Opinion ID: 2299170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Successive Assignment

Text: [¶ 22] Wentworth argues that, once the Superior Court concluded that the easement was not technically perpetual, the court should have, nevertheless, according to O'Donovan, asked whether it was successively assignable. As discussed in reference to Wentworth's first argument, O'Donovan stands for the proposition that, although not generally assignable, an easement in gross is assignable if the parties clearly express that intent in the deed. O'Donovan, 1999 ME 71, ¶ 7, 728 A.2d at 683. O'Donovan does not necessarily establish that easements in gross are successively assignable or perpetual. See id. A life estate may be assignable, Wilson v. Curtis, 90 Me. 463, 466, 38 A. 365, 367 (1897), but a life tenant cannot convey an estate greater than he or she holds, see Hooper v. Leavitt, 109 Me. 70, 73-74, 82 A. 547, 549 (1912), so the fact that an easement is assignable does not establish that it is perpetual. Moreover, as stated previously, O'Donovan did not change the common law as it existed in 1917 and does not control our interpretation of the 1917 deed at issue here. The entry is: Judgment affirmed.