Quiz Answers

Accessing Property
By Judon Fambrough

1. True. It is possible to own landlocked property in Texas. A statute aimed at remedying the problem was declared unconstitutional in 1963. For more details, see "Don’t Fence Me In," Tierra Grande, summer 1996.
2. False. Although easements are estates in land, they can be created by implication, requiring no written instrument. This is one of the exceptions to the Statute of Frauds.
3. True. An easement can be given to a person. It becomes a personal right. The easement is known as an easement in gross.
4. True. Most easements are not personal but attach to a tract of land. The person who owns or buys the tract automatically has the right to use the easement. The easement is known as an appurtenant easement because it is appurtenant to the ownership of land.
5. False. The New Neighborhood Roads Statute found in Chapter 251 of the Texas Transportation Code provides that the county commissioners may (not must) condemn an easement once the requirements are met.
6. True. An implied easement by necessity has three requirements: (1) the unity of ownership in the past between the landlocked tract and the one blocking it, (2) the blocked tract must have no other access and (3) the need for the access arose when the tracts were divided.
7. False. There are five requirements for a prescriptive easement, one of which is unpermitted, uninterrupted adverse use for ten (not seven) continuous years.
8. True. An appurtenant easement requires two estates or tracts: the one being crossed or burdened is called the servient estate, and the one having the right or benefit to use it is called the dominant estate. The owner of the dominant estate has the right to cross the servient estate.
9. False. Mere nonuse of an easement never constitutes abandonment. However, intent to abandon may be inferred from the circumstances if clear and definite.
10. True. The operation of law may terminate an easement. This occurs when a mortgage is placed on a tract before the easement. Because the mortgage precedes the easement, a foreclosure of the mortgage terminates the easement.