Heath v. Kettenhofen

In Heath v. Kettenhofen (1965) 236 Cal.App.2d 197, the Court of Appeal considered whether an easement "for roadway and utilities" across a servient parcel gave the owner of the dominant parcel the right to park on the easement. The Heath court concluded that "the rights of the parties in and to the easement, for roadway purposes, are coexisting and equal, and that these rights embrace as necessary incidents thereto the reasonable use of the easement by each party for such transitory parking as will not interfere with the rights of the other." (Id. at p. 204.) The court further stated that it was "clear that no right of the plaintiffs is in any manner impaired" by held by the defendant (the dominant tenement's owner). (Id. at pp. 204-205.) The trial court exercised a degree of discretion when fashioning the boundaries of an easement for a parking space in order to ensure justice was done for both parties. There, the evidence established that the owner of the servient tenement parked his vehicles all over a 40-foot wide area, often "interfereing with the dominant tenement's right" to access his property. (Heath, supra, 236 Cal.App.2d at p. 206.) The trial court thereafter awarded the servient party an easement for parking that was 10-feet wide. (Heath, supra, 236 Cal.App.2d at pp. 202-203.) The appellate court affirmed, concluding that "each party was entitled to use the easement for such transitory parking as would not interfere with the rights of the other party." (Heath, supra, 236 Cal.App.2d at p. 202.) As such, substantial evidence supported the trial court's award, given that the record established that each party needed only 10 feet for parking, and that a 10-foot wide easement would permit "reasonable use" by both parties while ensuring neither party could "interfere with the rights of the other." (Heath, supra, 236 Cal.App.2d at p. 204.)