Opinion ID: 1138809
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Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Right of Pasture in California

Text: In California, the term real property is defined by section 14, subdivision 2, Civil Code, as `coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments', to which Blackstone gives the appellation `things real.' ( Callahan v. Martin (1935) 3 Cal.2d 110, 118 [43 P.2d 788, 101 A.L.R. 871]; see also [Civ. Code,] § 658.) By a residual definition, every kind of property that is not real is personal. ([Civ. Code,] § 663.) As the Callahan court noted, the common law included, in addition to lands and tenements, in the category of things real, hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, and section 14, subdivision 2 of the Civil Code, noted above, preserves this classification. A hereditament, as defined by Blackstone, included not only lands and tenements, but whatsoever passed to the heirs at law, rather than to personal representatives, `be it corporeal or incorporeal.' [Citation.] Blackstone lists ten sorts of incorporeal hereditaments: advowsons, tithes, commons, ways, offices, dignities, franchises, corodies or pensions, annuities and rents.... Of the ancient incorporeal hereditaments listed by Blackstone, several either are not recognized at all in this country, or, if they do not involve rights in or to land, are not classed as things real. But a number of the common-law incorporeal hereditaments which involve rights connected with or pertaining to land persist, and are recognized generally as a species of interest in land, or estate in real property. [¶] The incorporeal hereditament of common is defined by Blackstone as `being a profit which a man hath in the land of another; as to feed his beasts, to catch fish, to dig turf, to cut wood, or the like.' [Citation.] These are the rights which are described as profits a prendre [] ... ( Callahan, 3 Cal.2d at pp. 119-120.) Consistent with this common law history, the right to graze animals on private land, typically called a right of pasture or the common of pasture, has traditionally been characterized as a profit a prendre. (See [,] e.g., Platt v. Pietras (1980 Fla.[Dist.Ct.]App.) 382 So.2d 414, 417, fn. 1 [cattle]; Deseret Livestock Co. v. Sharp (1953) 123 Utah 353 [259 P.2d 607, 610] [sheep].) As we have seen, a profit a prendre, literally a profit to take, is an incorporeal hereditament; it is a right to take something from the land of another. ( Gerhard v. Stephens (1968) 68 Cal.2d 864, 878, fn. 7 [69 Cal. Rptr. 612, 442 P.2d 692]; see also Lynch v. State Bd. of Equalization (1985) 164 Cal. App.3d 94, 102, fn. 4 [210 Cal. Rptr. 335]; Sehle v. Producing Properties, Inc. (1964) 230 Cal. App.2d 430, 432-433 [41 Cal. Rptr. 136]; Costa v. Fawcett (1962) 202 Cal. App.2d 695, 699-700 [21 Cal. Rptr. 143]; see also 4 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (9th ed. 1987) Real Property, § 439, p. 620.) As Tiffany recounts it, [t]he most important profit a prendre, historically considered, is that of pasturing cattle on another's land, usually referred to as `common of pasture.' ... [¶] Common of pasture involves the placing of cattle on the land to eat the herbage, in this differing from a right to take herbage from another's land by cutting and transporting it. (3 Tiffany, Real Property (3d ed. 1939) Profits a Prendre, § 845, p. 436.) At common law a profit a prendre was distinguished from an easement. Taking, a California legal encyclopedia explains, is the essence of a profit a prendre, and, under earlier cases, was held to distinguish it from an easement, under the rule that one of the features of an easement is the absence of all right to participate in the profits of the soil charged with the easement. However, the Civil Code provisions as to servitudes make no distinction between easements and profits, and in fact enumerate typical profits as easements. (28 Cal.Jur.3d, Easements and Licenses, § 4, pp. 85-86, fns. omitted.) Thus, under the code, the following land burdens, or servitudes upon the land, may be attached to other land as incidents or appurtena[n]ces, and are then called easements: 1. The right of pasture; 2. The right of fishing; 3. The right of taking game; ... 5. The right of taking water, wood, minerals, and other things[] ... ([Civ. Code,] § 801, paragraphing deleted.) It has been further noted that [n]either the Civil Code nor the Restatement of Property distinguishes easements appurtenant from easements in gross. In fact, Civil Code Section 802 lists the `right of taking water, wood, minerals, or other things' (i.e., a profit) as one of the `land burdens' that may be granted and held, whether the burden is or is not appurtenant to land. The Restatement of Property notes that the law of the United States recognizes both easements in gross and profits in gross and that the rules with respect to easements and profits can be stated in identical terms. Accordingly, the Restatement includes profits under the general heading of easements and treats profits in all respects as a class of easement. (10 Hagman & Maxwell, Cal. Real Estate Law & Practice (1988 rev.) Easements & Licenses, § 343.13, p. 343-20, fns. omitted; see Rest., Property, § 450, special note, pp. 2901-2902.) Thus, Civil Code section 802 classifies profits and easements in gross, identically, as servitudes. ( Gerhard v. Stephens, supra, 68 Cal.2d at p. 880, fn. 11, italics in original.) Among the several listed profits in gross described as land burdens, or servitudes upon land which may be granted and held though not attached to land is the right to pasture, and of fishing and taking game. (§ 802, subd. one.) Following the classification of the Civil Code and the analysis of the Restatement, [we have] held that for the purpose of determining rights in real property easements and profits a prendre are indistinguishable. ( Gerhard v. Stephens, supra, 68 Cal.2d at p. 880; see also Callahan v. Martin, supra, 3 Cal.2d at pp. 118-122.) Following the common law this court has classified profits a prendre, together with easements, as incorporeal hereditaments. ( Gerhard, 68 Cal.2d at p. 880.) It follows from all of this that [l]ike other easements, a profit is an incorporeal (i.e. nonpossessory) `interest' in real property. (10 Hagman & Maxwell, op. cit. supra, at p. 343-20.) Thus, a right of pasture on private property in California constitutes an interest in real property.