Court Opinion

ID: 9595886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:43:58.839961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:52.644644
License: Public Domain

Judge Johnson
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion in which they contend that a burden would be placed upon the servient estate by providing domestic utilities. This Court has previously held that a buried septic tank system does not constitute an encumbrance on the property of another; accordingly, the installation of underground utility lines would not increase the burden on the servient estate, nor the use of the easement. See Commonwealth Land Title Ins. Co. v. Stephenson, 101 N.C. App. 379, 399 S.E.2d 380 (1991).
Moreover, employing the principles of ordinary reasoning and common sense leads one to conclude that a deed, which included an easement restricting a lot to residential use sufficient to maintain a residence, would necessarily provide the right to install utilities to the residential lot. In Sparrow v. Tobacco Co., 232 N.C. 589, 61 S.E.2d 700 (1950), the Court held that, when determining what uses of an easement are reasonably necessary, consideration must be given to the purposes or uses for which the easement was granted. It would be reasonably necessary that an easement for residential use include, not only the right to ingress and egress, but also the right to lay utility lines. Any other conclusion would render the lot restricted for residential use basically uninhabitable.
I therefore vote to affirm the trial court’s judgment.