Can access by easement to property benefitting a one-acre parcel with, say, 20 vehicles parked on it also serve to benefit a distinct adjoining 10-acre parcel subsequently acquired by the same owner that contains 800 vehicles? Unless both the one-acre and 10-acre parcels are beneficiaries of the same easement, New Jersey and most other states would likely disallow overburdening the easement by a change in either character or intensity of usage.

Unlike an easement in gross, which is usable without regard to ownership or occupancy of any particular parcel, an easement appurtenant requires a dominant tenement or estate to which it is connected and that it benefits. Restatement (3d) of Property: Servitudes§4.11 cmt. b (2000). An agreement creating an easement appurtenant grants an owner of the dominant estate the right to use another’s land, known as the servient estate. See Rosen v. Keeler, 411 N.J. Super. 439, 450 (App. Div. 2010). The rights to use that easement are defined by the intent of the creator and the surrounding circumstances. Id. 411 N.J. Super. at 451; Restatement: Servitudes §4.1 cmt. d (ascertaining intent from easement’s language in light of relevant circumstances, inclusive of location and character of the properties burdened and benefitted by use). The primacy accorded to a creator’s intent underscores the principle that an appurtenant easement may not be used to benefit property other than the dominant estate: to conclude otherwise would disregard the very intent of the creating party who set the outer limit on both the potential use and users of the easement itself. See Bruce & Ely, “The Law of Easements & Licenses and Land,” §8.14 (2014).

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