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DESPITE AMBIGUITIES IN THE DESCRIPTION OF THE EASEMENT, THE LOCATION CAN BE DETERMINED AND THE EASEMENT IS THEREFORE VALID (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court (referee), determined the easement granted to defendants was valid. The easement related to an area which included a stucco wall and a covered wooden deck. The fact that the area may not have been accurately described by metes and bounds did not defeat the validity of the easement:

“In order to create an easement by express grant, plain and direct language must be used which evidences the grantor’s intention to permanently give a use of the servient estate to the dominant estate” … . The extent of an easement claimed under a grant is generally determined by the language of the grant … . The fact that the easement grant does not give the precise location of the easement is not fatal to a finding that an easement was intended … . Where the language of the grant is ambiguous or unclear, the court will consider surrounding circumstances tending to show the grantor’s intent in creating the easement … .

… [W]here, as here, the language was ambiguous, the Supreme Court should have considered “the surrounding circumstances and the situation of the parties when it was executed” … . The evidence presented at the hearing, which included the testimony of Emily Mazzuoccola [defendant], surveys, and photographs, demonstrated that the grantor intended to grant a perpetual easement with regard to the disputed area of land … containing improvements of a stucco wall and a covered wooden deck. The easement was specifically referenced on a survey dated July 2, 2002. Accordingly, the court should have determined that the subject easement was valid. Marino v Mazzuoccola, 2021 NY Slip Op 08176, Second Dept 2-24-21

 

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