Real Property Law

In an action by easement holder for a judgment declaring his easement rights and for an injunction requiring servient owner to remove a permanent dock, servient owner appealed from Supreme Court's grant of partial summary judgment to easement holder. The Appellate Division modified to reverse Supreme Court's determination that easement holder had acquired a prescriptive easement, but otherwise affirmed, holding that the scope of the easement by grant included dominant owner's right to maintain a seasonal dock.

In 1958, the predecessors in interest of the parties entered into an easement agreeing giving each of them and their successors a perpetual easement over a 44 x 38 foot parcel of land on the lakeshore for the purpose of boating, bathing and docking. Since then the easement holder had maintained a seasonal dock in the center of the lake frontage. In 2021, servient owner purchased the lakeshore frontage and installed a permanent dock where the seasonal dock had always been. Easement holder then brought this action seeking removal of the permanent dock and a declaration of his rights to the easement. Supreme Court granted partial summary judgment to easement holder.