Title: Taylor v. Hays
Citation: 551 So. 2d 906
Docket Number: 07-58888
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: October 18, 1989

551 So. 2d 906 (1989) A.R. TAYLOR, Jr., et ux., v. Len Ray HAYS and T.D. Lambert. No. 07-58888. Supreme Court of Mississippi. October 18, 1989. David E. Adams, Senatobia, for appellant. R.M.P. Short, Sardis, for appellee. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and ANDERSON and PITTMAN, JJ. *907 ROY NOBLE LEE, Chief Justice, For the Court: A.R. Taylor, Jr., and Mrs. Marjorie P. Taylor, his wife, have appealed from a summary judgment entered against them and in favor of Len Ray Hays and T.D. Lambert in the Chancery Court of Panola County, removing an access easement from lands owned by Hays and Lambert. The appellants raise the following issues: Prior to April 3, 1967, Mrs. A.G. McDonald owned two contiguous tracts of land in Panola County, Mississippi. Tract 1 was a small lot, which fronted on Sycamore Street in the Town of Como. Tract 2 was adjacent to Tract 1 and was approximately five (5) times the size of Tract 1. There was no entrance or exit to Tract 2 except over Tract 1. Mrs. McDonald conveyed Tract 2 to the appellants with the understanding that the appellants would have access to and from Tract 2 over a drive along the north edge of Tract 1, leading into Sycamore Street. However, no reference to, or condition of, easement was included in the deed from Mrs. McDonald to appellants. Subsequently, Mrs. McDonald died and Lot 1 descended to the appellee Hays. The permissive use of the drive was continued until the Hays received an offer from Lambert to buy Tract 1 conditioned on the removal of the access route used by the appellants through the years. The appellants live upon a tract of land approximately one hundred (100) feet from Tract 2, but it is not adjacent or contiguous to Tract 2. Lambert proposed to convey a right-of-way 122 ft. X 30 ft. extending from Tract 2 to Tract 4 to appellants, thereby causing Tract 2 and Tract 4 to be contiguous and providing access to and from Tract 2 by a different route than that over Tract 1. Appellants declined the offer. There is no dispute in the facts of this case, and the law may be applied upon those facts even though they have not been fully developed. The statement of facts set out in appellants' brief follows: The appellants contend (1) that the lower court erred in denying their motion for summary judgment and (2) that the lower court erred in changing the location of the easement across Tract 1, which they had used since 1967, without the consent of all the parties. We find no dispute between the parties as to what the law of this case is. We do not see that the authorities cited are in conflict. First, there must be a clear understanding of the type easement that the facts present to the Court, keeping in mind that there is no written instrument or provision in the original deed constituting an easement. Mrs. McDonald orally gave the Taylors permission to use her drive across Tract 1 in order to enter Tract 2 from Sycamore Street. Therefore, the appellants have not obtained an easement by prescription, their use having been permissive through the years. The type easement in existence has been named an easement by implication in some cases and in other cases an easement by necessity. We think that, here, we are confronted with an easement by necessity, arising by implication. In 1897, the case of Pleas v. Thomas, 75 Miss. 495, 22 So. 820 (1897), set forth the general rule that an easement by necessity arises by implied grant when a part of a commonly-owned tract of land is severed in such a way that either portion of the property has been rendered inaccessible except by passing over the other portion or by trespassing on the lands of another. The Court said: 75 Miss. at 500, 22 So. at 820. Accord Warwick v. Pearl River Valley Water Supply Dist., 246 So. 2d 525, 528 (Miss. 1971), Quin v. Sabine, 183 Miss. 375, 382, 183 So. 701 (1938). Under the common law, easements or rights-of-way by necessity exist only so long as the necessity exists and the easement by necessity terminates when other access to the land-locked property becomes available. In Thornton v. McLeary, 161 Miss. 697, 702-703, 137 So. 785, 786-787 (1931), the Court held that a way of necessity had terminated when the owner of the dominant tenement acquired other abutting property which could provide access from the formerly land-locked parcel to a public road. The Court, citing other authority, stated the rule which applies today: 161 Miss. 703, 137 So. 786-787. See also Parham v. Reddick, 537 So. 2d 132, 135 (Fla.App. 1988); Fox Investments v. Thomas, 431 So. 2d 1021, 1022 (Fla.App. 1983). The appellees argue that the chancellor should be affirmed on the grounds of social utility: The decree entered by the lower court as to the substituted easement provided the following: The appellants apparently have relied upon the position that they have used the permissive easement across Tract 1 for so long that it cannot be changed or removed without their consent. We emphasize that the parties have agreed that the facts as stated are not in dispute. The appellants have not provided affidavits or depositions, which would indicate a loss, decrease in value, or even inconvenience to be incurred *910 by a substitution of the easement.[1] On the other hand, from observing plats of the property and considering the type road ordered by the chancellor, it appears that the new easement will be more convenient and will better accommodate the appellants than the easement across Tract 1. We are of the opinion that on the undisputed facts of this case and on applying the law of this state to those facts, the lower court did not commit error in granting the summary judgment, and the judgment is affirmed. AFFIRMED. HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, ANDERSON, PITTMAN and BLASS, JJ., concur. [1] We do not address in this opinion a set of facts where the owner of the dominant tenement would be harmed, caused to sustain a financial loss, a value decrease in the property, etc. Just any kind of substituted easement might not suffice. Also, we do not address a situation where the property owner had an agreement with the purchaser that the purchaser would have no access over and easement on his adjoining property. No such agreements are a part of the case sub judice. For instance, landowner might sell purchaser property for $10,000 with easement across the servient tenement or for $5,000 without such easement. Purchaser might be able to obtain other access from the landowners for a less amount and thus choose to purchase for the smaller consideration.