## Facts

- In 1934, Samuel Garland conveyed a homestead lot in North Hampton, New Hampshire, to the defendants’ predecessor by warranty deed.
- The 1934 deed reserved to Garland a 15-foot-wide right-of-way adjacent to and north of the conveyed lot, running from Post Road to the rear of the conveyed lot.
- In 1953, Garland conveyed an additional contiguous parcel to the same grantee and reserved a 15-foot-wide right-of-way that continued the earlier right-of-way from Post Road to the rear of the newly conveyed parcel.
- The 1953 reservation expressly stated the right-of-way was to assure “the grantor, his heirs and assigns” ingress and egress “for all purposes” to Garland’s reserved pasture land.
- The plaintiffs later acquired Garland’s remaining land (including the pasture land), and the defendants acquired the parcels burdened by the right-of-way.
- Plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment that the right-of-way was an easement appurtenant benefiting their land.
- The trial court, emphasizing that the 1934 reservation lacked words of inheritance, found the easement was in gross and personal to Garland for livestock access and denied plaintiffs a right to cross defendants’ land.

## Issues

1. Whether the 1934 deed’s right-of-way reservation created an easement appurtenant running with Garland’s retained land or an easement in gross personal to Garland.
2. Whether words of inheritance are required to create an easement appurtenant.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Hampshire reversed.
- The court held the 1934 reservation created an easement appurtenant, not an easement in gross.
- The court held that words of inheritance are not required to create an easement appurtenant.
- The court concluded plaintiffs, as successors to the dominant land, were entitled to use the right-of-way over defendants’ land.

## Legal Principles

- An easement appurtenant benefits a particular parcel (the dominant estate) and passes with that land to successors; an easement in gross is personal and ordinarily does not pass with title.
- The existence of “heirs and assigns” or other words of inheritance is not a formal requirement for an easement appurtenant; intent is determined from the deed language and the property configuration.
- When the deed and circumstances show a reserved right-of-way provides access from a public road to retained land, the reservation is construed to benefit the land and therefore runs with it.
- A conveyance of the dominant estate carries any appurtenant easements even if the easement is not expressly mentioned in the later conveyance.

## Conclusion

The court ruled that the reserved right-of-way was appurtenant to Garland’s retained land and passed to the plaintiffs as successors, and that the trial court erred by treating the absence of words of inheritance in the 1934 deed as creating only a personal easement in gross.


Burcky v. Knowles, 413 A.2d 585 (N.H. 1980)