## Facts

- Thomas O’Neill owned upland property on Vinalhaven Island in Maine that traced title back to a common predecessor, Moses Webster.
- In 1882, Webster conveyed a narrow strip of land along the shore (between Webster’s remaining land and the water) to another party in Webster’s chain of title.
- The 1882 conveyance contained a reservation clause providing: “Reserve being had for said Moses Webster the right of way by land or water.”
- Without the reserved right-of-way, the conveyance of the shorefront strip would have left Webster’s retained parcel without access to the sea.
- Margaret Williams later acquired title to the narrow shorefront strip (the servient parcel).
- O’Neill, as successor to Webster’s retained parcel (the claimed dominant parcel), asserted he held an easement over Williams’s strip for access to the water based on the 1882 reservation.
- O’Neill filed an action in Maine Superior Court (Knox County) seeking a declaratory judgment establishing his easement rights.
- The trial court ruled for O’Neill, concluding the 1882 deed created an easement appurtenant benefitting Webster’s retained land.
- Williams appealed, arguing the reservation created only a personal easement in gross for Webster that did not pass to successors.

## Issues

1. Did the 1882 deed’s reservation of a “right of way by land or water” create an easement appurtenant that runs with the grantor’s retained land, or an easement in gross personal to Moses Webster?

## Decision

- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court (Law Court) held the reservation created an easement appurtenant to Webster’s retained land, not a personal easement in gross.
- Because the easement is appurtenant, it passes with the dominant estate to successors in title, including O’Neill.
- The court affirmed the Superior Court’s declaratory judgment in O’Neill’s favor.

## Legal Principles

- An easement in gross is a personal right; under Maine law it is generally not assignable and ends with the death of the person for whom it was created.
- An easement appurtenant benefits a dominant parcel; it “runs with the land” and transfers to successors of the dominant estate, while burdening successors of the servient estate.
- In construing deed language that can support either interpretation, Maine courts, when reasonably possible, construe an easement as appurtenant rather than in gross.
- Deed interpretation considers the instrument as a whole and the circumstances at the time of the conveyance, including the practical effect of the transaction on the grantor’s remaining land.
- A reserved right-of-way that functions to preserve access necessary for the use of the retained parcel is strong evidence the parties intended a benefit tied to the land rather than a personal privilege.
- When an easement is created by a recorded deed reservation within the chain of title, later purchasers of the servient parcel are charged with notice of the burden reflected in recorded instruments.

## Conclusion

O’Neill v. Williams holds that an 1882 deed reserving to the grantor a “right of way by land or water,” made in conjunction with a conveyance that otherwise would cut off the grantor’s remaining land from the sea, is properly construed as creating an easement appurtenant to the retained parcel; the easement therefore runs with the land to successors such as O’Neill, and the Law Court affirmed the declaratory judgment establishing O’Neill’s right to use the way across Williams’s strip.


O'Neill v. Williams, 527 A.2d 322 (1987)