Brady v. Yodanza

425 A.2d 726, 493 Pa. 186, 1981 Pa. LEXIS 690
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania·Decided February 4, 1981·No. 175, 176·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

FLAHERTY, Justice.

This case arose as an attempt by the appellees, Brady and Spark, to enjoin the appellants’ use of a 30-foot strip of land as an easement appurtenant to their land. The sole issue for review is whether the appellants have a right-of-way easement over the land of the appellees Brady and Spark. We agree with the trial court’s conclusion that the appellants do have a right of way and therefore we reverse the holding of the Superior Court, 269 Pa.Super. 31, 409 A.2d 48, and reinstate the decree of the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas in No. 771 and 772.

The facts are not disputed. All the parties are ultimate purchasers from common grantors, John Filapose et ux. and John Novacek et ux. All parties take out of a single large tract of land originally owned by the common grantors. The contested 30-foot-wide right-of-way easement is comprised of two equal, adjoining 15-foot-wide easements and has as its center line the common boundary line of the Spark and Brady properties. Brady and Spark took title subject to the following provision which appears in the deed from the common grantors to Brady and in the chain of title to Spark. The clause is identical in each case except for the substitution of Northerly for Southerly:

Excepting and Reserving unto the parties of the first part herein, their heirs and assigns, the full, free liberty and right at all times hereafter forever, to have and use a passageway 15 feet in width along the Southerly side of the land hereinabove described for any and all purposes connected with the use and occupation of other land now owned by the parties of the first part adjoining the land hereby granted.

*189 The parcels today owned by the appellants were, at the time the conveyances were made to Brady and Spark, part of the' land retained by the grantors and, hence, were adjoining lands.

The conveyances to the appellants, Yodanza et al., granted to each grantee a right-of-way easement 50 feet wide which is an extension of the 30-foot easement in question, the two appearing to make one straight right of way. None of these deeds makes reference to the 30-foot easement, but each contains a standard appurtenances clause. 1

Turning first to the effect of the reservation clause which appears in the deeds from the common grantors to the appellees, we conclude that, by virtue of this clause, the lands of the appellees are made servient tenements burdened by a 30-foot right of way. The dominant tenement, as stated by the clause itself, is “adjoining lands” owned by the common grantors.

Existence of a servient tenement for the beneficial use of a dominant tenement is a prerequisite to the creation of an easement appurtenant. Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. v. Michel, 418 Pa. 398, 211 A.2d 454 (1965). Creation of an easement appurtenant is accomplished by reserving unto the grantor an easement or right of way over the land conveyed, said right of way being intended to benefit other lands retained by the grantor. This reservation is conceptually fused with the land it benefits and passes with the land if there is a subsequent conveyance. An expressly created easement appurtenant can conceivably last forever. 2

*190 “It is settled law in Pennsylvania that an owner of land may arrange it as he pleases, doing no injury to others, and that any ways or other privileges which he may provide for the necessary or convenient use of the different parts of the land, or of structures on it, will remain as servitudes upon the parts subjected to them by him, 'in the hands of subsequent purchasers with notice, or when the easements are continuous and apparent. The easements thus created, being for the specific use of the lands for which they were provided, become appurtenances of those dominant estates, and require no deed or writing to support them; they pass by a conveyance of the estates to which they are appurtenant”:

Paci v. Shipley, 166 Pa.Super. 374, 71 A.2d 844, (1950), citing Held v. McBride, 3 Pa.Super. 155, 158; Ozehoski v. Scranton Spring Brook Water Service Co., 157 Pa.Super. 437, 43 A.2d 601 (1945).

Many cases recognize that where an easement is annexed as an appurtenance to land by an express or implied grant or reservation (here, an express reservation), or by prescription, it passes with a transfer of the land although not specifically mentioned in the instrument of transfer. See e. g., Piper v. Mowris, 466 Pa. 89, 351 A.2d 635 (1976); Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. v. Michel, 418 Pa. 398, 211 A.2d 454 (1965); Hibberd v. Greenstein, 263 Pa. 527, 107 A. 28 (1919); Chambersburg Shoe Mfg. Co. v. Cumberland Valley Railroad Co., 240 Pa. 519, 87 A. 968 (1913). Here, the reservation clause created a right-of-way easement which burdened the appel-lees land and benefited adjoining lands retained by the common grantors. At a later date, when these adjoining lands were conveyed to appellants, the benefit of the right-of-way easement passed to the appellants as purchasers of the dominant estate. It is not necessary, as the appellees have argued, for this easement appurtenant to have been expressly granted to the appellants. To the contrary, the *191 easement passes by operation of law. Unless the common grantors limit or make personal the right of way, it is an appurtenance to the land it benefits. 3 Here, the common grantors reserved to themselves, their “heirs and assigns” this right of way; such language would not appear to be words of limitation or of creation of an easement in gross.

The Superior Court concluded that the reservation clause did create an easement appurtenant but only in the lands of the common grantors to the west of the Brady and Spark parcels. This conclusion is unsupportable. The record does not even indicate who owns the land to the west and at the time of the conveyance to Brady and Spark, the common grantors still held the lands to the east of the Brady and Spark parcels and the reservation was to benefit “other land now owned by the parties . . . and adjoining the land hereby granted.” This language does not hint at the possibility that the common grantors intended that the reserved easement should benefit only part of their retained land. “If the words of a deed are sufficiently clear to define the character and extent of a reservation, they speak for themselves and there is no room for construction against a grantor and in favor of a grantee.” Baptist Church in the Great Valley v. Urquhart, 406 Pa.

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Brady v. Yodanza, 425 A.2d 726, 493 Pa. 186, 1981 Pa. LEXIS 690 (Pa. 1981).

425 A.2d 726 (Brady v. Yodanza) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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