Opinion ID: 2340759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: easement appurtenant.

Text: The Meade families acquired the right to use both the fifty-foot roadway and the thirty-foot easement across the 18 acre tract at a time when the families owned all of the land on both sides of the fifty-foot roadway and all of the land served by use of the thirty-foot easement. The rule is general that, where one conveys a part of his estate, he impliedly grants all those apparent or visible easements upon the part retained which were at the time used by the grantor for the benefit of the part conveyed, and which are reasonably necessary for the use of that part. Stone v. Burkhead, 160 Ky. 47, 169 S.W. 489, 490 (1914) (quoting Jones on Easements ). Further: It may be considered as settled in the United States that, on the conveyance of one of several parcels of land belonging to the same owner, there is an implied grant or reservation, as the case may be, of all apparent and continuous easements or incidents or property which have been created or used by him during the unity of possession.... Irvine v. McCreary, 108 Ky. 495, 56 S.W. 966, 967 (1900) (quoting Washburn on Easements, at 81). No one has disputed that the fifty-foot roadway was reasonably necessary for the Meade families' use of their property located on both sides of the roadway. Thus, when the Meade families conveyed the fifty-foot easement to Licking Pork, Inc., on September 1, 1978, and retained the right to use the roadway in common with Grantee, the roadway became a reciprocal easement appurtenant to the Meade families' property located on both the east and west sides thereof. Remember, Richard and Louise Meade already owned a 1/6th interest in the 131.045 acres on the east side of the roadway, including the easements appurtenant thereto, before they were deeded the remaining 5/6ths interest owned by the other Meade families. It is also apparent that the conveyance of the other 5/6ths interest in the 131.045 acre tract preceded the conveyance of the 78.181 acre tract to the Stewarts, since the conveyance of the 131.045 acre tract was identified in the Stewarts' deed as an exception to the property conveyed to them. But even if the timing of the deeds had been reversed, such would not have affected the status of the fifty-foot roadway as an easement appurtenant to the 131.045 acre tract. That status had existed since September 1, 1978, when the Meade families deeded the fifty-foot easement to Licking Pork, Inc., subject to the terms of the December 15, 1977, agreement. Thus, it was immaterial that the subsequent deed conveying the other Meade families' 5/6ths interest to Richard and Louise Meade did not specifically recite that ownership of the deeded property included the right to use the adjacent roadway. See Hatfield v. Hatfield, 150 Ky. 788, 151 S.W. 3, 4 (1912) (The purpose of Wooldridge in making the reservation was to retain for himself a way out when he sold the land lying between himself and the public road. This reservation was made for the benefit of the tract which he still owned and afterward sold to William H. Hatfield. It was an appurtenance to that tract and passed to the grantee of that tract though it is not expressly mentioned in the deed; for, being an appurtenance, it ran with the land.); Johns v. Davis, 76 S.W. at 189 (A right of way is appurtenant to the land of the grantee if so in fact, although not declared to be so in deed.). Accordingly, the decisions of the Fleming Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals are reversed, and the right to use the fifty-foot roadway lying adjacent to the 131.045 acre tract now owned by Appellants, but within the 78.181 acre tract now owned by Appellees, is held to be an easement appurtenant to the 131.045 acre tract. This action is remanded to the Fleming Circuit Court with directions to conduct further necessary proceedings consistent with this opinion. GRAVES, JOHNSTONE, STUMBO, and WINTERSHEIMER, JJ., concur. KELLER, J., dissents by separate opinion, with LAMBERT, C.J. joining that dissenting opinion.