Clement v. Jaworski CA1/5

BACKGROUND

A.

An easement gives someone other than the property owner a restricted right to a specific use or activity on another’s property. (Scruby v. Vintage Grapevine, Inc. (1995)

To avoid confusion, we refer to the individual parties by

first name only. 1 Cal.App.4th 697, 702 (Scruby).) “The land to which an easement is attached is called the dominant tenement; the land upon which a burden or servitude is laid is called the servient tenement.” (Civ. Code, § 803.)

B.

The Clements and the Jaworskis own adjacent 2.5 acre parcels of land and single-family homes, in rural Solano County. The only access to the Clements’ landlocked property, which lies immediately to the east of (and downhill from) the Jaworskis’, is provided by an easement across the Jaworskis’ property, which was deeded by the parties’ predecessors in 1978.

Specifically, the Clements’ recorded deed provides that they are granted “[a] non-exclusive easement for ingress, egress and private utility purposes . . . above[,] over, under and across that certain proposed 50 feet Private Access Utilities Easement, as shown on Parcel B4A [the Jaworskis’ property] per Parcel Map, Book 12, Page 87, filed on May…