Easements and the 'Stranger to the Deed' Rule

The New York Rule

Although the origins of the stranger to the deed rule are unclear, the Court of Appeals cited the rule as far back as 1854, and applied it to bar a claim that a deed had created a covenant in favor of a person not party to the deed. Craig v. Wells, 11 NY 315. In 1915, that court applied the rule to bar a son from claiming an easement reserved in his favor by his mother when the mother transferred the burdened land to a third party. Tuscarora Club of Millbrook v. Brown, 215 NY 543. In neither case did the court explain why a grantor should not be able to create an easement in favor of a third party. Perhaps the rule made some sense before the advent of recording acts, because permitting a grantor to create interests in strangers might make it difficult for subsequent purchasers to locate the “strangers” who held interests in their land. But once deeds became a matter of public record, a purchaser would face no significant difficulty in locating the holder of an appurtenant easement, whether or not the party was a “stranger” to the deed creating the purported easement. Nevertheless, as recently as 1987, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed the traditional rule. Estate of Thompson v. Wade, 69 NY2d 570.