Keeler

An action for declaratory relief, injunction and damages was brought by plaintiffs, successors to the grantors and owners in fee of the servient estate, Lot 1, against defendants, successors to the grantees and owners in fee of the dominant estate, Lot 11, and the appurtenant easement thereto, to determine the rights of the parties in the easement created over Lot 1 under a grant deed dated April 17, 1934. The matter was heard before the court sitting without a jury. The trial judge found that the easement was created for the sole use and benefit of the defendants’ predecessors in interest and that the exclusive use thereof by defendants was not a violation of the rights of the plaintiffs. From a judgment in favor of defendants, plaintiffs appeal.

The primary question is whether the instrument granting the easement to defendants’ predecessors in interest conveyed to them an easement to the exclusion of the owners of the servient tenement.

The deed, among other things, provided: “Whereas, there is on the northerly twenty (20') feet of said first herein described parcel of real property, a private road, or alleyway, extending from the east to west a distance of one hundred forty…