The issues in this case are whether a certain easement agreement recorded in August 1983 created reciprocal easement rights in both the grantor and the grantee, whether the grantor’s successors acquired a prescriptive easement, and whether the grantor’s successors are entitled to injunctive relief.1 The trial court determined that the easement agreement did not give the grantor property rights in the grantee’s property and that the grantor’s successors had not obtained a prescriptive easement, and denied injunctive relief to the grantor’s successors. We affirm those rulings. The trial court also dismissed claims seeking monetary damages for trespass and nuisance, without hearing evidence regarding those claims. We reverse the dismissal of those claims. In 1982 Highland Park Center Associates Highland Park owned realty on North Highland Avenue. This realty consisted of three separate parcels: 1 a residential lot at 479 N. Highland Avenue, approximately 50 feet wide and 100 feet deep, having a house and paved side driveway; 2 a paved parking area directly behind the 479 residential lot; and 3 a commercial parcel consisting of the North Highland Plaza and a parking lot adjacent to the Plaza. Before 1982, the residential lot at 479 and the rear paved parking area behind the residential lot comprised a single parcel. On August 15, 1983, Highland Park sold the residential lot at 479 N. Highland Avenue to Kwok Wai Tse. The same day Highland Park as Grantor and Tse as Grantee executed an “Easement Agreement”that states in part: WHEREAS, Grantor owns real property adjacent to and adjoining the said property of the Grantee which is located immediately South and East of the property of the Grantee, a full legal description of the property subject to this easement is shown on Exhibit “B” attached hereto and incorporated herein, by this reference, and WHEREAS, pursuant to Special Stipulation #14 of that certain real estate sales contract dated June 25, 1983 between the parties Grantor has agreed to grant, transfer and convey unto Grantee an easement for parking and ingress and egress to the rear portion of Grantee’s property . . . it is agreed by and between the Grantor and the Grantee as follows: 1. Grant of Easement . Grantor, its agents, employees, successors and assigns hereby grant to the Grantee, its agents, employees, successors and assigns, a perpetual affirmative easement for parking and ingress and egress, without limitation, on and across the property of the Grantor described in Exhibit “B” hereof for use by the Grantee for vehicular and pedestrian traffic into and out of the aforesaid property of Grantee, during the use by the Grantee, its tenants, successors and invitees. 2. Non-exclusive Use . The use by both the Grantee and the Grantor shall be non-exclusive. 3. Obstructions . The Grantor and the Grantee agree not to obstruct, impede, or interfere, one with the other, in the reasonable use of this easement for the purpose of parking and ingress and egress to and from the respective properties. After Highland Park and Tse executed the agreement, it was duly recorded.
From 1983 until 1993, Tse owned the 479 N. Highland residential lot and leased the residence to tenants. Tse’s tenants parked in the rear, the easement area. After Tse’s ownership ended, the 479 N. Highland property had several different owners. In February 2002, the house on 479 N. Highland burned down, and on July 19, 2002, Stephen A. Ball purchased the residential property.
