIONARY (6th ed. 1990). 2. In Hill v. Lord, 48 Me. 83 (1861), the court held: The distinction between an interest in the soil, or a right to a profit in it, and an easement, is not always palpable. The line of separation is some- times obscure, in some points unsettled, with no established principles by which to determine it. All rights of way are easements. So is the right to enter the close of another and erect booths upon public days; or to dance, or to play at any lawful games and sports. Id. at 99 (citations omitted). 3. Bonney v. Greenwood, 96 Me. 335, 341, 52 A. 786, 789 (1902) ("An easement may be concisely defined as 'a privilege without profit which one has for the benefit of his land in the land of another.' "). 4. Id ("It is among the essential qualities of every easement that there are two distinct