## Facts

- Detroit Edison acquired a prescriptive easement in gross over Peter and Henrietta Heydon’s land to install and maintain utility poles and electrical transmission lines.
- Detroit Edison entered an agreement allowing MediaOne, a cable television company, to place and maintain cable lines on the same, existing utility poles.
- The Heydons did not give express permission to MediaOne to place cable lines across their property.
- The Heydons sued MediaOne for continuing common-law trespass and sought statutory damages under MCL 600.2919(1), asserting the cable placement exceeded the scope of Edison’s easement or imposed an additional burden.
- The trial court granted summary disposition to MediaOne, and the Heydons appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a commercial prescriptive easement in gross may be apportioned (partially assigned) to a third party such as a cable company.
2. Whether allowing a cable company to use existing utility poles materially or unreasonably increases the burden on the servient estate, such that the additional use is outside the easement and constitutes trespass.

## Decision

- The court affirmed summary disposition for MediaOne.
- The court held that a commercial prescriptive easement in gross may be apportioned unless contrary intent is shown or the apportionment unreasonably burdens the servient estate.
- The court held MediaOne’s use did not materially or unreasonably increase the burden on the Heydons’ property because it used existing poles and did not change the general character of the easement’s use.
- Because MediaOne’s presence was authorized by the apportioned easement and within its scope, the trespass and statutory-damages claims failed.

## Legal Principles

- A commercial easement in gross is generally transferable and may be divided or apportioned, including when acquired by prescription.
- The fact that an easement was acquired by prescription, rather than express grant, does not alone bar apportionment; the apportionment must remain consistent with the use by which the easement was established.
- An apportioned use is permissible only if it does not materially or unreasonably increase the burden on the servient estate beyond what the original easement contemplated.
- Appellate review of summary disposition is de novo.

## Conclusion

The court upheld MediaOne’s right to attach cable lines to existing utility poles under Detroit Edison’s commercial prescriptive easement in gross because the apportionment did not materially or unreasonably increase the burden on the land, defeating the landowners’ trespass and statutory-damages claims.


Heydon v. MediaOne of Se. Mich., Inc., 739 N.W.2d 373 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007)