CHAPTER 5 EASEMENTS AND LICENSES

Abandonment of Easement
Abandonment of an easement is a question of fact for a jury to determine. The court
found that the jury was entitled to find that an easement had been abandoned when it had
not been used for 20 years and access to the dominant property had been barred by a
fence erected by the holder of the easement property. See Duffy Street S.R.O. v. Mobley,
266 Ga. 849, 471 S.E. 2d 507 (1996).

Burden of Proof for Prescriptive Easement

A person claiming a prescriptive easement has the burden of proof to show that his use of
the easement property was adverse to the owner and not with the permission of the
owner. See Suwannee River Water Management District v. Price, 740 So. 2d 46 (1999).

Difference Between Easement and License

An easement and license are fundamentally different in the law. An easement constitutes
an interest in land, is subject to the statute of frauds, and runs with the land. A license,
however, confers no interest in the land but merely gives one the authority to do a
particular act on anothers land; it may be created orally. A license of land is generally
revocable at the pleasure of the grantor. See Dupont v. Whiteside, 721 So. 2d 1259
(1998).

Easement versus Licenses

Two good judicial opinions discussing the difference between an easement and a license.
Guerra v. Packard, 236 Cal. App. 2d 272 (1965) and Brevard County v. Blasky, 875 So.
2d 6 (2004).

5
2011 Cengage Delmar Learning. All Rights Reserved