Easement

It's your land and as long as you don't restrict the rights granted to use the easement as granted to your neighbor, he should have nothing to say about it. Good reason to include a clause in all these types of easements to terminate under certain conditions. Big stick, good neighbor. Writing an easement document that incumbers the land beyond the intended use of the easement, should not be considered a legal enforceable easement, unless there are conditions written into the document that automatically void it or voided by mutual agreement.
jud

It seems to me that your only obligation to the first party is to not impede or block the purpose of his easement. As long as the second easement causes no harm to the first, I don't know why you can't do it.

But those are just the thoughts off the top of my head.

Dylan: I agree with Jud.

But, one size does not fit all...
who told you it is not allowed?

As is often the case, the devil is in the details. The specific language of the original easement may have something to say about the matter. Then there's state law regarding easements. Then there's case law. etc. etc.

But what if you're trying to grant an easement for some property you're trying to adverse possess... oh wait sorry wrong thread.... backing out slowly....

Generally the grantee is considered the dominant estate.

At least in Virginia you can't increase the use of an easement without the consent of the underlying fee owner. But as I noted above there are a lot of ifs, ands, or buts.

> At least in Virginia you can't increase the use of an easement without the consent of the underlying fee owner. But as I noted above there are a lot of ifs, ands, or buts.

Servient tenement would be the underlying fee owner, and the dominant tenement the one benefiting from the easement.
In this case, I think it was the Grantor (the servient tenement) who granted the first easement, and should be able to grant the second to another dominant tenement. I am not sure about a dominant tenement granting the use of his easement to another....it seems like the second easement needs to come from the underlying-fee owner.

But, for all the ifs, ands and buts...

> Its always been my understanding that when you grant a non-exclusive easement to someone, that the grantor can grant the same easement to another party, as long as the easement rights of the first party are not infringed upon.
>
> Example: I grant my neighbor a non-exclusive access easement over my driveway to get to his property. Another neighbor also wants to use my driveway to get to another property. I grant him a non-exclusive access easement in the same place as the first easement.
Can't imagine it any other way. That's the nature of a non-exclusive easement. Other easements can be granted over the first as long as it doesn't interfere with prior granted rights. And, no. You don't have to get permission for the second grant unless there might be a question about compatibility of the two easements. Foreseeability that you could grant a second access easement over the first would also be a factor.

JBS

Boy would these utility companies be irate. In this one mall, there are probably 200 crossing of easements.

"5. Exclusive/Non-exclusive easements -- Unless there is evidence of contrary intent, the grantee of
an easement acquires a nonexclusive right and the grantor retains the right to use the property
or permit others to use it in any manner not inconsistent with the grantee’s rights. Any exclusive
easement must be expressly stated in the instrument, otherwise it will be construed to be
nonexclusive."

Copied and pasted from:

Law of Easements: Legal
Issues and Practical
Considerations

Prepared and Presented by:
Frank C. Gibson
Hutchinson, Cox, Coons, DuPriest, Orr & Sherlock, P.C.

© 2007 Hutchinson, Cox, Coons, DuPriest, Orr & Sherlock, P.C.
All Rights Reserved

Edit: After a second look at this, it may or may not apply only to Oregon.

Depends what kind of easement you're talking about. If it's an appurtenant easement it's presumed non-exclusive and other easements can be granted. If it's an easement in gross (such as to a utility company) then you may be restricted from granting another easement over the same area. Many times the holder of the easement in gross gets the right to lease their area to other utilities. Gross easements have to be transfered and don't automatically transfer like appurtenant easements. Some utility companies have been caught in that one in the past and there are probably statutes to alleviate the problem now. But these are general recollections and you really need local research on the particular circumstances.

I would imagine you were told you can't because, by granting the third guy the right to use YOUR driveway, he then gets to the second guys property and perhaps he doesn't have an easement from that guy. You got him to the point where he might assume that, once he's started, he can keep going unimpeded. Now, stack that a few more times and you might end up with through-traffic.

Or what the other guys are saying.