Question

1. Cosmo Kramer has an express easement across Jerry Seinfeld’s property that Kramer uses as a right of way to reach a public road. In which of the following circumstances has the easement been terminated by estoppel?

1. Kramer starts occasionally using a shorter right of way across a portion of Newman’s property to access the public road.

2. Kramer signs a written document agreeing to extinguish the easement.

3. There is a giant landslide on Jerry’s property that destroys the right of way.

4. Kramer tells Jerry that he no longer will be using the right of way, and Jerry builds a swimming pool where the right of way used to be.

Answer 1

The circumstance under which the easement has been terminated by estoppel is :-

Kramer tells Jerry that he no longer will be using the right of way, and Jerry builds a swimming pool where the right of way used to be.

Explanation:-

An easement is an interest in real property that allows its holder to enter into the land of another person and make a specific use of it without possessing the property. In simple words, an easement is a right of one person to use (or control the use of) another person’s land. Easements are helpful for providing pathways across two or more pieces of property, allowing individuals to access other properties or a resource, for example, to the main road or public beach etc. For instance,  let's assume that the only way to access a public beach is through someone's private property (like a driveway). The neighbors have a right to access the beach, but must trespass in order to do it. An easement gives them the legal authority to do so, but in a limited way that is non-possessory and non-disruptive to the property owner.

An easement may be implied or express. An express easement is created by a deed or by a will. Thus, it must be in writing. Even when no document or agreement has created an express easement, an easement right may still be understood (or "implied") by a situation or circumstances. Generally, these types of easements are applicable to sectors of land that were once part of a larger sector of land, such as a three-acre plot split into six separate plots. Again, there are two parties to an easement :- The party gaining the benefit of the easement is the dominant estate or dominant tenant, while the party granting the benefit or suffering the burden is the servient estate or servient tenant.

There are many ways to terminate an easement. They are :- merger, release, estoppel, prescription, abandonment, destruction of servient estate, forfeiture and expiration. Hence, one of the ways of terminating an easement is by esstopel.

Estoppel terminates an easement in circumstances similar to termination by abandonment. But instead of terminating the easement because the dominant tenant has given it up as is the case in abandonment, estoppel terminates the easement because the servient tenant has relied upon the dominant tenant’s conduct that indicates his intent to give it up.

The servient owner must prove the following to establish termination of easement by estoppel:

• The dominant tenant indicated that he/she no longer intended to use the easement, whether by doing the same kinds of things that indicate abandonment or by verbally indicating his/her intention.

• The servient tenant reasonably relied on the dominant tenant’s indications of intent.

• The servient tenant’s reliance would cause her to suffer a material detriment if the easement were not terminated.

• If the dominant owner doesn’t directly indicate authorization but merely hasn’t been using the easement for a long time and then doesn’t object when the servient owner builds the obstructing improvement, the dominant owner may be estopped if the servient owner’s reliance was reasonable and he/she would suffer significant enough harm if the easement were not terminated.

However, a typical termination by estoppel occurs when the dominant tenant somehow indicates that he authorizes a substantial improvement of the easement by the servient owner that prevents the use of the easement.

So, in the above given problem, when Kramer tells Jerry that he no longer will be using the right of way or the easement, we can say, that the dominat tenant verbally indicated that he is no longer intended to use the easement, thereby, satisfying the first condition of termination of easement by estoppel.
At the same time Kramer, by telling Jerry that he would no longer use the right of way, the dominant tenant somehow indicates that he authorizes a substantial improvement by the servient owner that prevents the use of the easement. Thus Jerry builds a swimming pool where the right of way used to be and terminates the easement by estoppel.