Opinion ID: 2340759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: easement in gross.

Text: Grantors, their heirs and assigns, may use said roadway in common with Grantee and may cross over said easement between their abutting fields ... At worst, this language in the December 15, 1977, agreement vested the Meade families, including Appellant Richard Meade, with an easement in gross over the fifty-foot roadway. This appears to have been the conclusion of the Court of Appeals, which held that the Meade families retained an easement over the fifty-foot roadway even after 5/6ths of the families had sold all their interests in the original 800 acre farm. But if so, the Court of Appeals erroneously concluded that the merger of the 18 acre and 78.181 acre tracts extinguished their easements. [A]n easement in gross is a mere personal interest in or right to use the land of another. It is attached to and vested in, the person to whom it is granted. In fact, the principal distinction between an easement in gross and an easement appurtenant is that in the first there is not, and in the second there is, a dominant tenement to which it is attached. 25 Am.Jur.2d, Easements and Licenses in Real Property § 11 (1996). See also Inter-County Rural Elec. Co-op. Corp. v. Reeves, 294 Ky. 458, 171 S.W.2d 978, 983 (1943) (an easement appurtenant is owned by the dominant tenement, not the owner of the tenement, whereas an easement in gross is personal to the grantee). Since an easement in gross is not owned by the dominant tenement, a merger of the dominant and servient tenements would not extinguish it. An easement in gross acquired by prescription cannot be assigned. Thomas v. Brooks, 188 Ky. 253, 221 S.W. 542, 543 (1920). If, e.g., Appellants Richard and Earnestine Meade owned only a prescriptive easement in gross over the fifty-foot roadway, a sale of the property to a subsequent purchaser would not include ownership of the easement. However, if acquired by contract, as here, it may be made assignable by the terms of the instrument creating the right. 25 Am.Jur.2d, Easements and Licenses in Real Property § 102 (1996). The terms of the written agreement of December 15, 1977, created a reciprocal easement that was both inheritable and assignable. Nevertheless, [i]t is the general rule that easements in gross are not favored, and that an easement will never be presumed to be a mere personal right when it can fairly be construed to be appurtenant to some other estate. Martin v. Music, Ky., 254 S.W.2d 701, 703 (1953). See also Buck Creek R. Co. v. Haws, 253 Ky. 203, 69 S.W.2d 333, 335 (1934); Johns v. Davis, Ky., 76 S.W. 187, 189 (1903). Because the easement over the fifty-foot roadway can fairly be construed to be an easement appurtenant to the 131.045 acre tract, we conclude that it is not an easement in gross.