Anderson v. DeVries

In Anderson v. DeVries, 326 Mass. 127, 134-135, 93 N.E.2d 251 (1950), the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the trial judge's conclusion that, in the absence of an express grant of beach rights, the conveyance of easements "'to the beach' carried with them the use of the beach," under the attendant circumstances. 326 Mass. at 131. Some of the relevant circumstances that counseled for such a broad reading of the grant's language include the fact that the subject parcels sit in "a seashore resort where residents of a summer colony are typically granted access to the beach," id. at 133; and that "the chief inducement for the purchase of parcels in the subdivision was the right to use the beach for swimming, bathing, and sun bathing." Id. at 129. The Anderson decision did not involve the adjudication of rights purportedly gained as a result of subsequent recordation of subdivision plans, or of language in deeds outside the easement holders' chains of title. Moreover, the Court in Anderson had some textual support for concluding that the parties obtained beach rights by implication from the grant of easements "to the beach." Id. at 131.