District Court of Appeal of Florida

A dispute between neighbors raised the question of what rights residents in a neighborhood receive, as dominant estate holders under an implied easement created by a denotation on a plat map of an "easement for ingress and egress" to a body of water, when the servient estate is part of a residential lot on which there exists an occupied family dwelling? The court finds that they have the legal right to build a dock at the water's edge of the easement if otherwise permitted by law. They also have the right to cross the property without undue delay for certain purposes, but, contrary to their wishes, they do not have the right to remain within the easement for extended periods to view the water, fireworks, or the sunset.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/24/2007
• Published 01/24/2007

Judges

Court

• District Court of Appeal of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Richard M. Hanchett and Marie Tomassi of Trenam, Kemker, Scharf, Barkin, Frye, O'Neill & Mullis, P.A., Tampa, for Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Henry G. Gyden, John R. Blue, Sylvia H. Walbolt, and Lee H. Rightmyer of Carlton Fields P.A., St. Petersburg, for Appellees.